Checkerboard Cake

The beauty of this cake is that it looks simple and unassuming, yet it is not until you slice into the layers that you get a peek into the incredible design that is awaiting you. I really had a hard time deciding on the particular recipe to use for my first checkerboard cake. So many of the recipes out there (even the one that came with my pan set) are for a chocolate and yellow checkerboard cake. While I am perfectly okay with chocolate and yellow cake together (it is one of my favorite flavor combos for cake and frosting) I wanted something a bit different and a bit more summery. This particular checkerboard cake was going to our end of the year MOPS bash and I wanted it to reflect the summer theme we had chosen.

What a challenge finding a recipe though and feeling confident with it. I read so many reviews of checkerboard cake recipes that had some touting it as the best thing on earth and then others saying it was beautiful but the driest cake they had ever eaten. Couldn't there be a happy medium? Couldn't there be a cake that tastes great, is moist, and looks beautiful? Sometimes you just don't know until it comes to show time.

I had my doubts that this cake was going to turn out right from the beginning. The very first step is to cook down the frozen raspberries and raspberry syrup into a thick-ish syrup. I always doubt myself when it comes to the thickness of syrup necessary for my recipes. That and I really have little patience for waiting for raspberries (or any fruit) to break down and thicken up over the stove top. I guess it would help it I didn't wait until late in the evening before starting the recipe. I had good intentions of doing this step well before I needed to mix and bake the cake but as usual I let time get away from me. So, back to the syrup. It took a while for the raspberries to break down. Once I had enough of waiting I ran the sauce through a sieve to separate out the sauce and the seeds. It was supposed to yield me one cup of syrup. The fact that I had two cups of syrup meant that I hadn't broken it down near enough. So back on the stove top it went. This time I boiled and boiled and boiled the syrup until it looked like it was close to 1 cup. Voila! It measured at exactly one cup. However, it was now after 10 o'clock at night and there was no way I wanted to mix a cake I had never made before that required some technical components and bake it before bed. Instead I set my alarm for EARLY in the morning to finish.

Early the next morning I set out to mixing up the batters. It was a surprisingly easy process. The basic batter was the same, it was then divided in half (which I used my scale to do). To one half I added milk and 2 cups of the flour, to the other half I added the raspberry syrup and the other 2 cups of flour. I could tell that the batters were very different as far as texture was concerned. When I got them in the pan they were insanely different. This was the second time that I thought this cake was doomed. You can see the variations in texture between the pink and white circles even after the cake was done baking.

 
Since I was short on time I stuck them in the freezer to cool completely. After they were cool I added a thin layer of raspberry jam to one of the pink layers and then the white layer. I decided not to shave the tops to even the layers so I ended up stacking the bottom two layers top to top. Meanwhile I whipped up the white chocolate frosting. This was the third time that I thought this cake was doomed. It seemed as though the frosting was going to be way too thin but it ended up holding its form nicely.

And now, for the verdict. This was an awesome cake! It met all the criteria for a checkerboard cake. It was beautiful on the outside and had perfect layers on the inside. It was moist and each taste was distinct, yet they went together perfectly. Enjoy!

(Side Note: I followed the recipe exactly, minus the red food coloring. I had a lot of leftover frosting so I think next time I might only make a half of a batch of frosting.)

(This thin slice was all that was left after our MOPS meeting! 

I'm glad I had it so I could snap a picture of it, but it isn't the most appealing piece.)

Raspberry Checkerboard Cake with White Chocolate Frosting
Source: Chefs Catalog

Cake:
2 - 12 ounce packages of sweetened frozen raspberries
1 cup raspberry syrup, such as Torani
4 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk

Frosting:
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
12 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
a few fresh raspberries for garnish

Tips: Spread the jam between layers very lightly to preserve the checkerboard effect. Adding about 5 drops of red gel food coloring to the raspberry syrup will deepen the red hue. (I didn't add any coloring.)

