It's a Chocolate Volcano!

The smell of burning sugar first alerted me that there was something wrong in the oven.  I open the door carefully and am met with gaseous clouds, billows of smoke, and fumes that burn the eyes. 

You've probably guessed what I did wrong this time.  Yes, I overfilled the pan.

That's one thing boxed cake mixes have going for them.  They give you a myriad of choices on the back of the box.  8 1/2 x 11 pan?  Sure and here's the time.  24 cupcakes, 2 nine inch rounds, or 2 eight inch?  Doesn't matter--go ahead and fill it, and here's how long to cook it.  Got a bunt pan (are you thinking "My Big Fat Greek Wedding")?  You can make that too.  I had been spoiled.  Or I had become gullible.  I thought I could do what I wanted with a scratch cake too.

The answer is no, Rillene.  You can't.

This is how I ended up with Mount Chocula erupting in my oven.  Thanks to overfilling my pan, I had a spitting blowhole spewing chocolate batter out the corner of my pan, and a chocolate continent forming on the oven floor.

Moral of the story:  Never fill a pan more than 2/3 full.   To be on the safe side, keep it to only 1/2.

This story does have a bright ending.  The chocolate land mass, while a bit burned on the bottom, tasted very good.  We picked off the top after I scraped it up, en mass, off the bottom of the oven.  This recipe was a hit with the family, and the oven clean up nicely.