By special request

After posting about my bundt cake extravaganza, Laura asked if I'd be posting the recipe. Well, here it is, in all it's fattening but delicious glory. It's ridiculously simple to make since it builds off a cake mix. Sure, that's cheating a little bit, but I'm still a novice in the kitchen and take help where I can get it.

Triple Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
• 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.
3. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate If desired, dust the cake with powdered sugar.

Note: mix up the flavor by using chocolate mint chips or peanut butter chips.

In other cooking adventures, I repeated my Thanksgiving baking contributions and brought both pumpkin pie and macaroons to my sister's house for Christmas. I also tried my hand at what looked like an extraordinary simple recipe for making some sugary sweet toasted nuts. Unfortunately, it turns out that the bottom rack of my oven gets a lot hotter than the top rack, so one entire cookie sheet of nuts turned into a carmelized, smoky, disgusting mess. Those had to go directly into the trash, but the other half turned out well enough. That said, I'm in no rush to make them again. I didn't love the way these came out, and nuts are too expensive for me to do this often. Plus, I hate the word "nuts."