Dark Vanilla Pudding Cake (MTL ready)

Dense and creamy vanilla pudding cake on the darker side that doesn't taste like straight up butter. MTL approved, works just as well in RDL and DL.

This recipe came about because I wanted a shake & vape vanilla intense cake with flavors that I'd tried on their own that tasted nice off the shake — especially CNV & FLV Vanilla Pudding, JF Yellow Cake and MB Classic Sponge Cake, all of which rank among my top flavors.

Long story short, this was a great reminder that a mix doesn't work like single flavor tests because this one really needs a steep to let everything come together. Off the shake the cake is present but fades away after a day, after a week I can only taste the vanilla puddings, then at 2 weeks all is well.

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JF Yellow Cake for an eggy vanilla forward cake with MB Classic Sponge Cake to accentuate those notes and to make it darker, more cooked. PUR Simply Cake to fill out the cake flavor and make it thick. I played around with various percentages of these flavors, often not getting enough cake flavor or the mix being too dry, and I eventually landed up on the same ones as @Marc_lux's cake recipe, so we agree that this base works! (Unfortunately FLV Pound Cake didn’t, it has a prominent coconut note that doesn’t fade even with a 1 month steep and it’s also dry, and NOM Custard Cake tastes like popcorn cake as though it contains too much acetyl pyrazine / AP).

CNV & FLV Vanilla Pudding because they're spot on, eggy and vanilla forward without tasting excessively buttery or like fried grease as some vanilla custard flavors do. They pair very well. I get a slightly darker profile from CNV with a nutty note compared to FLV so I put it at the forefront. You're definitely going to taste them at these percentages.

SA Crème chantilly for its unparalleled creamy mouthfeel without being too buttery at 1% and to thicken everything up a bit more. If you don't have it, you can sub it with PUR Condensed Milk at the same percentage (thanks @boxerdog for the tip!). I also tried WF Vanilla Cream Extra and WF Bavarian Cream which both tasted good but neither were thick and creamy enough, and the former was a bit too bright. CAP Vanilla Whipped Cream didn’t work because it was too thin and muddied the mix and SSA Whipped Cream is too buttery like every SSA cream.

FA Vanilla Bourbon to crank the dark vanilla up a notch.

Sweetener: I don’t feel like this needs any but if you want some, you could either sprinkle some OOO Powdered Sugar or SSA Vanilla Sugar, or simply use 0.25% to 0.5% FW Sweetener (i.e. a 10% solution of sucralose dissolved in PG), that should be enough.

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Let it steep for 2 weeks, this is essential. It only gets better with time.

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Developed on a Dvarw MTL FL 22 RTA and also tested on a Mobb Ultra RBA, both with the single 1.2 mm airflow pin, with a 2.5 mm ID, 5 wrap, 3x32/40 Ni80 fused clapton coil (0.67-0.72 ohm) at 19 W.

Thanks to @Marc_lux, @boxerdog, Vlandarr and the r/DIY_eJuice Discord server for helping me with this developing this recipe.