HOMEMADE DING DONGS

Ingredients

1 package (18.25 oz.) Devil's Food cake mix + water, vegetable oil and eggs as needed to make cake
1 (8 oz.) tub frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 pound semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons corn syrup
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Spread batter into greased 11x17 inch cookie sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. Using a round cookie or biscuit cutter, cut rounds from cake. Slice rounds in half horizontally. Using a kitchen teaspoon (the kind you eat with, not the kind you measure with) put a generous teaspoon of whipped topping onto the center of one cake round. Top with the other cake round. Repeat with additional cake rounds and whipped topping. Place filled cakes on wire rack over wax paper. Make ganache by placing chocolate chips and butter into a large bowl. In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, stir together cream and corn syrup. Heat until mixture just begins to simmer. Pour hot cream over chocolate chips. Let sit for about one minute, until chocolate begins to melt. Stir mixture until chocolate is completely incorporated and mixture is smooth and glossy. Spoon ganache over filled cakes, allowing ganache to drizzle over the sides of the cakes. Refrigerate finished cakes until serving.

Let's Dish
We love hockey around here, and I wanted to come up with a special treat to celebrate the Stanley Cup Finals (not that my team is playing in the championship this year). Something in the shape of a hockey puck sounded like a good idea. I remembered that my oldest had Ding Dongs to represent pucks on his latest hockey themed birthday cake, and wanted to try making a homemade version. I'm not a big fan of regular old cake, but these are amazing! I found that once I had the ganache mixed up, putting it back in the microwave for 15-20 minutes made it a little easier to spread over the top and down the sides of the cakes. I was able to make almost 2 dozen of these with one cake mix, but that will vary a bit based on the size of cookie cutter you use. They taste a lot like Ding Dongs, only much, much better! My family was so excited when they saw these, they could hardly wait to eat them. I think this would also make a great full-size cake. Just bake your cake in two round pans, put some whipped cream between the layers, and pour the ganache over the top!

Who Dished It Up First
I was inspired to come up with this recipe after seeing these homemade Ding Dongs over at Fudge Ripple.  Her version has a more classic frosting style filling, and she made her Devil's Food cake from scratch!