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Lightly coat the cake pans with cooking spray and dust with flour. Set aside.In a medium saucepan over moderate heat, combine frozen raspberries and raspberry syrup. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low and continue cooking until liquid reduces by two-thirds.

Remove from heat and strain, pressing on the raspberries to release all the juices. There should be approximately 1 cup. Dispose of the raspberry pulp or reserve for another use. Add the food coloring, if using.

If there is more than 1 cup of juice, put in a small saucepan over medium heat and reduce to 1 cup; cool to room temperature. If there is less than 1 cup, add enough water to equal 1 cup.

In a medium bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Divide the batter in half. To one half of the batter, beat in the 2 cups of the flour mixture alternately with the milk to the batter, beating after each addition until smooth. To the remaining batter, beat in the remaining flour mixture alternately with the raspberry syrup to the batter until smooth.

Place checkerboard divider into one prepared pan. Then spoon in the two batters (red and plain) as described in "How to use your Checkerboard Cake Set."

Place all 3 pans in oven at same time. Rotate pans halfway through baking. Bake approximately 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cakes rest in the pans, set on a rack, for 10 minutes. Place a cooling rack on top of each cake, invert the cake and remove the pan. Cool completely.

Using no more than 1/4 cup of jam, frost a very thin layer on top of one of the white cakes and on the raspberry cake.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Beat in the almond extract. Reduce the speed to low and carefully drizzle the chocolate into the cream cheese. Increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add powdered sugar and beat until well incorporated.

Spread a thin layer of frosting on the jam-covered white cake. Place the raspberry cake on top of this cake and spread a thin layer of frosting on top. Place the last white cake on top. Frost the sides and top of the checkerboard cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

100th Post!! Hubby's Birthday!! Chocolate Cherry Coke Cake!!

Well, what do you know, 100 posts! While I know that I cook and bake a lot, sometimes more than 3 meals a day, I am somewhat surprised that I have tried and written about 100 new recipes in just 13 months. And while not all of the recipes were new, I am happy to have shared all 100 of them with you!

While looking at my recipes that I have completed but have yet to post, I realized that I would be coming up on my 100th post right around the same time as my husband's birthday. I knew that I wanted something that looked super yummy and I've had this cake recipe sitting in my saved bookmarks for a little while. I happened to weasel an agreeable answer out of him when I asked him if I could have free reign over his birthday dessert, even if it was chocolate which he is not the biggest fan of. Ahhhh, everything is lining up right in my world.

It was a fun cake to make, and it tastes just as good as it looks! Enjoy!

**Side Note: My recipe makes 4 mini bundt cakes. Double my recipe to bake a full size cake.**

Chocolate Cherry Coke Cake
Source: Adapted from Maison Cupcake

Cake:
100g plain flour
125g superfine sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 medium egg
62.5ml buttermilk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
62.5g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
87.5ml Cherry Coca-Cola 

Icing:
15g unsalted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons Cherry Coca-Cola
1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder
100g powdered sugar, sifted

Decoration:
chocolate �writing� icing
pitted cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake pans, baking tins, or molds by greasing with butter and then a light layer of flour.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg, buttermilk and vanilla extract.

In a heavy based saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter, cocoa powder and Cherry Coca-Cola. Pour the butter/cola mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon. Add the egg/buttermilk mixture and beat well until blended.

Pour into prepared baking tins or molds. Place cake pans on a baking sheet and bake in the oven, 40 minutes for one large cake and 20-25 minutes if you are doing smaller ones. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. Leave the cake in the pans to cool for 15 minutes, then turn out onto wire cooling rack. Cool completely.

While cakes are cooling, make the icing. In a heavy based saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter, Cherry Coca-Cola and cocoa powder until liquid. (Do not overheat as it burns easily.) Remove from heat and spoon in the powdered sugar a little at a time. Beat well until you have a runny glace style icing.

