facing the first frost

There was frost covering my windshield every morning last week. The vile, bitter cold has officially arrived, and I'm not happy about it.


Aside from contributing to my misery, cold weather also triggers another reaction--a craving for hot chocolate. I have in my possession about five winters' worth of mixes, including interesting (and delicious) flavors like chocolate hazelnut and mint chocolate. The second I saw Peabody's post about a cake making use of hot chocolate mix, I set out to make a batch for myself.

Since I'd be taking these baked goodies to work, I chose to use my least favorite hot chocolate flavor in the cake. Any guesses as to which flavor I don't particularly like? If you guessed chocolate raspberry, you win! I usually like the combination, but that artificial raspberry flavoring is just downright nasty. I doubted my co-workers would mind--I'm seriously convinced they'll eat anything.



This was a groovy cake. The chocolate chips sank to the bottom (even though I floured them) and the marshmallows migrated to the top, forming a sticky, crusty shell. The cake itself was the teeniest bit dry and would certainly have benefited from Peabody's glaze, but since I wanted to make it eat-and-run-friendly, I skipped that part. If you ask me, this is the best possible use for raspberry-flavored hot chocolate mix--it seemed to make the faux flavor much more tolerable. Dare I say it? Tasty, even.

Hot Chocolate Cake (with a Hint of Not-Real Raspberry)
(based heavily on this recipe)
1/2 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup hot chocolate mix
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a pan of mini-loaf molds.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and egg yolk one at a time, beating between each addition.
In a small bowl, sift together the hot chocolate mix, flour, salt, and baking powder. In another small bowl, mix together the buttermilk and vanilla.
Blend half of the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Add the buttermilk mixture and beat. Mix in the rest of the dry ingredients until just combined. Coat the chocolate chips and marshmallows with flour and fold into the batter.
Divide the batter evenly among the molds. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.