Homemade Portillo’s Chocolate Cake Shake

A copycat of the perfection that is Portillo’s Chocolate Cake Shake! A rich, thick shake with frosted chocolate cake blended right in.

Lately, I’ve been pretty homesick. The recurring cravings for deep dish pizza, Italian beef, and the magic of Oberweis milk home delivery have really been interfering with my day-to-day life. Even worse? My craving for a Portillo’s Chocolate Cake Shake. 

I try to plan dinner, and my thoughts are consumed with the idea of making dessert. Just dessert, no dinner. And not just any dessert – a chocolate cake shake. It’s taken me this long to finally pull the trigger because it means I need to make a friggin’ chocolate layer cake. To throw in a blender. Sounds weird, right? It’s not. It’s genius and delicious and if you don’t agree with me you’re WRONG. 

The recipe that I’ve heard about for years starts with a box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Milk Chocolate cake mix. I try to stay away from boxed mixes unless I’m in dire straits, and this turned out to be one of those times. I was low on ingredients so I ran to the store – however, there had apparently been a flood of ohmygodsnowpocolypse shoppers that day. I couldn’t get most of what I needed, so I ended up throwing a box of Betty Crocker in my cart and figured I’d give it a shot.

It only has three other ingredients: eggs, water and mayonnaise. As gross as it may sound, the mayonnaise gives you a rich, moist cake. My own chocolate cake recipe also includes mayonnaise, so I know I’m on the right track. I’ve told you to add weird things to your recipes before, and I haven’t steered you wrong yet. Trust me. 

You might think you could just buy a little grocery store chocolate cake and chop off a piece to throw in the blender, but I promise you… you don’t want to do that. It will be nowhere near as good and I’ll be over here judging you. You need to make a cake — a layer cake. With homemade frosting — heaps of it. If it’s not both of those things, I’ll know. I’m watching you. You also want a good quality chocolate ice cream — seriously, don’t skimp on this. Even better? Make your own!

Nothing will ever compare to sitting down with the classic red and white cup at a Chicagoland Portillo’s, but this will have to do until my next trip home. And fair warning – the next time I fly home, I’ll be the one with my luggage spilling out onto the terminal floor as I sprint to the nearest Portillo’s. Just try to stay out of my way, k? K.

Chocolate Cake Shake

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• Cook Time: 30 mins
• Total Time: 30 mins
• Yield: 12 shakes
• Category: Dessert

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Description

A copycat of the perfection that is Portillo’s Chocolate Cake Shake! A rich, thick shake with frosted chocolate cake blended right in.

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Ingredients

Cake

• 1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist Milk Chocolate cake mix
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup mayonnaise

Frosting

• 10 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Shake

• 1 cup chocolate ice cream
• 1 cup of prepared cake (frosting and all!)

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Instructions

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray two round cake pans with non-stick spray and set aside.
2. Combine cake mix, eggs, water and mayonnaise and beat until well combined.
3. Pour half of the batter into each of the prepared pans and bake for 30 minutes.
4. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes and then move to wire racks to cool completely.
5. Once cooled, level off the top of one of the cakes (this will be your bottom layer). Shove the part you shaved off in your mouth. What? You don’t want to waste it!

Frosting

1. In a double broiler or in the microwave, melt chocolate until smooth and set aside to cool.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat until well combined. Add vanilla and melted chocolate, and beat until well combined and smooth.
3. Place the leveled off cake layer on a platter and frost top with 1/3 of the prepared frosting. Top with second cake layer and frost the top and sides of both layers with remaining frosting.

Shake

1. In a blender, combine ice cream and cake and blend until well combined. Pour into glass and enjoy!

Notes

– I keep an entire frosted cake lying around the house so that I can make a shake anytime the mood strikes me (and no, I’m not kidding) – but for those of you who don’t, a 9″ layer cake will make around 10-12 shakes for a party.

– I don’t like using canned frosting, but if you need to you’ll want 2 containers.

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