Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

I am pretty sure this comes from some edition of the Hershey Cocoa Cookbook. I learned it from my mother. It's one of those recipes that she tended to make on winter nights when she was craving chocolate but couldn't get out to the store, because all of the ingredients were always on hand at our house.  Generally I mix it up while waiting for the last things to cook, and get it into the oven just before serving dinner. Then it's hot out of the oven when it's time for dessert.

Batter:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 Tablespoons melted shortening
• 1/2 cup milk

Pudding:

• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 3/4 cups hot tap water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Mix the ingredients for the batter. Spread it in a 7x11 rectangle pan. (9x13 is too big, but if you don't have a 7x11, you can use a square cake pan or a smaller oval.) You do not have to grease the pan. In fact, DON'T grease the pan. 

Mix the brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa. Sprinkle it evenly over the surface of the batter. Then pour the hot water over that.

Transfer it carefully into the preheated oven. Bake 45 minutes. Serve it hot! (You can get 8 servings out of a rectangle pan if you keep them small.) 

Some people swear by vanilla ice cream to accompany hot fudge pudding cake. Some like lightly sweetened whipped cream. Cool Whip or Redi-whip is delicious on this.  Personally I like it without any topping at all.

I can't really advise you on how to store leftovers, because it's always gone by nightfall, or breakfast latest. In theory, I guess I would portion it out in individual servings and refrigerate it, then microwave it for about 30 seconds before serving.