Accidental Chocolate Sauce

I created this chocolate sauce by accident.  How do you ask? Well, one very late night, like midnight, I was baking a cake. Why was I baking a cake at midnight? Good question.  I offered to bring dessert for a family function and between time slipping away from me and my procrastination, baking a cake at midnight was the most "logical" thing to do.  I was making a chocolate zucchini cake in a fluted pan and I thought frosting it would be a nice touch.  After I made the frosting, I was baffled as to why it turned into a thin sauce instead of a thick spreadable frosting. I was pacing back and forth (mind you -I was exhausted at this point) in my kitchen wondering what I did wrong.  How can I mess up frosting with a such a straight forward recipe?  So I decided to reread the frosting recipe on the back of the Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa Powder container, at 1 a.m. at this point, I then realized that I misread the measurement of milk.  I ended up using 1 cup of milk instead of  the 1/3 cup of milk as stated in the recipe.  Despite how utterly exhausted I felt, I decided that I just had to make a new batch of frosting....but as I opened my fridge...I see that I ran out of butter and milk!  So exasperated and annoyed at this point, I decided to go to bed and with the dawn of a new day it hit me...use it as a drizzle for the cake!  It was thoroughly enjoyed by all and it turns out, the chocolate sauce was a hit of the party.  It also doubled in function as a "dip" for the fruit tray.

It was still a little thin for my taste so below are the revised measurements as I've intentionally made this "accidental" sauce many times over the years.  Enjoy!

(By the way, 3 cups of powdered sugar as specified in the recipe is WAY too much for my taste! I used less than half that!)

Anyways...here goes...

Melt butter in small saucepan, turn off the heat and add the cocoa powder

Whisk in the cocoa powder until combined

Add the cream (or milk if using) and powdered sugar alternately and in small increments

Use as much cream and sugar to suit your personal preference

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 Accidental Chocolate Sauce
1/2 C (1 stick) butter
2/3 C unsweetened cocoa
1/2 C or 1 1/2 C powdered sugar (you decide how sweet you like it -you can add more if you like)
1/2 C - 3/4 C Heavy Cream (or whole milk)
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter in a small sauce pan. Once the butter is melted, turn off the heat and then slowly stir in cocoa.

Alternately whisk in cream (or milk if using) and sugar. Do NOT dump them in at once! It WILL clump.  The key is to add the cream (or milk) and powder sugar incrementally and alternately.  Heavy Cream will give it a richer flavor. Whole milk works as well and is less calories.

Once all the ingredients are fully incorporated, then the "sauce" is done. Drizzle over your favorite cake or dessert or use as a fruit "dip".  This tastes great when drizzled over strawberries and bananas.