eclair cake.

Here we go with the desserts made from packaged food. But time crunches call for dire measures ...

I made this cake for my suitemate's birthday! It is made from simple ingredients and can totally be made in a college dorm room. You don't even need a kitchen, so you can't use that as an excuse to not make this.

Have you ever heard of eclair cake? It's like .. one of those things that really shine on websites like allrecipes.com. Wow so I just went on that website to create the hyperlink for that & that site has changed since I last saw it! I never used it for recipes, but I would randomly end up on it sometimes.

But yeah, this was good! It consisted of a pudding/Cool Whip layer sandwiched between graham crackers to create a stratified (remember stratified sampling from stats? yeah you do) cake. Letting it sit in the fridge for the right amount of time prevented the Cool Whip from melting all over the place and allowed the graham crackers to soften just enough. Yum.

Eclair Cake
created by me. 

• about 1/2 a box of graham crackers (I think I used like 10-12 sheets) 
• one box vanilla pudding mix (but I'm sure you can experiment) 
• maximum 2 3/4 cup of 1% or 2 % milk 
• 1 tub Cool Whip, completely thawed
• 3/4 - 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/8 - 1/4 cup heavy cream, room temperature 

1. Take a round or square pan. Improvise! 
2. Make pudding according to "pie" instructions on the box. Basically, use less milk than you would use to make pudding, probably by 1/4 - 1/2 cup. 
3. Fold Cool Whip into the pudding mixture. 
4. Put a single layer of graham crackers on the bottom. 
5. Dollop some of the filling onto the graham crackers. Make sure you cover the crackers. 
6. Put another single layer of crackers on the filling. 
7. Dollop more filing. Add crackers. Remainder of filling. 
8. Heat chocolate chips in 30 second intervals until melted. Stir well. 
9. Add heavy cream in increments and mix quickly to prevent the chocolate from seizing. Add enough to make it a pourable (or desired) consistency. Add to the top of the cake, and swirl, drizzle, or do whatever you want with it. The ganache will be good any way! 
10. Chill at least four hours in the refrigerator, covered. I wouldn't keep it in the fridge for too long though, because the Cool Whip may begin melting. Serve chilled!