Copycat Ring Dings

I was walking through the grocery store the other day and a certain snack caught my eye--snack cakes. Whether is be Little Debbie or Hostess, My dad used to buy these for us all the time, and I remember having one in my lunch weekly growing up. Now, luckily for me, I have stronger self control and walked away from the heart shaped snack treat that I was all of a sudden craving. As I walked away, I started thinking about them, and how I could most likely easily recreate a version.

Well lets just say that "easily" is not the word, but the finished product was a delicious copycat, less processed version of a snack cake. Using a family recipe, several tries at a filling, and a chocolate coating, I developed the perfect at home snack cake.

The base of the cake is my Grandma's Texas Sheet Cake recipe, passed down in a little cookbook she created for every family member a couple of Christmases ago. This is the easiest cake recipe I have ever made, and luckily for y'all I deciphered her lack of instructions and put it in a easier to understand recipe.

The filling (and the whole assembly), and i'll be completely honest, was a pain in my a**. My mom's freezer with chocolate all over the top of it shows it. While I aimed for a fluffy marshmallow filling, which didn't workout for a multitiude of reasons (mainly dont try to substitute agave for light corn syrup because you are too lazy to go back to the store.) I settled with a simple whipped cream filling, that in the end proved to be the better choice. (only saying this because I failed at the first, lets be honest.)

The hard shell coating was my trusty go to--CandiQuik.




*I apologize now for a lack of pictures, it was a wild ride of a recipe development

Copycat Ring Dings

Makes 12

Grandma Jan's Texas Sheet Cake 

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1 cup water
• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a medium sauce pan, bring to a boil the butter, water, and cocoa. In a stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, eggs, and sour cream. While mixing, slowly add in your butter mixture. Mix until combined. Carefully pour on to cookie sheet and use a spatula to spread so that it is all one even layer. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. 

Whipped Cream Filling

• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream 
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

In a stand mixer on high whip all ingredients until you get medium peaks, be careful to not over mix.

Chocolate Coatings 

• 1 package chocolate CandiQuik 
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Assembly

Using a 3 inch (or whatever size you would like) biscuit cutter, cut 12 circles out of the cake. Then slice each of those those in half, so that you have 24 cake circles. With an offset spatula, put about a 2 teaspoons of whipped cream on 12 of the halves. Place the counterparts to each cake circle on top of each cake that has whipped cream on it. Freeze for 30 minutes.

While your cakes are freezing, melt your CandiQuik and your white chocolate according to directions. Take your cakes out of the freezer. Take your chocolate CandiQuik and pour evenly on to all 12 chocolate cakes. If it doesn't coat the whole cake, take an offset spatula and cover the missing parts. With your melted white chocolate, take a spoon and lightly drizzle over your cakes. Freeze for another 30 minutes and serve!

-Madeleine