Anna requested the mousse filling recipe. It's really wonderful. In fact my mother-in-law commented the other day about how good that cake was. Again. Nice!

So here it is:

melt two squares unsweetened chocolate (I do this in my 8-cup glass measuring thing in the microwave)
stir in 1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup cold water
1 sm package instant chocolate pudding mix

refrigerate for 1/2 an hour

remove chocolate mixture from fridge, stir to loosen (since the pudding will set up)

whip 1 cup cream and add to chocolate mixture
refrigerate for at least another hour before adding to a cake

I just used a regular chocolate cake mix--well the trippple (yeah, I know there are 3 p's in that word--I thought "triple" looks better with 3 p's) chocolate--the one that is chocolate and has chocolate chips and pudding or something else in it. But I don't know that that part will matter much. I had too much to do to make a cake from scratch, and my husband seems to like cake mixes better anyway. So I've adapted to cake mixes and seem to manage just fine, thank you.

The original recipe says to use part of the mousse to fill the cake and part to frost the cake. I obviously did not do that. I have a glass dish that is 15 x13, I used 1 and 1/2 recipes of cake mix for that pan, two times; hence, two layers.

When I did my practice run at home just to test this out, I really didn't have much time because I also had to make cookies for pack meeting that night. So I made the cake in the morning, and it sat all day long. I made the mousse but didn't even have time to put it on the cake. But I tasted it--wow! That evening, just before pack meeting, I put some filling between the layers and just left it. Finally later that night, I was asked what the cake was for and if people could eat it. Yes! that's what I wanted to happen, so unfrosted, it was devoured. At least half of it was. And then it sat overnight, uncovered, out in the open, and it disappeared the next day.

Now sometimes I know my family thinks that treats show up at our house only on occasion, but that's not true. We have treats all the time (that's obvious by looking at us), and quite often we'll eat only part of a cake, but not this one. They loved it. Filled but unfrosted. So I decided that meant it was a good cake and worthy of the Eagle.

I guess you didn't really need all of that information, just the recipe, but oh well. But then, you already know I'm a rambler. Right? Yeah, sure you did.

Oh, and in response to the comment about my "fancy grandma shirt" and the fact that I'm not a grandma--I could be a grandma because I'm certainly old enough, and he just thinks it looks like a grandma shirt.

So, on that note, about the grandma bit, I have to tell you this little story--last week Jake and I were in Walmart (where I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time) at the checkout line. There was a young gal in front of me, wearing an incredible amount of make-up which has nothing to do with the story but still haunts me--with a baby. So she and the checker were talking about the ages of their babies and since I can't stay out of a conversation even when it has nothing to do with me (I think I get that from my dad who always talked to everyone), I commented that my baby is 10 and that I have a son who would be turning 20 on the next Saturday. They both dropped their jaws and said I didn't look old enough to have a 20-year old. I laughed and told them I was 50 (now that I've been 50 for nearly a whole year, I'm able to say it out loud). The checker said--my mom is 50 and she doesn't look like you! She thought I was in my mid-30s. Yup. She's my new best friend.