After the whirlwind of a month that March was, Sweet Talk is officially back.

Between Middle Eastern North African Heritage Month at the University of Wisconsin to observing Ramadan during midterm season, I think I collectively slept for 10 hours each week.

Now that the festivities are over, it’s time to get back to my baking. My biggest downfall during Ramadan was my sweet tooth. Having a sweet treat post-dinner was not even a question — it was a given.

For me and my friends, we were drooling over the popular Dubai chocolate bars all month long. I hate to say it, but this was not my ideal chocolate sweet treat. Don’t get me wrong — it’s a fun and delicious treat, but depending on who makes it, I find the pistachio cream to be overpowering.

In walks the ‘Ahmad AlZamel Krunchoco Chocolate Cake’ that gained major attention across Middle Eastern TikTok during Ramadan.

This cake is my ideal toned-down version of the infamous Matilda chocolate cake scene from my childhood — if you know, you know. With a few simple ingredients and using box cake mix as a shortcut, this might be my favorite Sweet Talk recipe to date.

So when you host a room full of MENA ethnicities and want to please everyone, this is the only right option for the job. If there’s one commonality among us all, it is our stubbornness. But even the most stubborn couldn’t deny that this was the best dessert of the night.

Here is the process:

The first step will be making the cake base. Add the necessary ingredients to a bowl to make and bake your store-bought chocolate cake mix — I swapped out the water and oil for milk and butter for a richer texture.

Bake according to the box instructions at 350℉ for about 24 minutes.

Once the cake is baked, allow it to cool fully before poking it with a fork for the milk soak.

While you are waiting for the cake to cool, it is a perfect time to make the cream topping.

For this layer, you will need:

• One 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• One can of sweetened condensed milk
• Vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups of heavy cream

Now this is the fun part, a labor of love, if you will. If you also sadly do not have a hand electric mixer, you will need a medium-sized bowl, a whisk and an arm of iron.

Combine the softened cream cheese, about half of the can of sweetened condensed milk and a teaspoon of vanilla extract in a bowl. Whip these ingredients until combined and smooth. It should look like this:

Then, gradually add in the heavy cream to this mixture. You will want to reach stiff peaks — so you will be whipping the cream for a while.

For the next layer, we will be making a chocolate ganache. It sounds more complicated than it is.

All you will need is:

• One bar of milk chocolate
• ½ cup of heavy whipping cream

Combine the two in a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, then mix them until smooth and silky.

Now, to assemble the cake. Begin with poking holes throughout the cake with a fork, similar to a tres leches cake.

Then soak the cake with about ¾ cup of white milk. The original recipe used chocolate milk, but the white milk helped balance out the chocolate richness a bit more.

Once the majority of the milk has been soaked up by the cake, evenly spread the cream cheese layer atop the cake’s surface.

Finally, pour the chocolate ganache over the cream cheese layer and spread it out, careful not to disturb the cream cheese layer underneath.

Since I made this cake a day before serving it, I stopped here and allowed the cake to set overnight. I would highly recommend doing this before adding the crunchy chocolate topping so that the chocolate ganache has time to set fully.

Before serving, combine about 2 cups of your favorite chocolate crispy cereal — I used cocoa pebbles (real ones know this is the elite cereal).

Melt another bar of chocolate with a ¼ cup of heavy whipping cream — this time, I used semi-sweet chocolate to balance out the richness.

Toss the cereal in the chocolate until completely covered, then add a few tablespoons of cocoa powder to the cream mixture. I used about four tablespoons.

Finally, add the crunchy chocolate layer atop the chocolate ganache.

All that is left to do is observe your beautiful masterpiece and, of course, take pictures of it.

As humble as I would like to be, it’s safe to say this cake was the best dessert of the night, and here is photo evidence.