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!

Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Tart

I baked! Well... I baked a crust, and then cooked a filling, and melted some ganache. We were supposed to have dinner guests tonight and we never have dinner guests. One of the biggest reasons I want my own place is to have dinner parties. Well... our guests had to cancel at the last minute. I was already almost finished with my tart, though, so now we have it to eat ourselves. That's ok - it's delicious!

I finally got to use my new tart pan that I got before Christmas!



Isn't it pretty?! Shut up, it's pretty. The recipe actually called for a pan with a removable bottom, but I wanted to use this one. I'm a rebel. The removable bottom is really only important if you want to take the tart out and put it on a cake stand or something. I wanted to serve out of the pan anyway, since it's new and pretty.



Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Tart

Ingredients
1 C. crushed chocolate graham crackers
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. butter - melted
1 1/2 C. half-and-half
2 Tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 egg yolks
1/3 C. sugar
1/2 C. creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
6 Tbsp. butter, cubed
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, combine the crushed graham crackers and 3 Tbsp. sugar. Mix in the melted butter. Press crumb mixture into the bottom of a 9" tart pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool.

For the filling, combine the half-and-half, flour, and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until simmering, stirring frequently to avoid lumps.

In a small bowl, combine egg yolks and 1/3 C. sugar. Gradually whisk some of the hot half-and-half mixture into the egg mixture, then add the egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Remove pan from heat and whisk in the peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Pour peanut butter mixture into the crust and spread evenly. Cover and chill for 2-3 hours.

For the chocolate ganache, combine the chocolate chips and cubed butter in a small saucepan. Cook and stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the corn syrup. Cool for about 10 minutes. After slightly cooled, pour the ganache over the filling, and tilt pan around so it is spread evenly. Cover and chill for at least one more hour, or overnight.



The recipe itself is actually pretty easy. I'll definitely be making this again. My only problem was the crust, and I've had this problem before. I wanted to make a chocolate cookie crust, but I can. not. find just plain chocolate cookies. Like... Oreos without the cream filling. I've seen boxes of Oreo cookie crumbs before, but I haven't been able to find that for awhile now. Sooo, I went with a chocolate graham cracker crust. It's just as good, really... I'm just perturbed that I can't find plain chocolate cookies with no cream filling or fudge coating. They have to exist.

Also, my tart pan is 10" instead of 9", so I bulked up the crust mixture a little, and doubled the ganache. It's pretty hard to screw this one up, so play around with amounts to suit your taste and pan size. You could even add a little vanilla to the ganache... or cinnamon.... Hmm....



Enjoy!