Chocolate Eclair Cake (No Bake)

I seem to remember that my sister made recipe like this once, and it was quick, easy, and super yummy... and I always meant to try it, but then forgot. So when BellyFull's version came up on TikTok and we had some graham crackers in the house that needed to be used up, I thought it was now or never... and it was so good!!!

For the original recipe, go here: https://bellyfull.net/chocolate-eclair-cake/

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes (3.4 ounces each) vanilla INSTANT pudding mix
• 3 cups whole milk
• 8 ounces Cool Whip , thawed
• 16 ounces graham crackers
• 16 ounces chocolate frosting

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the instant pudding and milk. Fold in the whipped topping, mixing until well combined. Set aside.
2. Place a layer of graham crackers in the bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish, breaking as needed to cover the entire bottom with a single layer.
3. Spoon 1/2 the pudding mixture over the graham crackers and gently spread into an even layer. Top with another layer of graham crackers and then the remainder of the pudding mixture. Add a 3rd and final layer of graham crackers.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
5. Uncover frosting and remove foil wrap. Microwave for 15 seconds, give it a good stir, and microwave again for 10 seconds (if necessary) to loosen and make it easier to spread. Stir well. Remove cake from refrigerator and pour frosting over the cake and spread into an even layer.
6. Replace the plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight – the longer you give the graham crackers to soften up the better.

Marsha's Notes:

Chris felt like the filling was a little on the boring side and needed more flavor, so I thought for next time I would add a little bit of vanilla extract to it.

We tried it another time with cinnamon graham crackers, and it was still yummy, but not anything that made me think that I had just HAD to use cinnamon ones from now on. Either type of graham cracker works great.

I also made this once where I divided up the filling in such a way as to add an extra layer of graham crackers (just to use them up) and while it turned out fine, it was more dry because the extra crackers soaked up more of the moisture from the pudding layers, so I wouldn't necessarily do that again unless I was really desperate to use up ALL of my crackers. It was still yummy. We still ate it all. But it just wasn't as creamy and delicious as when you use only three layers of crackers (instead of four).

If you want a bit more crunch, you could add a layer of mini chocolate chips or some chopped nuts. 

Lastly, one time we didn't have quite enough graham crackers to do the entire top layer because we had used some for s'mores, so I filled in the gap with a few animal crackers, and that worked just fine. If I can figure it out, I will come back and report on how much of a box of graham crackers it takes to make the entire dish, but it appears to be pretty much an entire box. Also, I used the sugar-free pudding mix to save on a few calories and it was perfectly fine (no one noticed).