Chocolate Cheesecake Dessert

This is a day-before  recipe from a Duncan Hines Deep Chocolate Cake Mix box circa  the early 70's, before cheesecakes  dominated the American dessert scene. It immediately became a favorite, and despite becoming more sophisticated about 'real' cheesecakes, still holds a spot in our hearts. I've just tagged it as 'cheesecake dessert' so you won't expect it to look or taste  like an ordinary cheesecake. It's a retro  milk-chocolate-y wonder on its' own terms.

Preheat the oven to 300. From a box of Deep Chocolate* Cake Mix (just choose the
darkest chocolate mix you can, any brand will do), set aside 1 cup. In a large bowl, mix the rest of the mix with 1 egg and 1 TB vegetable (not olive!) oil. The mixture will be dry and crumbly. Press it into the bottom of a 9x13 pan.

In the same bowl (don't bother to wash it) blend 16 oz softened cream cheese with 1/2 c. sugar, Add 3 eggs and the reserved cup of cake mix. Beat 1-2 minutes, be sure there are no lumps. Then, slowly, add 1-/2 cups milk and 1 tsp vanilla. Mix til smooth, pour onto crust and bake at 300 for 55-65 minutes. The center should look pretty firm.

Let cool, then refrigerate overnight. It is not ready to eat, it really does need to mellow first. Top with whipped cream or a tub of cool whip and some chocolate curls, sprinkles, crumbs, a chcolate-dipped strawberry, or whatever. Cut in squares.

Duncan Hines trivia:    There is a permanent exhibit at the Kentucky Museum in Bowling Green, KY, called "Recommended by Duncan Hines".  Hines was a traveling salesman who kept a journal of places where he dined while on the road. ( Not having access to a blog , ha!) in 1936 he published it as a book "Adventures in Good Eating" and later followed it with a guide to hotels called "Recommended by Duncan Hines" and thus became a hospitality-industry status symbol--- sort of a "Good Housekeeping Seal Of Approval" for the hospitality industry.
Pretty soon he was endorsing all sorts of food products from spices to cake mixes, and thus the DH brand evolved.