Spoon the icing over the cake (or cakes). If you are using mini cake molds, attempt to drizzle artfully down the sides and whilst also coating, but not entirely filling the center. Allow to set for a couple of minutes then zig zag your little tube of chocolate writing icing backwards and forwards from the centre to the outside of the cake going all the way around. Pour the pitted cherries over the cake (or in the center for a mini bundt cake style. Four cherries will be about right for a mini cake.)

Little Camper's Birthday Cake

Our family's youngest member celebrated his birthday this past Friday! His request for a cake included a road, campground loop, and a camping trailer that looks like ours. I thought I did a pretty good job of getting all the requested items on and then some considering that it was only a 9x13 cake. Think what I could have done with a half sheet or full sheet!

This was also the first time that I made sugar cone trees, and I must say that the frosting has to be just the right temperature to pull those things off. Too cold and the frosting won't squeeze out, too warm and it's like soup dripping down the cone. By the way, the freezer works great for storing them so that little eyes can't see them and so that the needles don't drip off your trees. Enjoy!

Apple Spice Cake with Caramel Drizzle

 

For some reason, September and October seem to spurn in me a desire to bake some sort of bread or dessert with apples or pumpkins. This year proved no different, so I decided to combine the mood of the season with something off of my top 100 things to bake list. I was really just searching for a great spice cake recipe when I happened to come across this one with apples thrown in.

This really was a great spice cake! It was moist, it tasted like delicious cinnamon, it had chunks of apple, and it was even better the second day after baking. The caramel sauce I could take or leave. It was good, but it was very sticky when eating it with the cake and it immediately hardened if you drizzled it over ice cream or even onto a plate. I know the second photo of the entire cake looks a little dry and a little plain, but it was actually really moist and once you added the caramel drizzle and the ice cream or whipped cream, it was heavenly. Enjoy!

Apple Spice Cake with Caramel Drizzle

Source: Martha Stewart

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

3 to 4 Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (3 cups)

1 cup chopped assorted nuts, such as pecans and walnuts

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray; set aside.

Working over a large sheet of parchment paper, sift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt; gather sifted ingredients into center of sheet; set aside

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine vegetable oil, sugar, and eggs; mix on high speed until lemon yellow. Fold reserved parchment in half lengthwise; with mixer on medium speed, gradually shake in dry ingredients until just incorporated. Add apples and nuts to batter; mix to combine. Add vanilla, mixing until incorporated. 

Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 75 to 90 minutes. Remove from oven, and cool slightly on a wire rack. Invert cake onto rack; turn cake right-side up to cool completely on rack, and serve drizzled with caramel sauce.

Caramel Sauce

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until thickened to desired consistency.

Buttery Almond and Coconut Cake

Delicious! This cake melts in your mouth. You can make it even more diabetic friendly by substituting the sugar with another form of sweetener. Enjoy!

Buttery Almond and Coconut Cake

Makes one 10-inch cake or two 5-inch cakes

180 grams almond flour

2/3 cup shredded coconut

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

200 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 tablespoons flaked/sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter springform pan(s) and line with buttered baking paper. Dust the baking paper lightly with flour.

Put almond flour, coconut, salt, and sugar into a bowl and mix together with a whisk. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat the eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract until combined. Mix in the cooled butter until combined. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Scrape into the pan(s), spread evenly, and scatter flaked almonds on top.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until the cake springs back slowly when pressed. Slide knife around edge to loosen from pan and cool on rack. Remove from pan to serve.

**Can store for a week in fridge or 3 weeks in the freezer. Bring to room temperature to serve.** 

Six Layer Rainbow Cake

I had these grandious plans to make a six layer coconut cake from the Peninsula G.rill, but that plan fizzled quickly when I got back home from running my half marathon and realized I was too tired and my cupboards were to bare to have even a semblance of what was needed for this monster cake. Another recipe for another time, I guess. I then thought I'd make a coconut layer cake that wasn't quite such a monster but decided that I really needed to go with something that I knew and was familiar with. Hence, the six layer rainbow cake that you see pictured above. This was my first time actually making it as a true six layer cake. My other versions involved a single layer and cupcakes so this was a deviation from the past, and even though I knew I had made something somewhat similar before, the ladies to whom I fed it to had not seen it before.

