Hi everyone. Amber from rick•a•bam•boo again. This month I made a Chocolate Italian Cake to share with you. Since we are new friends, you probably don’t know that I love cake. I. Love. It. So it was a no brainer that I was going to share a cake recipe with you.
When I came across this cake on Pinterest from Chew Nibble Nosh I was immediately drawn to it due to its multi-layer structure. It is a chocolate cake, sitting on a layer of sweet and creamy cheese, all topped with a light and chocolaty whipped frosting. It’s an Italian cake because of the cheese layer, which is made with ricotta. So it’s not as smooth and creamy as cheesecake, but it is still delicious.
Chocolate Italian Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box chocolate cake mix I used Devil's food.
- Eggs and oil to bake cake as directed by the box
- 2 lbs. ricotta cheese
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 small package instant chocolate pudding mix
- Milk to make the pudding according to the package
- 8 oz. Cool Whip thawed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare a 9x13 baking pan by spraying with nonstick spray.
- In your mixer prepare cake mix according the package instructions. Pour batter into the the prepared pan.
- Wash out mixing bowl and cream together ricotta cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Pour evenly on top of the cake batter. Gently spread ricotta layer to cover the cake layer completely.
- Place pan in over and bake cake for 1 hour.
- Remove cake from over and cool completely.
- When the cake is cool, mix the pudding according to the directions on the package.
- Fold the Cool Whip into the pudding to create a light chocolate frosting.
- Frost the cooled cake with the Cool Whip topping mixture.
- Cover cake and refrigerate for 6 hours.
Notes
Refrigerating the cake will allow the flavors to combine and the cake to become super moist.
I made this to take to a craft day and everyone loved it. My mom said that she liked that it wasn’t overly sweet. And the nice neat layers will really impress your guests. This is definitely a great cake to try!
If you are looking for some more chocolaty goodness, check out some of my other recipes.
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This sounds amazing. But than again who doesn’t love chocolate.
Right?! It’s on the menu for Valentine’s!
chocolate Italian cake- the layers did not switch place during baking. Any ideas what might have gone wrong?
Kathleen, we are checking with the author of the original recipe to hopefully get an answer for you!
I belive it needs to be baked in a water bath, instead of sugar use condense milk and add 1 cup evaporated milk. Cover your cake completely with foil to avoid any water getting in… cake will always rise to top and chs cake or custard will stay on the bottom of the pan.
I’ve been making this cake for Christmas Eve dinner for many (20+) years – sometimes the layers switch place during baking, sometimes not, sometimes they will partially switch. I’ve been trying to figure out why but can’t. If anyone knows the answer, I’d love to know!
Does the switching of layers have anything to do with the temperature of the batters?? Maybe cold eggs and cheese versus room temperature items?! Hmmmm
The layers combined during baking. It looks like a giant layer of brownie.
My layers didn’t switch either. I thought maybe I mixed the cheese and egg mixture too long. It was a little light and fluffy so didn’t sink?
This cake was underwhelming in flavor. If I had to do it over (and I’m not), I would’ve added almond extract to the ricotta portion and maybe instant coffee to the chocolate. The lack of sugar wasn’t the issue; it was bland.
Being an almond lover, I think the addition of almond would be great.