Chocolate Poke Cake with Bourbon Whipped Cream

Moist chocolate cake with tunnels of fudgy filling topped with bourbon whipped cream. Hellloo holiday season.

I've always loved the idea of a poke cake: bake a cake, poke holes in it, pour in a filling that compliments the cakes flavor, then top with something creamy. However, I hate that most recipes rely on mixes instead of homemade. The typical recipe calls for a boxed cake mix, pudding or jello mix, and coolwhip. The results are sweet, sweet, and sweeter with a touch of 'edible oil product' (aka cool whip).

It was begging for a homemade makeover.

I got started by making the following requirements:

-Delicious (obviously)

-No mixes

-No extra time-consuming steps that make you wish that you had used a mix

-Must be served at room temperature or warm  (poke cakes are usually eaten chilled due to the pudding or jello mixes, but it's freezing outside which makes cold cake unappealing).

 

Fixing the cake part of easy: I replaced the box mix with a simple one-bowl chocolate cake that has slightly less sugar than usual to compensate for the addition of a sweet filling.

Ingredients get stirred together in a bowl, poured into a pan and baked. Voila! As simple as a mix.

Next came the filling which was a little bit trickier. The only homemade version I had been able to find for poke cake used a dreamy sounding homemade pudding as the filling. Delicious? Yes. But much more time consuming than a mix with all the required stirring and cooking on the stove.

I wanted to be able to make the filling in the microwave from melted chocolate and some sort of dairy product. So I baked up a bunch of cakes to test out with different filling versions  made from combinations  of chocolate (bittersweet, unsweetened, semi-sweet) and dairy (cream, evaporated milk, condensed milk).

 

 

The winning combination was condensed milk, bittersweet chocolate, and a tiny bit of whipping cream. The condensed milk and cream are warmed up in the microwave and then the chocolate is stirred in. It produces a smooth fudgey filling that's deeply chocolatey and keeps the cake moist without making it fall apart.

Once the cake is baked and the filling is ready you use a chopstick to poke rows of holes...


... and then slowly pour the filling over the holes. It helps to pour slowly and try to fill up each hole before moving along to the next one. I like to let the cake rest 5 minutes or so and then use a spatula to smooth the filling over the holes again. It brings the stuff hiding on the sides to the holes in the center of the cake.

Then the cake rests for 4 hours (or overnight) before serving. Replacing the coolwhip with whipping cream was a no-brainer but I also added a shot of bourbon because it's the holidays and because bourbon is delicious.


When you slice the cake each piece has tunnels of oozying fudgy filling. It reminds me a chocolate version of tres leches cake because it stays so moist that it doesn't need any icing. It's all decadent and ready for the holidays, but the best part is that it comes together just as quickly as a boxed version.

Win, win, win and everybody gets homemade cake.

Chocolate Poke Cake with Bourbon Whipped Cream

I created this recipe for my Globe and Mail Column. So head over there for the full recipe and instructions!

Comments

[Sahar]

This looks divine! I want to make it like now but I have to go to work so it'll have to wait...

[Paula]

I've never made a poke cake! I love that you went the home-made route with this one. It looks heavenly.

[Melissa@EyesBigger]

I have one question... all the tests you do on these yummy G&M recipes... who #eatsallthefoods??? My goodness I would weigh 1000lbs with it all around me. Or do you get tired of it after a few tastes and just take a bite or two. Or do you have very hungry teenagers living next door? I'm very curious!

[Mary at n00bcakes]

You just blew my mind! I don't think I've ever heard of "poke cake" before - this one looks absolutely divine! Gotta love those basic requirements: "be delicious". ^_^

[Becs@Lay the table]

There's definitely one particular blogger who I can think of that always makes poke cake with box mix. Yours looks incredible - condensed milk is just amazing, I eat that stuff by the spoonful!

[Clockwork Lemon]

Melissa: I give a lot of it away to two engineering companies (I don't really have co-workers so I can't bring it to my work) and the rest either gets frozen or brought to anyone's house that I'm visiting. The not-so-good batches often get tossed.

[Jessica @ bake me away!]

Yum!! I love seeing you work through your recipes on instagram. :) Was going to say that I think the only poke cake I've made was tres leches, and then got to the end of your post. Also, bourbon: <3

[Vincci]

Wow! That sounds much easier than it looks! Seriously considering making this now.

[gwendolyn]

Love chocolate. Love bourbon. So, this is heading straight to the top of my to-make/to-eat list.

[TasteHongKong]

I'm sold that it needs no icing. Thanks for sharing your winning formula, and I adore your less sweet version.

[Amanda @ Once Upon a Recipe]

This cake looks insane. As in, I'm going to go insane due to the fact that there isn't actually a piece of this cake in front of me to enjoy. *sigh*

[Stella]

Oh, wow.

I am a bit of a budding bourbdon aficionado, as is my partner, whose birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks...

[Renee]

Lord have mercy this looks good.

[erin @ yummy supper]

Stephanie I'm drooling over your cake! This is the first time I've ever heard of poke poke cake. So cute - and tasty;)
Yum!
xo
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