Flickr: Kimberly Vardeman

Earthquake Cake: High Risk, High Reward, & Too Addictive For Chocoholics

We love learning about cake, cupcake, and cheesecake recipes, and the earthquake cake is no exception. This delicious, gooey, moist cake is similar to a dump cake, but it has specific ingredients that set it apart. Earthquake cake recipes are not hard to find, and chocolate earthquake cake involves everything from chocolate cake to coconut to pecans. Part bundt cake, part chocolate fudge brownie, this carbohydrate dream might even convince your hubby to try a slice.

What is Earthquake Cake?

Earthquake cake is basically a German chocolate cake mix, coconut, chocolate chips, pecans, cream cheese filling, and sugar.

"The cream cheese mixture becomes a layer of frosting INSIDE the cake," according to The First Year blog. It gets its name from the cake cracking open after baking, making it resemble crevices in the ground after a major earthquake. Best served with vanilla ice cream, the original recipe is a hit everywhere for how easy it is to modify. Don't like cream cheese? Use peanut butter instead. Prefer a red velvet cake? You can totally do that.

How Do You Make the Cake Batter?

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Most earthquake cake recipes call for German chocolate cake mix or another dark chocolate cake like devil's food cake, prepared according to package directions. You'll also need oil or water, eggs, semi-sweet chocolate chips (some recipes say white chocolate chips, so whatever you prefer), chopped pecans, shredded coconut, powdered sugar, melted butter, and cream cheese.

Some recipes also call for adding ice cream or other goodies on top of the yummy cake in the end, too!

How Do You Make It?

Recipes differ slightly, but most will tell you to preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, then prepare a baking dish or baking pan with cooking spray. Next, you put the pecans, coconut, and chocolate chips at the bottom of the pan as the first layer.

Then, you prepare the cake mix and pour it over the first layer. Next, put the cream cheese in a large bowl and mix it with a hand mixer with the melted butter and salt. You should also add powdered sugar to this layer.

Then carefully dollop spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture over the other layers to make a cream cheese layer. You can top it with more chocolate chips, then bake for 45 minutes or so, until the cake is set. You can test this by jiggling it to see if the batter is super wobbly. Using a toothpick to poke into the top of the cake batter and checking to see if it comes out clean won't work since this delicious cake is supposed to be pretty moist and ooey-gooey.

Let it cool to room temperature, and save whatever cake you don't eat in the fridge. Total prep time shouldn't be more than 10 minutes and cook time is about 45 minutes. Not bad at all for a delectable cake that will be welcome at any potluck!

Watch: Chocolate Cake Facts