No Oven Cake Lovin'

Social Sunday

My parents and cousin came over yesterday to celebrate my brother, Jared's, 20th birthday. I can't believe the baby of the family is in his 20s now! For Jared's birthday, he participated in the Richard Petty Driving Experience at Walt Disney World where he got to ride alongside a professional racecar driver in the beautiful Lamborghini luxury vehicle. He did 3 very fast laps of speeds of up to 120mph! It was a lot of fun watching him on the track, and he said it was an amazingly thrilling experience. After that, we went for a delicious Italian dinner at Winter Garden Pizza Company. Everyone loves Italian, and Jared is a vegetarian, so Italian menus usually have a lot of delicious options for him to choose from. The pizza is top notch and definitely the best in town, and the calzones were huge! Our server was so sweet, and she rounded up the other servers to sing Jared a Happy Birthday song as they brought over a warm, tasty dessert of friend dough sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and drizzled with warm chocolate. We have so many leftovers for the upcoming week, and I'm perfectly ok with that. Jared's birthday celebration wouldn't be complete without his requested birthday dessert. Even though the family is a bit more spread out these days, I still love that I can continue the tradition of making the birthday person their choice of birthday dessert. Jared isn't the biggest fan of traditional cake (I had my doubts if I was related to him after learning this...), but he does like the rich tastes of chocolate and vanilla (ok, I guess that's proof that there is some relation there). I remembered a delicious Eclair Cake my mom once made that combines graham crackers, pudding, and chocolate ganache into a beautiful layered dessert that meets every requirement of Jared's birthday dessert wish. This cake is so easy to make, and it doesn't require the use of an oven! In the summer, with it being so hot out, any time we can avoid heating up the house with the oven, I take it. All of the ingredients come together so nicely to create a yummy, sweet, flavorful dessert that you can't seem to stop eating. Thanks for the recipe, Mom! This was a great end to a day full of family, fun, laughs, and good food. Happy 20th Birthday Jared!

No Bake Eclair Cake

Ingredients
-2 boxes of cook-and-serve vanilla pudding
-4 cups milk, divided
-1 8oz container whipped topping
-honey graham crackers
-1/3 cup cocoa
-1 cup sugar
-1 stick unsalted butter
-1 tsp vanilla

Directions
1. Prepare the pudding by stirring the pudding mix and 3 3/4 cups of milk over medium heat. This process takes a while, so be patient and stir constantly. Allow to cool completely at room temperature.
2. Fold in the whipped topping
3. Place graham crackers on the bottom of a 9"x13" baking dish in one layer so it completely covers the bottom. Break them into smaller pieces to fill in all of the areas if need be.
4. Pour half of the pudding mixture over the layer of graham crackers and spread evenly.
5. Set another layer of graham crackers on the pudding.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 one more time.
7. In a small saucepan over high heat, boil cocoa, 1/4 cup milk, and sugar for 1min until combined. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla until a smooth, liquidy consistency is achieved.
8. While still warm, pour chocolate over the top layer of graham crackers and spread evenly so it covers the entire dish. Refrigerate for at least 4hrs or overnight.