Chocolate Cake With Cream Filling And Nut Frosting

Ingredients

Filling

• 1 8 oz package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup butter

Frosting

• 1/3 cup butter, at room temperature
• 3 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/4 cup milk

Topping

• 1 1/2 cups ground walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. grease a 9 inch round springform baking pan.
2. To make the cake. In a mixing bowl, cream butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar. Mix in flour then chocolate chips. Pour half of batter into cake pan
3. To make the filling. In a medium bowl, mix filling ingredients until smooth. Pour into the pan over the batter layer. then cover with remaining cake batter.
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes. remove from oven and let cool before running knife around inside edge and removing from springform.
5. To make the frosting. In medium bowl,beat butter with 1 cup confectioners sugar and vanilla extract; beat well. Add remaining confectioners sugar alternately with milk, beating until smooth.
6. Spread frosting over cooled cake and distribute ground nuts evenly over top.