I followed the recipe exactly. It was helpful to have the wax paper under the layers of finished cake until I was finished icing. If not, can you imagine how messy that glass cake stand would have been? That's the first time I've actually used that method to frost a cake so it was fun to try a new technique.

Whipping up the buttercream frosting was an interesting experience. I thought for sure that I had whipped it too much and it had curdled, but lo and behold I waited just a few more minutes until the sound of the mixer changed and when I looked it was absolutely perfect. Not the smoothest buttercream you've ever seen but it was definitely tasty! Enjoy!

Rainbow Cake
Source: Whisk Kid


Cake:
3 cups cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-1/3 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
5 egg whites, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-1/2 cups milk, warmed about 30 seconds in microwave to bring to room temperature
food coloring (gels work the best)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil and line three 9" cake pans or however many you have. (I just reused the three I had.)


Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.


Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg whites one at a time; add the vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Then, alternating between wet and dry, add the milk and flour mixture in two parts.

Divide the batter between 6 bowls. (Easiest way is to do it by weight.) Stir in a fair amount of the appropriate food color to each bowl. Pour into pans and smooth out so batter is even. Bake for about 15 minutes each. 


Remove from oven; let rest in pan on cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then flip, cover, and put them in the fridge to cool quickly.


Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream
To fill and crumb coat:
9 egg whites
1-3/4 cup sugar
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons lemon extract


To frost:
5 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, cubed, room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon extract


Cook the egg whites and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour into another bowl and whip on high speed until room temperature (about 10 minutes). Then, on a medium-low speed, add the butter one cube at a time, waiting until each piece is incorporated before adding the next. After all the butter has been added, turn the mixer back up to high speed and whip until it has come together (about 5 minutes). Add the extract, beat briefly. (If the buttercream seems soupy after all the butter has been added, refrigerate for 5 to 7 minutes and continue whipping until it becomes fluffy and workable.)


Assembling:
Start with whichever end of the rainbow you would like to. Lay first layer down on plate. (I divided my frosting for filling and crumb coating into six bowls because I wanted to make sure I had enough.) Cover with layer of frosting, top with next cake layer, repeat for all layers. You may want to chill the cake at this point so the frosting is more workable. Cover the top and sides of the cake with frosting.

Daring Bakers - Traditional British Pudding

The April 2010 Daring Bakers� challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

The challenge this month was to make a traditional British pudding using suet as one of the ingredients. From the beginning I was nervous because I had never made, nor even seen a British pudding, and I had no idea what suet was. For those of you that are thinking the same thing here is a brief description of both.

Not being British it took me a bit to wrap my head around the fact that they use the word "pudding" to mean many different things. "Pudding" can be a black pudding and white pudding, a sort of meat and grain sausage. It is also used as a generic word for dessert. It also can be any dish cooked in a pudding bowl or pudding cloth, normally steamed or boiled but sometimes baked. And finally, as an endearment (for example, "How are you today my pudding?"). For this challenge the third meaning, a dish cooked in a pudding bowl or cloth, applies.

Now, on to suet. Suet is the hard but flaky fat found on the inside of a cow or sheep around the kidneys and that area of the body. Suet in its raw form crumbles easily into small chunks. It also melts at quite a low temperature, which has an effect on how it works in cooking. Suet can be rendered, which is basically melting it and then straining out any larger pieces, or it can be used in its raw form. So basically we would be making our own shortening.

For this challenge we were given the option of making a savory or a sweet pudding, and total control over the ingredients even to the point of substituting butter or margarine for suet. The method of cooking was the main component of this challenge and we were given the option to steam or boil the pudding. As I started pouring over recipes I realized that there were a lot of options. I also knew that I wanted to make a savory and a sweet. When I came across this video showing how to make Spotted Dick, a traditional British pudding, I knew I had to try it. It is basically a sweet spongecake with golden raisins shaped in the form of a log.

