Top 3 Tuesday - My Favorite Cakes
This cake is so incredibly simple and so incredibly good. We use a box of chocolate cake mix (devil's food or milk chocolate both work well) and bake it in a rectangular pan. Then, you poke holes in the cake and pour chocolate fudge topping and butterscotch or caramel topping all over the top along with a can of sweetened condensed milk. The topping and milk seep through the holes into the cake and make it incredibly moist. After a few hours, top the cake with whipped cream or cool whip and crushed up pieces of any candy bar of your choice. What makes this cake so amazing is that it gets even better as it has time to sit. It's heavenly.

I've tried a couple different versions of strawberry shortcake recently and people keep claiming it is the best strawberry shortcake they have ever tasted and I just roll my eyes. NEWSFLASH - it can't be the "Best Strawberry Shortcake Ever" if it includes angel food cake! Shocking. I know. I'm not sure if my wife makes the best strawberry shortcake ever but it's definitely the best one I've ever had. It is a recipe from Vintage Victuals and involves making shortcake biscuits and using fresh strawberries. Add in a scoop of vanilla ice cream and it's the perfect summer dessert.
I wrote about this a few months ago when we visited Junior's Restaurant in Manhattan but the Devil's Food Cheesecake is worthy of another mention. With devil's food chocolate cake, chocolate ganache, and chocolate chips around a layer of cheesecake, it's probably too much chocolate for most but I think it's delicious. The chocolate cake is rich and moist and the cheesecake is smooth and creamy and the intense dark flavors of the chocolate ganache bring it all together. If I had to guess, I'd say a slice of this cake is about 4 million calories. Good thing calories don't count on your birthday...or when you're on vacation...or on any day that ends in 'Y'. Isn't that how this whole thing works?