Kids in the Kitchen: Chocolate Eclair Cake

I made an eclair cake with just vanilla filling years ago...long before children.  Since I wasn't sure what recipe I used then, though it was good, I went looking for another recipe when I had a lot of milk to use.  This one came from my friend as part of a collection of recipes for a bridal shower gift.

Chocolate Eclair Cake (or any eclair cake) is a simple dessert to make and makes a good* choice for Kids in the Kitchen!


Chocolate Eclair Cake
Small box instant vanilla pudding
Small box instant chocolate pudding
4 cups of milk, separated
8 ounces whipped topping (more if you want to add it to the top for serving)
graham crackers (LOTS)
chocolate icing (I used this recipe, but you could buy a can of it.)

Mix vanilla and chocolate puddings, separately, with 2 cups of milk each.  Then mix vanilla pudding with approximately 4 ounces of whipped topping and the chocolate pudding with 4 ounces of whipped topping.

Arrange graham crackers to cover bottom of a 9x13 pan.  Pour chocolate mixture on top.  Arrange graham crackers on top of chocolate pudding to cover.  Cover graham crackers with vanilla pudding and then another layer of graham crackers.  Spread icing on top.  Refrigerate overnight (or at least 3 hours, but more is preferred). Serve cold.

Kid Tasks: (for ages 2 and 4)
Mix puddings.  Layer graham crackers (depending on age, adult may want to do layers on pudding).  Mix whipped topping and pudding.

Mom Tasks: 
I completed all the mixing, making sure each was mixed thoroughly.  I also helped my daughter pour the pudding mixtures and spread them.  The icing was also spread by me.

I knew I didn't want to make a 9x13 pan of the chocolate eclair cake for our family of four.  Instead of just making a half batch with leftover pudding, we filled two 8x8 pans and sent one to work with my husband.  If I had not split it into two pans, the layers of pudding mixture would have been thicker in the photo.

This was delicious!  I suspect the regular eclair cake recipe I made was this one from Kraft.  I suspect we'll add this to our dessert line-up for our family on a regular basis.

*This would have been a much better Kids in the Kitchen activity if I had two whisks.  My son didn't like giving it up to make the chocolate pudding!  He's two years old though.

See our other Kids in the Kitchen post, too.  I'm linking up to Adventures in Mommydom's Kid Friendly Recipes!