I did use butter in this version because the suet was still frozen from the butcher. The dough was a bit stickier than I thought it would be once it was all mixed together but I was able to get it rolled up decently in the waxed paper. I ended up making two loaves instead of one because of the size of my steamer. You can see that as they steam the loaves swell larger, so they did end up touching each other in the pan but it did not seem to affect their final product. The paper stuck to the spongecake a bit but it maintained its overall structure in spite of it. I made a vanilla custard to go along with it and added some fresh strawberries. My husband and I both thought that the Spotted Dick actually tasted better without the custard but that might be because we are not used to eating custard.

My second British pudding I decided to do a savory pudding with a suet crust. I poured over more recipes and there were a lot, let me repeat a lot, of recipes for steak and kidney pudding. While I know this probably would have been the most traditional I could have gone for I just could not bring myself to buy, cook, and eat kidney. So when I saw this video showing how to make a steak and mushroom pudding I opted for that instead. I did not render the suet, instead I just crumbled it onto the scale to make sure I had the correct amount. There was not much of a smell and it was basically white crumbs, but after crumbling it a bit I did start to get grossed out by the sound it made tearing off the little strips of connective tissue. I could tell it was similar to shortening even at that point when I went to wash my hands and it took hot water and soap to get the greasy feel washed away.

It was very easy to make and tasted delicious, almost like a meat filled pie, but I don't think I'll be making it again, at least not a savory pudding. The savory puddings with a suet crust have to be steamed for about 5 hours and I have learned that 5 hours of steaming is not good for my pocketbook nor my house. Why you ask? First off, my gas stove has got be cranked to about medium high to keep the water boiling which creates the steam, and having the burner on medium high for 5 hours straight uses way more gas than I would ever use to cook a meal. Secondly, I didn't realize that it would put so much condensation into the air that my 110 year old wood framed single pane windows would have water running down the glass and pooling up on the wood frames below. By the way, that process alone created quite the smell. The kitchen smelled great but you would walk out into the living room, dining room, and even our bedroom which is the farthest room away and wonder what the smell was. I realized after my second trip in that it was the wood on my windows releasing an unpleasant odor that only 110 years of being in existence could create. I could have used my slow cooker but there was no way that it would get water up to the boiling point and keep it boiling for the length of time needed to cook the pudding. So while my husband and I enjoyed the final product, we did not enjoy the cooking method as much.

My final pudding was decided on after I saw so many people post the yummiest looking photos of chocolate pudding. I had decided to steer away from chocolate since I do many other desserts with chocolate, but it called my name and since it was relatively easy to do I did it at the same time that the savory pudding was cooking. I'm sure having two steaming pots going, one for 5 hours and the other for about 1 hour, didn't help the dew point being reached in our house. I think that of the three this is the pudding that I would make again. Go figure, it was chocolate. It only took about 45 minutes to steam and it was like an individual serving of chocolate cake. A scoop of ice cream would have gone nicely but I only had a tall glass of cold milk to accompany it. 

  

This post is already long as it is so I am just going to post the links where I got the recipes instead of actually typing out the entire recipe. Enjoy!

Recipe and Video for Spotted Dick
Recipe and Video for Steak and Mushroom Pudding
Recipe for Very Chocolate Pudding (I made only half of the recipe that is posted and it made two 8 oz. ramekin sized cakes)

Mini Angel Food Cake

 
I love the idea of mini desserts! They are incredibly cute, they are fun to make, and they make it seem like you are not eating as many calories as you really are. What's not to love about that? While searching for ideas for mini desserts I came across the idea of mini angel food cakes. Since I had yet to make angel food cake from scratch I wondered what better way to accomplish it than to make it in a mini version.

I have to admit that it was a bit more messy than if I had just made one cake in a regular shortcake pan, but where is the challenge in that.

