Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Thus far, we’ve discussed the various ways that we can dress up boxed cake mixes. We’ve looked at a few different kinds of frosting and a number of ways to play with the batter.

 

Last week, my friend requested that I make her favorite cake for her birthday.  This cake is lovingly taken from Smittenkitchen.com, where I believe she makes the recipe according to a book called “Sky High Cakes” (speaking of birthdays…). This cake is perfect for Halloween with its fall colors and drippy ganache. It is called the chocolate peanut butter cake and it is exactly the type of dessert you make for the people who you want to have a fantastic birthday– frankly, its phenomenal.

 

 

The issue with frankly phenomenal things is they take a lot of time and effort. So if you are going to take the time to do this cake, be sure you have a few hours set aside. Excellence takes effort. It’s worth it though, I promise!

The Chocolate Batter:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup neutral vegetable oil, such as canola, soybean or vegetable blend

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups water

2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

 

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  You will need round cake pans—I used two, but the original recipe calls for three. Line these cake pans with parchment or wax paper. Use water or a little bit of egg white to make the liners stick to the bottom.

 

Sift together all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt) in one bowl. Beat in the wet ingredients (vegetable oil, sour cream, water, vinegar, vanilla), and finally the eggs.  Pour the batter into the lined pans, then bake for 30-35 minutes, or until your cake taster (in my case, a thin knife, but you can use toothpicks) comes out clean. Let cool.

 

The Peanut butter frosting:

10 ounces cream cheese

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter

Confectioners’ sugar, to taste (I buy a bag and keep adding in sugar until I think it tastes good)

2/3 cup peanut butter

 

Warm the cream cheese, peanut butter, and butter to room temperature. Blend together, then slowly add in the sugar to taste. Put in the fridge to firm up.

 

The Chocolate Ganache:

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 cup half-and-half

 

Melt the chocolate and syrup, stirring frequently. Once fully melted, take off heat and slowly add in the half and half. Keep stirring. Pour over the cake immediately.

 

To decorate:

Once the cakes are cooled, turn them out of their pans. Place one cake on the bottom and add thick layer of frosting.

Then place a second layer of cake on top of the frosting and dollop a little frosting on– just enough to thinly cover the top of the cake. This is called the crumb layer. Once this layer covers the top, add more frosting to the outer part of the cake face, around the circumference, then slowly work the crumb layer down the sides of the cake. Clean off your knife or whatever tool you are using to frost your cake.

Finally, you can frost the cake normally.

I would recommend putting the cake in the fridge overnight at this point, making sure the frosting sets.

In the morning, make the ganache and pour it on the center of the cake. Gently cover the top of the cake, smoothing out the ganache to the edge of the face of the cake, allowing dribbles of chocolate to run over the sides.