BEST Recipe for Chocolate Eclair Cake
I had all sorts of recipes I was excited to share with you all before Christmas but I just got out of the hospital for a kidney infection (extra serious because I had a kidney transplant). I am doing great now, it just means my hospital time cut into my recipe time and now I only have time for 1-2 recipes before Christmas, so I pick this CHOCOLATE ÉCLAIR CAKE! Chocolate Éclair Cake recipes went viral a few years ago on Pinterest, but honestly, I didn’t expect it to be worth all the hype. I was wrong. This Chocolate Éclair Cake is one of the best desserts in the world. I could have eaten half the pan in one sitting if I wasn’t trying to leave some to photograph (and later I did eat a quarter of it one siting, and would have eaten it all if I wasn’t trying to be nice and save some for Patrick because he LOVED it too). I wanted to share this Chocolate Éclair Cake in time for Christmas because I know everyone will go crazy over it AND I’m pretty sure it is the easiest “cake” in history. And the best thing about this Chocolate Éclair Cake (aside from the outrageously creamy, luscious layers), is that it is best if chilled overnight so the graham crackers can soften and the filling layers thicken so all you have to do is pull it out of the fridge to serve everyone’s favorite dessert!
What is Chocolate Eclair Cake?
We all know everyone loves Chocolate Éclair Cake, but what exactly is it? Essentially, Chocolate Éclair Cake, is an icebox cake that requires no baking and resembles a chocolate coated, cream stuffed éclair. Most Chocolate Éclair Cakes are made with layers of graham crackers, vanilla pudding, cool whip and canned chocolate frosting. While I’m sure these recipes are relatively delicious, the cool whip leaves the filling tasting artificial and plasticky and the canned frosting is far too heavy for an éclair. My Chocolate Éclair Cake recipe, however, is semi-homemade so you get the best of both worlds – taste and convenience. We use stabilized homemade whipped cream instead of Cool Whip and an easy chocolate ganache instead of frosting. The results are dreamy decadence I cannot wait for you to taste!
Chocolate Eclair Cake Recipe Ingredients
Graham crackers: You’ll need roughly 3 sleeves (14 oz.) graham crackers, to fit a 9×13 pan in three even layers. Vanilla pudding: Use a 3.4 oz. box of instant pudding mix and not cook and serve. Milk: 2% or whole milk is ideal. A little less milk is mixed with the pudding mix than the box instructions call for to create a thicker filling. Heavy cream: Look for “heavy whipping cream” at the grocery store. You must use heavy cream – no other substitutions will work. Take care that your heavy cream is very cold, remove it from the refrigerator just when ready to use. Heavy cream is used in the filling and in the chocolate ganache. Unflavored gelatin: This is a common baking ingredient and can be found next to the packages of Jell-O and pudding at your grocery store. It is whipped with the heavy cream to stabilize it so it doesn’t weep. Chocolate: chips Use quality semi-sweet chocolate chips like Ghirardelli or Guittard which have a higher percentage of cocoa butter then other brands and melt more seamlessly. Corn syrup: This keeps the ganache shiny, smooth and pliable, so please don’t omit.
How to Make Eclair Cake
Step 1- Pudding: Add milk and pudding mixes to a large bowl and whisk until smooth and thick. Refrigerate. Step 2 – Gelatin: Stir the water and gelatin together in a small bowl; let sit 5 minutes. Microwave the mixture until it’s bubbling around the edges and the gelatin dissolves, about 15 – 30 seconds. Set aside. Step 3 – Stabilized Whipped Cream: Using a hand electric mixer, whip the heavy cream on medium-low speed until foamy (about 1 minute). Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. Add the gelatin mixture and whip until stiff peaks form, about 1 minute. Step 4 – Filling: Fold whipped cream into chilled pudding then beat on low with electric mixer just until combined. Step 5 – Assemble: Cover the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking with a layer of graham crackers (1 sleeve), breaking the crackers as necessary to fit pan. Top with half of the filling. Followed by another layer of graham crackers… Then the remaining filling. Top with another layer of graham crackers. Step 6 – Chocolate Glaze: Add chocolate chips, ¾ cup heavy cream, and corn syrup to a medium bowl. Microwave for 1-2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until smooth. Let glaze cool for 10 minutes in the refrigerator then pour and smooth evenly all over the top layer of graham crackers. Chill: Cover and refrigerate Chocolate Éclair Cake for at least 8 hours before serving, up to 5 days.
Chocolate Eclair Cake Variations
CAN YOU MAKE CHOCOLATE ECLAIR CAKE WITH COOL WHIP?
If you prefer to us Cool Whip, then replace the gelatin and heavy cream with 1 (8 oz) thawed container whipped topping. Fold it into the pudding instead of the stabilized whipped cream.
CAN YOU MAKE CHOCOLATE ECLAIR CAKE WITHOUT COOL WHIP?
Yes! This Chocolate Éclair Cake recipe does NOT use cool whip. Cool whip serves the purpose of lightening the texture of the vanilla pudding but it is packed with chemicals and has the tendency to taste plasticky.Instead, this Chocolate Éclair Cake recipe uses stabilized whip cream. Stabilized whipped cream is simply heavy cream that has been whipped with gelatin in order to give it structure. If you don’t include gelatin then the whipped cream can become runny which means your filling can become runny.Gelatin is a common baking ingredient and can be found next to the packages of Jell-O and pudding at your grocery store.
CAN YOU MAKE CHOCOLATE ECLAIR CAKE WITH pudding from scratch?
Absolutely! You will need:
1¼ cups granulated sugar 6 tablespoons cornstarch 1 teaspoon salt 5 cups whole milk 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces 5 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:
CAN YOU MAKE CHOCOLATE ECLAIR CAKE WITH GANACHE?
I HIGHLY recommend chocolate ganache for this Chocolate Éclair Cake as opposed to shortcut chocolate frosting. While “ganache” sounds fancy, it is simply the French way of saying chocolate melted into hot cream and is SO EASY! This Chocolate Ganache also contains corn syrup which serves 3 purposes:
makes the ganache extra smooth keeps the ganache shiny even after being refrigerated keeps the ganache flexible when it sets
You can omit the corn syrup if you really are opposed (but it is dessert, it is supposed to have sugar), but I can pretty much guarantee your ganache will be the opposite of all three aforementioned benefits of corn syrup, the most serious being it will not be as flexible and therefore will likely crack and break when you slice/eat it. If you are omitting the corn syrup, then you might want to considering using a chocolate frosting instead.
CAN YOU MAKE CHOCOLATE ECLAIR CAKE WITH CANNED FROSTING?
I highly recommend using Chocolate Ganache as opposes to Chocolate Frosting for this Chocolate Éclair Cake, but yes, you can use either canned or homemade chocolate frosting. I suggest warming the chocolate frosting for 20 seconds or so, so it will easily glide over the graham crackers.
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