Pudding Emergency & Family Time

My uncle and his family are visiting from the wonderful state of California this week and we've been asian invasion-ing it up like you would not believe. 

Case in point: celebrating my mom's "Chinese Birthday," meaning her birthday on the lunar calendar (some excuse I always thought was quite a brilliant way to get two birthday celebrations a year. Go China.) with a get together and a cake cutting. 

I was putting the cake together when I realized I forgot to purchase chocolate pudding, so I found a recipe on the wonderful interweb that I feel is my responsibility to share with everyone I know. 

It's so easy, it's stupid.

Hasty Chocolate Pudding Recipe (allrecipes.com)

You Will Need:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a microwave safe bowl, whisk together sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch. Whisk in the milk a little at a time making sure to whisk constantly to prevent big lumps from forming.

Microwave on high for 3 minutes, stir and return to microwave, cooking at 1 minute intervals (and stirring in between) until shiny and thickened. (It will take anywhere 2-4 additional minutes.)

Remove from microwave and stir in vanilla extract. 

Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding (this will prevent a skin from forming) and refrigerate. Serve cold.

The cake was enjoyed by all - I did a homemade version of my "Denise Cake," which includes a layer of chocolate pudding and chocolate ganache. Chocolate on chocolate on more chocolate.

Oh yeeeeeah. That's what I'm talking about.

The worst part is waiting for it to chill completely. I mean, I had to taste several spoonfuls of this stuff at temperatures ranging from scalding hot to chilled-for-a-few-minutes-but-not-ready-yet because I am a professional and I wanted to ensure the flavor was not affected by chilling time. It wasn't. I'm just impatient and I love pudding. LOVE pudding.

And the ganache. I put this crap on everything. Seriously. I froze it and made little balls to put on top of the cake, worked some into the whipped cream, and put an extra layer of it for good measure in the cake, just to drive the point home.

and 'twas a hit!

Happy Chinese [read: fake] Birthday Momma Tong!