Cream Torte!

"What's that cake I like? Oh yeah, 'varian cream torte!" Marian, my new eater, is in love with this dessert. My family was eagerly passing this recipe around 4 years ago, and we wholeheartedly accepted it into our dessert repertoire. I made a couple of mini ones for the carnival's cake walk last week, and thought it was high time I shared the recipe. I usually top it with chocolate shavings, but molded little chocolate leaves and flowers this time. I just melted a few dark chocolate chips in a wee ceramic bowl in the microwave (just heat a few seconds at a time, stirring until it's smooth), and scraped them into a rubber candy mold I wiped with a bit of olive oil. After I put the molds in the freezer for a couple of minutes, the chocolates popped right out. My girls were crazy about them.

Chocolate Bavarian Cream Torte

1 pkg (18 ¼ oz) devil’s food cake mix w/out pudding

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

2/3 c. packed brown sugar

1 t. vanilla extract

1/8 t. salt

**I added here ~1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1 pt (2 c.) whipping cream, whipped

2 T. grated semisweet chocolate (I melted chocolate chips in the microwave, put the resulting block in the freezer to chill, & used a vegetable peeler to make chocolate curls).

Mix and bake cake according to package directions, using two 9-inch round pans. Cool for 15 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks. In mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt until fluffy. Fold in whipped cream. Spit each cake into two horizontal layers; place one on a serving plate. Spread with a fourth of the cream mixture. Sprinkle with a fourth of the chocolate. Repeat layers. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight (really helps the cutting & serving).