Chocolate Eclair Cake

I''ve always loved Dunkin Donut's Bavarian Creme, unfortunately they don't have that here in the U.S., sad to say, however these Eclairs that I made yesterday turned out to taste almost the same as that donutI grew up tasting, My mom and I would frequent the Dunkin Donut store on our way to Baclaran church in the Philippines :-)

It's a very simple recipe, my only tip is to get all your ingredients ready and pre-measured. 

Ingredients:

1 c water

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp sugar

1 c flour

4 eggs, I usually crack the eggs first in a separate bowl rather than cracking it above the bowl you'll be using, to avoid egg shells

1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened

1 3.4 ounce box instant french vanilla pudding - however, I did not have French Vanilla flavor, for this recipe I used 1 box of instant Vanilla Pudding, it was just fine

2 cups cold milk 

1 8 ounce container of Cool Whip OR Homemade Whipping Cream (which I prefer to make and use)

Chocolate Syrup, I used Hershey's for this one OR any Chocolate sauce of your liking

1. Preheat Oven to 400 deg. Lightly grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. I greased mine with butter. Set Aside. 

In a medium saucepan, heat the water and butter until boiling. Once it's boiling remove from heat.

Slowly Stir in Flour and Sugar, incorporating it well with each addition.

 After doing so, it will look like this:

 Add slowly the egg one at a time:

 The cream mixture should look like this:

You want to spread the mixture (it will be thick) into a prepared baking dish. :

Bake it for about 25-30 minutes, I baked it for about 28 minutes (ovens vary). The cake will have a non-uniform shape. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. 

While the cake is baking, now it's time to make your cream mixture: Whip Cream Cheese using a electric blender:

 In a small bowl, combine pudding mix and the cold milk. Once Pudding is thick, combine with Whipped Cream Cheese, then Spread the cream cheese/pudding mixture over the cooled cake. (As you can see, I did NOT whip up my cream cheese that well, but it won't matter as the cream is so yummy!)

 Then, spread the whipping cream ** see notes for recipe OR spread the cool whip if you are using that over the cream cheese mixture:

 Fun Part, Drizzle with the Chocolate Syrup with a spoon or fork. Refrigerate for 2 hours to chill before serving. You can make this a day ahead or a couple of hours before your party. No need to cover while in the fridge unless you have kids who might dip their fingers in this yumminess!

** Whipping Cream : depending on the size of your dessert, for this one, I started w/ 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, then continued to add a little more, beat with electric mixer or handheld mixer and slowly incorporate Powdered Sugar, for this I just eyeballed it and tasted it along the way for it's sweetness. Continue to beat until it forms soft peaks and not "runny".