Chocolate Lava M&M Red Velvet Cakes

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If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a million times that baking is not my specialty.  There are a few exceptions to this rule and one of them is if the baking is happening in a jar.  Why?  Because it’s infinitely more fun!  For a valentines treat for my kids I wanted to make them each individual cakes, because let’s face it, if there is an entire cake in my house chances are I’m going to eat a bunch of it.  Instead with small servings, once the kids eat them up, they are gone!

I started off with a box cake mix from Walmart, because I’m lazy and over worked and really I think they taste just as good as from scratch.  I mixed up the batter according to the directions and then filled my jars about an inch.  While I was shopping for cake mix I grabbed some  DOVE® Promises and M&M’s® Red Velvet.

I unwrapped a few DOVE® Promises chocolates and dropped them in to the batter on the bottom of the jar.  Then I filled the jars about half full with batter.  I baked them off in the oven just as directed by the back of the box and let them cool.  While they were cooling I chopped up some M&M’s® Red Velvet and mixed up the frosting.  I went with a vanilla frosting for these cakes and it was the perfect contrast to the rich chocolate lava centers!

Once the cakes had cooled most of the way I frosted them and then sprinkled some of the chopped up M&M’s® on top. I set them aside for after dinner, but my kids knew I was up to something when they smelled them baking.  We have a hard and fast rule at our house, if you don’t eat your “grow” food you can get a treat.  Let me tell you they all ate every last bite on their plates!!  Which is good, because otherwise I would have been eating a lot of cake!

See more great M&M’s® Red Velvet recipe and party ideas HERE where you can also download a coupon to save on your M&M’s® purchase.  For more M&M’s® Red Velvet inspiration, be sure to visit the Red Velvet Love Recipes page. Join the #RedVelvetLove Pinterest Party taking place at http://www.pinterest.com/SoFabChats/ onSaturday, January 31 at 12:00pm ET for your chance at winning a $1000 Walmart gift card!