Cream Puff Cake

This is a favorite of ours and I often get asked to make it for special occasions.  It's way easier than it looks too.

Cream Puff Base:
1 C water
1 stick (1/2 C) butter, cubed
1 C flour
4 eggs

Filling:
1 - 8oz cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 C cold milk
3 small pkgs instant French Vanilla pudding mix

Topping:
Cool Whip, thawed
Chocolate Syrup


Preheat oven to 400.  Lightly grease 9x13 pan; set aside. Over stove, melt butter in water and bring to boil.  Add flour all at once and stir until dough pulls away from sides and soft dough ball forms.  Remove from heat and let sit about 5 minutes.  In mixer, add one egg at a time to dough, beating well in between.  Spread puff batter evenly into prepared pan.  Bake 20-22 minutes or until puffed up and light golden brown.  Let cool for about 10 minutes. (Great time to let the cream cheese soften if you forgot to take it out of the fridge earlier!)  In mixing bowl beat cream cheese, milk and pudding mixes until smooth.  Spread over cooled cake-puff.  Top with cool whip, then drizzle with chocolate syrup.  Chill until ready to serve. Enjoy!

Tips:
1) I prefer French Vanilla pudding mix in this recipe, although regular vanilla or even chocolate works just fine.
2) For the chocolate syrup you can use either melted Chocolate or Hershey's Chocolate syrup, although I prefer melted chocolate frosting -- sooooo yummy.
3) To make fancy swirl design, drizzle chocolate in "rows" the entire width of the cake.  Then lightly pull knife through in the length-wise direction.