Keep Cooking Fun Recipe: Cocoa Ripple Ring Coffee Cake

Keeping my resolution to make cooking more fun, I pulled out a recipe my mom used to make when I was a kid. It's a basic coffee cake, but the secret ingredient is a packet of hot chocolate mix.

As a kid, I totally loved it. So, I was excited to make it for my family this past weekend. What made it fun was I made the kids guess what the secret ingredient was. When I told them it was hot chocolate, they were pretty impressed.

Cocoa Ripple Ring Coffee Cake

Preheat oven to 350. Grease bundt pan. Cream together the following ingredients until they are light and fluffy:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs

In a separate bowl, mix together:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder

You'll also need 1 packet of hot cocoa mix (to be added later).

I only had cocoa mix that had marshmallows, so I had to sift them out.

Next, you need to combine the wet and dry ingredients, along with 2/3 cup of milk. It's best to add them alternately. (A little dry and then mix, next add a little of the milk and then mix, then a little more dry, etc.)

Once combined, spoon 1/3 of the batter into the bundt pan. Sprinkle in some hot chocolate mix, then layer on more batter, using the spoon to spread it around. Try to get 2 layers of cocoa. Smooth the top with the back of the spoon.

Bake for 35 minutes and then let it sit for 5 minutes before turning the cake out of the bundt.

Viola. The finished product.

Crowbar, enjoying a slice.

The verdict: It was good, but I think it could've been sweeter. I seem to remember it tasting more chocolaty when my mom made it. Next time, I'll do 2 packets of hot chocolate and see if it's better.

So, on a 5-spatula rating scale, this recipe earned a 3.