My mom had two recipe cards with almost identical recipes for chocolate icing, but different amounts of ingredients. I tried following the first one, credited to Lucille Portwood, because I wasn’t sure how to interpret the amount of chocolate in the second one (from my Aunt Joyce) and she’s not around for me to ask her.

This gets cooked on the stove, so it can be drizzled while hot. After it’s cooled, it has a consistency closer to spreadable frosting. This is probably the better way to use it, especially if you’re like me and there are a few chocolate chips that absolutely refuse to melt completely.

If you can find a more meltable chocolate, or you don’t mind a few lumps, this would be great drizzled onto a Bundt cake or bar cookies, or used like chocolate fondue.

I applied it onto this Heath Bar Cake, which was already lumpy and misshapen, so a few extra lumps weren’t too obvious. My cakes always taste better than they look, and this one is no exception.

The flavor of this syrup, lumps are no, is on point! One batch makes about 1 1/2 cups.

1 c. sugar
1/3 c. milk
5 Tbsp. butter
6 oz. chocolate chips

Combine sugar, milk, and butter in a large saucepan* and heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a hard boil for 1 minute.

Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chips. Pour over partially cooled cake or bars.

*Use a larger saucepan than you think you’ll need. Once this starts boiling, it bubbles up to more than twice its volume.

Aunt Joyce’s Recipe (use 1 1/2 batch for a layer cake):
1 c. sugar
1 sq. unsweetened chocolate (1 square? seems insufficient.)
1/4 c. crisco
1/3 c. cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Put (everything but the vanilla) in a saucepan and stir constantly while bringing it to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, then take off the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour on a cake while hot.