Chocolate Peanutbutter Cake

Peanut butter and I are not friends. We never have been. Until recently the thought of it repulsed me... Except in Reese's candy. Then I made a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. Peanut butter and I now have an understanding: we are cool if it is in candy, on cake, or *occaisonally* on celery.

The thought came up when a co-worker's last day was approaching and I was tasked with baking a cake for the occasion. I put flavor profiles up for a vote and this is what won.

I cheated. I was ashamed at first, but that cake was thebomb.com! There is a time and place for using boxed mixes and pre-made frosting. The key is to flavor them and jazz them up so the world will never know. Boxed cake mix can be tricky because of the oil you have to add. Personally, I feel like you can taste it and if I am trying to fool people into thinking I made it from scratch a weird oily taste will not do.

The trick? Seltzer or soda. 1 can or 1 and 1/2 cups per box. No eggs. No oil. Just some fizz. If using soda, diet or regular work but diet can leave a fake sugar aftertaste. Keep in mind that the soda color will come through as well (ie: orange soda + vanilla cake mix = orange colored vanilla cake). I usually use plain seltzer but have found that raspberry-lime seltzer does leave some flavor in a vanilla cake mix. If using soda, try to pick complimentary flavors: chocolate and cherry cola, lemon or vanilla cake with lemon-lime soda, spice cake with root beer. Check the tutorial out by clicking read more.

Happy bakin/eating!
-MPA





**This yeilds 2 fairly thick cakes that are easy to stack for layered cake**

Software:
-2 boxes of chocolate or devil's food cake mix, pick one of the "moist" varieties *shudder* I HATE the word moist.
-2 large "cans" of creamcheese frosting. Vanilla or chocolate would work as well.
-Jar of peanut butter. I used TJ's unsalted creamy PB.
-1 cup of milk *optional*
-1 bag of holiday Reese's cups. I have also used 2 king-sized bags of minis.
-3 cups of Seltzer (I prefer Polar brand but whatever you have available will work)
-Cooking spray

Hardware:
-Stand mixer with bowl and whisk attachment. A hand mixer works just as well. Or, doing it the old fashioned way... with two tickets to the gun show.
-2 round cake pans-Silicon spatula
-Wooden or plastic spoon
-Cutting board-Kitchen knife or pizza cutter
-Foil
-Parchment Paper
-Round cake decorating stand, cake carrier or stand, or something you can easily rotate for frosting
-Butter knife and large spoon, or frosting knife/tool and large spoon. Actually, make that 2 spoons.
-Small pot *optional*

How to:

Start with the batter. Preheat the oven as the box mix directs. Grease the 2 pans with cooking spray. The package will tell you one box yields two pans but the batter this method produces does not rise as much as the average batter. Dump both packages of mix into your bowl. I prod at any large chunks of mix that are in the bowl. Measure our 3 cups of seltzer or soda. Pour into the batter. It has a really cool foaming reaction!

Turn the mixer on low until the batter just starts coming together. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Now, turn it up to high for 1-2 minutes. You do not want to over mix the batter. Turn the mixer off and lift the top. Take your wooden or plastic spoon and hand mix so any dry mix on the bottom or sides is incorporated. The batter will be thicker than what you are used to. Don't worry! It's supposed to be that way. Pour/scoop the batter into the greased pans as evenly as possible. Take your spatula and try to even it out as best as you can. Or drop them/bang them on a counter. Pop them in the oven. Make sure to check the time. Since we are using a batter that is more dense than the box originally intended, the cooking time changes. Start checking it about 5 minutes before the lower end of the cooking time range provided. Continue checking every 3 or so minutes by the toothpick check. Or a butter knife. While the cake is baking, I like to wash off the mixer and its accessories and get started on the frosting. Open the plastic "cans", stick a butter knife between the frosting and the edge or the plastic, guiding it around the can at an angle to get the frosting out. Feel free to scoop if that is easier. I find the knife method gets the most out in one go and I spend less time scraping the container down. Once both containers have been emptied, turn the mixer on high and let it go for 3-5 minutes. The consistency of the frosting will be a little different as will the volume in the bowl. At this point, add your peanut butter. I started with two large scoops. Blend on high until fully incorporated. Give it a taste. Add more peanut butter and whip again. Once you have the flavor you are looking for, blend on high another 2 minutes. As I had to go to work and wait to frost, I covered the bowl in foil and popped it in the fridge. ...I should have seen the issue, read on! Take the cakes out and place on the counter to cool. I left them cool for 30 minutes before turning them out of the pans. Using one piece of parchment over the pan, gently flip the pan over and set on the counter. The cake should come right out. Place another piece of parchment on the bottom (which is now facing up), Flip and place on the frosting apparatus (wheel, plate, whatever) making sure the parchment is between the cake and plate. Take the piece of parchment you have left and a new one and do the same to the second cake, making sure there is a sheet of parchment between cakes. Lay the third sheet on the top, wrap in foil, and stick in the fridge. It is easiest to frost a cake when it is cold (ie: Refrigerated or frozen... yes, you can freeze cake) so the frosting doesn't melt. The above was done at around 1pm. I got home from work at about 11:30pm and commenced with the frosting. Take the frosting out and let it start to come up to room temperature. Unwrap the peanut butter cups and chop up. The pieces don't need to be even, they'll be delicious regardless of size. Be prepared for your hands to be covered in pb and chocolate. Set aside the candy. Take the cake out and unwrap, setting aside the top layer. If you want to slice the tops off to even out the cake, now is the time to do it. Get a butter knife or frosting knife and take a small portion of frosting and spread on the cake to check consistency. If it is too cold, it won't spread well. What I have is a little different. I must have got a little over-excited about the peanut butter because my frosting is the consistency of thick peanut butter and not frosting. If you were to try whipping it with the mixer, you would end up with a peanut butter ball. Don't fret! Measure out a cup of milk and heat it in a small pot on the stove. I let this work for maybe 5 minutes. You don't want it to boil, only bubble slightly at the edges and be steaming hot. I use a finger to test the temperature. Pour about half into the mixer and start on the lowest speed. It's a little slosh-y at first. Make sure you remove the ball/clump from the whisk. As it incorporates more, you can turn the speed up to high until it loosens up. Using the spoon, scoop out some frosting onto the cake. Spread a thick layer on, trying to have more at the edge. Spread the cut up pb cups in the middle. Either jam them all in, or save any leftover for the top/sides. Place the second cake on top. I inverted this layer so the flattest side (that touched the pan while cooking) is on top. Spoon out some more, spreading is evenly along the top. You want to make sure the sides are as even as possible when frosting so I take a knife full of frosting and run it between the two layers then frost the edges. I decided to get crazy and use all the frosting that was left on the top and sides... As evenly as possible, which for me was a little wobbly. Decorate top and sides with any leftover candy. The frosting was a little loose at this point so I didn't want to remove the bottom piece of parchment. I folded it up against the cake so it stuck to the frosting then moved it to the carrier I used to transport it and put it back in the fridge. In the morning, I peeled the parchment off of the hardened frosting and used a butter knife to smooth out the edges. Before repacking, I cut the excess parchment off. This Is Luna "helping" me with the reviving of the frosting.