Chocolate Eclair Cake

If you like Chocolate Eclairs
you will absolutely LOVE ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Chocolate Eclair Cake

This is the recipe to make 

when you want a desert that is elegant and oh so easy.

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1 cup flour

4 large eggs

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 large box vanilla instant pudding

3 cups milk

2 cups whipping cream for filling

2 cups chocolate pieces.

About 1 cup whipping cream (room temperature) for chocolate sauce

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400.  

Lightly grease a 9″x 13″ glass baking pan.

Éclair Shell:

In a medium saucepan, melt butter in water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in flour. Mix in one egg at a time until it is fully incorporated before adding another egg. Do this for all four eggs.

Spread batter into pan, covering the bottom and up the sides of the pan evenly. The sides will slip down at this point if you greased too heavily so be sure to grease lightly.

Bake the shell for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown, checking occasionally. Remove from oven, and let cool completely. It's normal for it to form large bubbles while cooking . Don't pop the bubbles. 

Filling:

Whip the cream cheese in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl make vanilla pudding according to package directions. Combine pudding and cream cheese. Be sure pudding is thick before mixing in. When the crust is completely cooled, pour filling in the shell. 

Whip the cream until light and fluffy, add a teaspoon or two of powdered sugar to sweeten. Spread whipped cream over the pudding mixture. Refrigerate to cool.

Chocolate Sauce:

Melt chocolate in the microwave stirring often. The chocolate should never get hot. 

Add cream gradually, whisking to make it a pourable texture.

Drizzle cake with chocolate sauce when ready to serve.

*Chocolate sauce is only as good as the chocolate you use. Our family's favorite is Guittard brand and we use a mixture of milk chocolate and Semi Sweet. But for a real tasty treat delight... we use Belgium dark chocolate... it is heavenly.