One giant puff is easier than a bunch of small puffs

I love to bake, sometimes I think I'm pretty good at it. Something I cannot figure out are cream puffs. They've brought me to tears on more than one occasion. I just cannot figure them out. I saw this cake version and decided to give it a try. It was honestly very easy and the pan of puff was very impressive coming out of the oven! I filled it will pudding and cool whip, topped with chocolate syrup and our guests couldn't get enough!
Something I tried with this recipe that I failed at something else recently - mix your pudding and milk together first before adding to the cream cheese... trust me, it will mix in smoother and your filling will be perfect. No weird lumps of pudding mix or cream cheese floating around in there.

Cream Puff Cake Recipe
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2 boxes instant vanilla pudding mix, 3.4 ounce each
2 ½ cups milk
8 ounce cream cheese softened
8 ounce Cool Whip thawed
¼ cup chocolate syrup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 13×9 baking dish with baking spray. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, add the butter and water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Remove from heat and whisk in flour.
Pour flour mixture into a mixing bowl and add in eggs one at a time until well blended. Add vanilla extract.
Spread into prepared baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool completely.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and milk until blended. Beat in softened cream cheese (for about 3-4 minutes).
Pour into cooled crust. Top with cool whip. Drizzle with chocolate syrup.
Refrigerate for at least one hour. ENJOY.