For a Christmas spin on chocolate cake, add eggnog. This recipe uses cake mix and prepared eggnog along with flavorings and spices to get that “I spent all day in the kitchen” taste without the mess or labor. The icing is a mix between buttercream and glaze to get a nice thick “melting snow” look. I hope you enjoy it.
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 packages of chocolate cake mix
- 2 cups prepared eggnog
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup water
- 6 eggs
- 1 T vanilla extract
- 1 T almond extract
- 1 t ground nutmeg
Thick and creamy eggnog icing
- ¼ c salted butter, melted
- 1 lb. box powdered sugar
- 6 T prepared eggnog
- ½ t almond extract
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour the inside 
of a bundt pan. To avoid a white residue on your chocolate cake, use powdered chocolate instead of flour.
In a large mixing bowl, combine all cake ingredients
and mix thoroughly. The batter should be smooth.
Pour batter into a prepared baking dish.
There should be about 
an inch of space at the top. If not, the cake may overflow while baking. You can either, place a cookie sheet on the rack below, or transfer some of the batter to another pan (i.e. maybe a cupcake or two for sampling).
Bake for 1 hour to 1 ¼ hours. A wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool in the pan on the wire rack for 1 hour. Carefully invert the cake onto a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting. Place in a refrigerator to cool completely.
Prepare the glaze just before using. You want the g
laze to be slightly runny, but not too runny or it will melt down the sides and pool on the plate while you are displaying it. Combine sugar, butter, almond extract and 3 tablespoons of eggnog in a mixing bowl.
Beat on low speed until combined. Then increase to high speed. Add additional tablespoons of eggnog one at a time. Beat thoroughly between each added tablespoon. Continue until all lumps are out and glaze is smooth. The glaze should be soft and thick. Test the consistency by dipping the beaters into the glaze and holding it above the bowl. The glaze should slowly drip off the beater and not incorporate with the remaining glaze when dripped back into the bowl. If the glaze is too thick (frosting like) add more eggnog; if the glaze is too thin, add more sugar.
To glaze your cake, drop the glaze by the spoonful on top of the cake. You can place the drops strategically to make the drips down the side of the cake. Gently connect the drips with the back of the spoon. It is okay if there are streaks in the glaze, we will smooth these out later. Shape the glaze drips to look like melting snow down the side of your cake. Don’t forget the center hole too. Place the glazed cake uncovered into the refrigerator for about one hour to stiffen the glaze.
Once the glaze has stiffened on the outside, you can smooth out the lumps, peaks, and streaks. Fill a small bowl with cold water. Dip your middle and pointer fingers into the water. Gently rub out any imperfections in the glaze to make a smooth surface.
Refrigerate uncovered for about an hour. Then cover with plastic until ready to eat. You can remove the cake from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before eating.
The Chocolate Eggnog Cake is pictured with a Gingerbread House.