Here are a few tips: Make sure you sift the confectioner's sugar and flour together, it does make a difference. Also, your batter should almost resemble meringue in it's thickness. Please, use cupcake liners unless you want a very yucky cupcake pan to clean out. I tried both and you can see the difference in the way they turned out. The cakes on the left were baked in a cupcake liner, the ones on the right were baked in the pan. They both tasted equally yummy but I think the taller, skinnier ones are prettier for serving, and you will not have that mess of a pan to clean out. Enjoy!

Angel Food Cake
Source: Allrecipes.com

12 eggs (I really only needed 11 whites)
1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar

Separate eggs; discard the yolks or refrigerate for another use. Measure egg whites, adding or removing whites as needed to equal 1-1/2 cups. Place in a mixing bowl; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If making cupcakes, prepare your cupcake pan. Sift confectioners sugar and flour together three times. Set aside.


Add cream of tartar, extracts, and salt to your egg whites; beat on high speed. Gradually add sugar, beating  until sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form. Fold in flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. (If you have a Kitchenaid Mixer use the flat beater on speed 8 or 9 to beat the egg whites, then once it gets to stiff peak consistency, take it down to 1 to fold in the flour.) Gently spoon batter into pan. Cut through batter with a knife to remove air pockets (both full size and cupcakes).

Bake for about 40-45 minutes (full size cake) or 13-15 minutes (cupcakes) or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire rack. For full size cake, immediately invert pan and cool completely before removing cake from pan.

Garnish with macerated strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream.

Macerated Strawberries
see previous post

Whipped Cream
16 servings

1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar

Chill the mixing bowl, beater, and cream in the fridge for 15-30 minutes beforehand.

In a large bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until stiff peaks form. Make sure to not over-beat as cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.

Peanut Butter Cup Cake

Oh My Goodness!!! This has to be one of THE richest cakes I have ever eaten. This might rank right up there with the nine layer chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting at The Metropolitan Grill. You will definitely need a glass of milk, maybe even two, with a slice of this baby. If you love chocolate and peanut butter then you will think you have died and gone to heaven. If you only tolerate chocolate and peanut butter then you should probably just look and appreciate but move on to another recipe.

With the above being said, this cake was a little over the top for me. I can definitely handle the chocolate but I think the peanut butter pushed me over the edge. If I could just nibble a bite here and a bite there I was fine, but when I had to eat it as a slice I think I went into a sugar coma. So, when (yes, I said when not if) I make this again I will make a regular chocolate cake and use the chocolate peanut butter frosting. It was just a bit too much to have the peanut butter candies in the cake and in the frosting and on top of the frosting. It also made it difficult to slice neatly when you have big chunks of peanut butter cup throughout the cake.

The most difficult part of baking this cake had to have been unwrapping the over two and a half pounds of miniature peanut butter cups! And just look at how messy this cake is when you are putting it together. Yikes! But oh so fun to lick off the fingers when you are finished. Grab a glass of milk and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cup Cake
Source: Bakerella


1 devil's food cake mix (or your own chocolate cake recipe)
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups chopped peanut butter cups (plus more for garnishing - I used almost a 2 pound bag)
8 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat two 9-inch cake pans with cooking spray. Line with wax paper and coat paper.

In a large bowl, beat cake mix, eggs, buttermilk, and vegetable oil on low for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high, beat for 2 minutes. Scrape down sides after 1 minute. Fold in 2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups.

Pour batter into pans as bake for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cakes completely.

Place chopped dark chocolate in a medium bowl. Bring cream just to a boil and then pour over chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts. Add peanut butter and whisk until smooth.

Trim each cake layer so the top is flat. Place one layer on a wire rack and pour 1 cup of frosting on top. Spread evenly with a spatula. Place second cake layer on top and pour remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Smooth out with a spatula.

Gently press remaining chopped peanut butter cup pieces all over the top and sides of the cake. (Reserve larger chunks for top and smaller chunks for side - they tend to slide off if they are too heavy).

Place in refrigerator about an hour to set. Remove and serve.