Peanut Butter Cup Cake

I made my dad a birthday cake! His birthday is tomorrow, and instead of buying some random present that he doesn't need, I got him a card, some lottery tickets, and made him a delicious cake.



It's a basic Devil's Food Cake recipe, with some amazing peanut butter frosting, decorated with dark chocolate, peanut butter cups, and Reese's Pieces. I'm not the greatest at decorating with frosting, so this was a better-looking and easier alternative. It helps that Dad loves peanut butter and chocolate, so this was a perfect fit!



Peanut Butter Cup Cake

Ingredients
Cake:
6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
scant 1/2 C. milk
2 Tbsp. baking cocoa
2/3 C. butter
2/3 C. brown sugar
3 eggs, separated
4 Tbsp. sour cream
1 3/4 C. flour
1 tsp. baking soda

P.B. Frosting:
1 1/2 C. powdered sugar
1 1/2 C. creamy peanut butter
7 1/2 Tbsp. butter - softened
1 1/8 tsp. vanilla
1/2 C. heavy cream

Decorations:
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, cut in half
Reese's Pieces
Melted Chocolate

Method
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray two 8" round cake pans with nonstick spray. Cut out circles of parchment paper to line the bottoms of the pans. Press paper down, then spray paper with nonstick spray.

- Place chocolate chips, milk, and cocoa in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat.

- In a large bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, then the sour cream and the slightly cooled chocolate mixture. Sift in the flour and baking soda. Fold all together with a spatula until just combined. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff enough to hold a peak. Lightly fold the whipped egg whites into the mixture evenly.

- Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Make sure it spreads out evenly, then bake in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.



- For the frosting, mix all ingredients but the cream with an electric mixer until smooth. Add cream and beat until light and smooth. Add more cream or powdered sugar, if needed, to obtain a spreadable consistency.



- Frost the top of the first layer, and place the second layer on top. Frost top and sides of cake.

You can decorate any way you want, but I placed halved peanut butter cups around the base and the top edge, and dotted with some Reese's Pieces. For the "Happy Birthday!", I melted some dark chocolate and wrote it out on wax paper, let it cool and harden completely, peeled off and placed it on the cake.



I'm pretty horrible at writing with icing, so I knew this would look much better.

I am totally proud if this cake, and it should be delicious! Go forth, make your own, and send me pictures if you come up with new and different decorating ideas!



Enjoy!