caramel cake with chocolate frosting

A week or so ago, I found a caramel cake mix at the grocery store. CARAMEL? I have never seen a caramel cake mix before! I was intrigued, thus I obviously had to buy it!

It's been sitting in my pantry for a while now... and I've been racking my brain to figure out what to do with it... thinking of flavor combinations.

Two or three days ago, I gave up. I googled it. And I found this beauty. I read the reviews and adjusted accordingly and OH. MY. WORD. And bonus! It was crazy easy to put together. And I may have eaten quite a few spoonfuls of the caramel cake dough... it was so delicious.

Here's the dough patted into a 13"x9" pan. The dough is really thick!

While that was baking, I found a recipe for chocolate frosting. I whipped it up (literally, haha) and WOW.

Beat the butter... and then you'll mix in your milk and sifted cocoa/sugar mixture. YUM. Add the very end, you mix in one teaspoon of vanilla. 

I thought you might need a close up of the icing. 

And then... putting two amazing things together:

So yummy. It was one of those things where I gave AJ a bite, and we just stood there making 'ooh' and 'ahh'  noises for a few minutes. I am going to buy another caramel cake mix SOON! You should too!

P.S. Is it care-a-mel or car-a-mel?

Here's the recipe for the caramel cake:

• 1 package caramel cake mix
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup (firmly packed!) brown sugar
• 6 tbsp. butter or margarine
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Step 1: Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease 13x9 pan.

Step 2: Combine EVERYTHING but the chocolate chips and mix it all together for a few minutes (until it's blended together) and then stir in the chocolate chips. IT IS REALLY THICK and it's supposed to be like that. Spread into the greased pan.

Step 3: Bake until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck in the center. Mine took 24 minutes. 

And the icing:

• 2 3/4 cups confectioners' (powdered) sugar
• 6 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 5 tablespoons milk (the recipe called for evaporated milk, but I'm not going to open up a can of that and not finish it, so I used skim milk... and it was still AMAZING)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Step 1: In a medium-sized bowl, sift the sugar and cocoa together.

Step 2: Cream the butter in your mixer until it's smooth. Alternate adding the sugar/cocoa and the milk until everything is added. Mix it up well!

Step 3: Add the vanilla and continue frosting until it's whipped up nicely. 

Step 4: Try it to make sure it's okay :)