The Garden Cake

BabyGirl turned 3 years old this month and to celebrate over the weekend we had a Garden Party. I debated for awhile over what kind of cake to make and decided that a chocolate cake that looked like a fenced in garden would do the trick. I took a couple of different ideas for garden cakes off the internet and came up with this creation. It was the Official Killer Chocolate Cake baked in a 9x13 pan cut in half and stacked. I then iced the cake with a homemade chocolate buttercream frosting and topped it with crushed Oreos for the dirt. I fenced in the garden with Pepperidge Farm's Pirouette French Vanilla Crème Cookies and went with fake flowers this time. I was not confident nor had time to make flowers out of rolled gumdrops but still would like to try someday. My husband did not think one cake was enough for 15 people so I made the same cake minus the decorations in a two layer 9 inch round. To our surprise, the one garden cake fed all 15 people. Chocolate cake a plenty around here!

The Official Killer Chocolate Cake

from grouprecipes.com
1 pkg chocolate cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 C water
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 C sour cream
1 small pkg instant pudding (chocolate or butterscotch)
1 large pkg chocolate chips
Frosting:
1 lb box of confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 stick of butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Decorations:
15 Oreos-minus filling; crushed
1 can of Pepperidge Farm's Pirouette French Vanilla Crème Cookies
Flowers-real, fake, or candy
Directions:
Pre-heat oven 350 degrees. Grease 9x13 pan. Mix ingredients in medium to large size bowl. Pour into pan and bake 40-45 minutes or until done. Cool completely before frosting. For frosting, mix, with mixer, sugar and cocoa together. Mix in melted butter. Add milk, and vanilla. Frost cake and decorate.