Peanut Butter Cup Cake

I put this recipe together in honor of my dad.  He loved Reese's peanut butter cups, as I'm sure most of us do.  After all, it's peanut butter and chocolate.  What's not to love?

This cake tastes like a Reese's peanut butter cup that has been dressed for a black tie event.  It's flavors are sophisticated, but it hasn't lost its nostalgic, childhood familiarity.  It touts two, rich, espresso-spiked, velvety, chocolate layers that are filled and iced with a perfectly balanced peanut butter buttercream--not too salty, not too sweet.  

The icing between the layers is secretly concealing a hefty sprinkling of chopped Reese's peanut butter cups, and the top of the cake is playfully garnished with some halves.  (On special occasions, I buy the large peanut butter cups and use a heart shaped cookie cutter to decorate the top of the cake with Reese's hearts.)

Espresso Spiked Dark Chocolate Cake

(8-inch, two layer cake that serves 12)

2 cups (400 grams) sugar

1 3/4 cups (219 grams) all-purpose flour

3/4 cup (60 grams) Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa powder

1 tsp espresso powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Directions:

Prepare two 8-inch round cake pans.  (I grease the pans with coconut oil, dust them with flour and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Whisk the first seven ingredients (sugar - salt) in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Add the milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.  Beat for two minutes on medium speed.  Slowly stir in the boiling water.  The batter will be thin. 

Pour the cake batter into two 8-inch round cake pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for aproximately 35 minutes.  I start checking at 30 minutes, but often they aren't done until 40 minutes have passed.  Remove the cakes when a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean. 

Let cakes cool for 10 minutes in the pans before removing them to cooling racks to cool completely.  

Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing

(This recipe makes a lot of icing, but I like to have more than enough when it comes to decorating.  You can always freeze the excess for cupcakes later, or cut the recipe by 1/3.)

1 1/2 cups (340 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups (384 grams) Adam's natural creamy peanut butter

4 1/2 cups (540 grams) confectioner's sugar

1/3 - 1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:

Cream the butter and peanut butter together at medium speed in a stand mixer.

Gradually add the confectioner's sugar and mix until incorporated.

Add 1/3 cup of heavy cream and mix until smooth.  Add more cream until you reach your desired consistency.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat on high speed for a few minutes.  The icing will lighten in color and will become smooth and fluffy.

Assembling the cake

1 (12 oz) bag of mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Directions:

Place one layer of your chocolate cake on the plate you'll be serving the cake on, or on a cake circle placed atop a turn table.  With an off-set spatula, ice the top of the first layer.  Unwrap and chop enough peanut butter cups to generously cover the layer of cake that you just iced. 

Gently place the second layer of cake on top of the first, sandwiching the icing and chopped peanut butter cups in between the layers, then coat the entire cake in a thin layer of icing (crumb coat).  Refrigerate the cake for 15 minutes, and then put the final layer of icing on it.  Smooth the icing with a spatula or an icing smoother. 

Using a pastry bag, pipe decorative borders with the remaining icing, and then garnish your cake any way you like.  For this cake, I used a Wilton 1M tip for piping the borders, and several Reese's haves for the final touches. 

*Printable Recipe*


**If you're like me, you always end up with more cake than you could possibly eat.  The solution is to cut the remainder of the cake into pieces and individually wrap them in plastic wrap.  Store them in the freezer for up to two months.  This way you always have "emergency cake" on hand.  Yes, cake emergencies happen.  ...more often than you'd think.