A French-inspired birthday

For my husband's 28th birthday, I told him I would make whatever he wanted for his birthday treat. The world is your oyster, I told him. Pick anything.

His eyes lit up. "Can you make chocolate eclairs?!"

Uhhhhhh. I... hmmm. Ok, I don't know the first thing about making pastries. They would require tools I don't even own. I should probably learn how to do that from a professional. So, I told him, anything besides chocolate eclairs.

But WAIT! I remembered something that my former co-worker, Carrie, made for my pastry potluck. It was so good, I went back for seconds, despite there being 10 other desserts available. She told me that her Grandma used to make it all the time for family barbecues during the summer. She called it Chocoloate Eclair Cake.

So, I whipped up this French-inspired, no bake (and extremely easy) cake.

Ingredients
2 regular size boxes of vanilla pudding
1 regular size tub of Cool Whip
Small bag of chocolate chips
Milk (whatever you need to make the pudding)
Graham crackers
2 tblspn Karo Syrup
3 tblspn margarine

Directions
1. Make pudding following the recipe on the box (this is where you'll need the milk). Add in the Cool Whip.


2. Layer graham crackers on bottom of 9X12 cake pan (I used an 8X8 pan, see note below).

Add half the pudding mixture (I also sprinkled some chocolate chips here, too -- see note below). Add second layer of graham crackers.


Top with rest of pudding mixture (and chocolate chips or the chocolate topping). Refridgerate.

To make the chocolate topping:
Melt chips, karo syrup and butter on stovetop. Drip over cake.

My notes
*I didn't feel like messing with the chocolate topping this time, and I figured it would be just as good with mini-chocolate chips sprinkled on top instead. I used semi-sweet. I sprinkled them on the first and second layer, to make it a little more chocolatey.

*Since it was just going to be Mike and I eating the cake, I figured we didn't need a big 9X12 cake, so I cut the recipe in half and made it in an 8X8 square dish. I just used one pudding box, and half the container of Cool Whip.

*And I spelled out "Happy B-Day Mike!" in chocolate chips. Cuz that's how I roll.