Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Happy Birthday to my hubby! Yes, that's right, it's his birthday today! And since I am a sucker and totally make him delicious food whenever he asks for it, I decided to make him a peanut butter chocolate cake today!

Now it's not just any peanut butter chocolate cake, oh no. This baby's from scratch.

That's right. Scratch.

Dun dun dun.

But I know it's worth it. Delicious, moist and the look on his face always makes the baking worth it!

Let's get started shall we?

Not a lot going on in this cake actually. The cake is just chocolate, the peanut butter comes from the frosting and peanuts on the side. The ingredients are some that you may already have at home in fact, or at least only have to run out and get one or two things!

Now the first thing we are going to want to do is melt our chocolate, since it does need to cool slightly.

3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate in a microwave safe bowl always looks good to me!

Go ahead and microwave this for about a minute. The chocolate should start to look like this...

Stir it up and microwave in 30 second intervals until it looks like this...

And it only took 1 30 second interval for my chocolate to melt. I just made sure to stir it nicely to get the rest melted after the first time.

Go ahead and set that aside to cool a bit.

Now you're going to want to throw 2 and 1/4 cups of packed brown sugar...

And a 1/2 cup of salted butter. I use sweet cream butter, but that's just my preference.

And mix it with a hand mixer until it's "light and fluffy" or at least well combined. You don't want to see any chunks of butter in here.

Now throw in your eggs...

And your chocolate...

And 2 teaspoons of vanilla.

Try to get it in the actual teaspoon too. Unless you want to be reckless like me.

But no one wants that.

And mix it all together until it's combined!

It looks great so far, but it still doesn't quite look like a cake mix.

We need the flour!

Go ahead and get out your sifter that you use once a year or if you're anything like me just pealed the sticker off of because you've never used it...

And throw in 2 and 1/4 cup of all purpose flour...

2 level teaspoons of baking soda...

And 1/2 teaspoon of salt...

Then sift baby sift!!

Take your sifted dry ingredients over and dump about 1/3 into the chocolate mixture...

And mix. Make sure it's well combined, and do this slowly otherwise flour is going to go everywhere!

Trust me. I know this.

Now add about half of your 8 oz container of sour cream...

Aaaaaand mix.

Now back to the flour...

Okay you know what? I think you get it. Basically alternate between the flour and sour cream mixing well between each.

Once it's all combined it's going to have expanded like so...

Now go ahead and dump in 1 cup of water...

And mix well! And you can do this on medium for a few minutes, let the air get into your batter. I ended up over mixing mine a bit this time, but it actually made for a very light and fluffy cake.

Now go ahead and separate this between your two 9 inch cake pans... and by the way flour these first! Or if you're like me, get that Bakers Joy spray. Butter and Flour in one spray. I love that stuff!

Smooth out your cake batter as well. If you make it a nice smooth top it's going to come out a nice smooth finish from the oven, which is what you want.

Now bake these at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or at least until a toothpick comes out clean.

Oh yeah! Smells so good in here!

Now comes the hard part. The waiting!

Let these sit for about 10 minutes in the pan before transferring them to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way...

And trust me. You want these to cool completely. Otherwise decorating and frosting is going to be a nightmare!

Speaking of frosting, let's make ours!

Again, not a whole lot going on. This isn't exactly a low fat cake though, 2 sticks of butter.

But who said birthday's are for diets? Not me.

Take your 2 sticks of soften butter...

1 cup of smooth peanut butter... and really with this any type will do. JIF, Peter Pan, Store brand... whatever you are used to!

And 4 cups of powdered sugar, which is going to look like a blizzard on the butter and peanut butter...

And mix it with your hand mixer until it's smooth.

And by smooth I mean the consistency of peanut butter dough. It's not going to look smooth at all yet!

But it's about to!

Put in 1/4 of a cup of milk...

And 2 teaspoons of vanilla...

And mix that until well combined and smooth. And it's beautiful! Fluffy, creamy, and not too overpowering.

I love it!

Now let's chop some nuts. You'll find out why in a minute.

Take a handful of salted peanuts and put them in a food processor, or magic bullet or heck smash them in a plastic bag with a can!

Pulse just a few times.

We want a rough chop on this, not pulverized peanut dust.

Go ahead and set these aside.

Hopefully by now your cake is cooled! If not, you are going to want to wait a few more minutes for this to happen.

Because now we're going to cut each cake in half!

That's right, you heard me! Cut each cake in half longways to get 2 cakes, or a total of 4.

Now take the bottom of one of those cakes and put it on your favorite cake plate.

I choose my Snow glass dish because I'm evilly ironic.

And frost that! Feel free to put as much or as little frosting on as you'd like... but remember, we do have other layers as well!

Top it off with another cake...

And keep frosting and putting cakes on until you run out and have a nice 4 layer cake in front of you!

See, you didn't think you could do it, did you?

I know I didn't think I could!

Now plop some of that frosting on the top and get to work!

Get all your sides frosted well, trust me you're going to use all of that frosting you just made!

Looks beautiful doesn't it? But hey... we're not quite done yet!

Remember those peanuts?

Take a handful...

Oh yeah. All the way around now!

Now that is a beautiful cake!

Too bad it's going to be all gone soon!

It looks better and better as you get deeper in!

Excuse me, I know better than to blog with a full plate.

Happy birthday to hubby!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

1/2 cup butter, softened

2-1/4 cups packed brown sugar

3 eggs

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

1 cup water

FROSTING:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup peanut butter

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup finely chopped peanuts

In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs, chocolate and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with the sour cream, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in water.

Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

For frosting, in a large bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter, confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in milk and vanilla until smooth; set aside.

Cut each cake horizontally into two layers. Place bottom layer on a serving plate; top with 1/2 cup frosting. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining cake layer. Frost top and sides of cake with remaining frosting. Gently press peanuts into sides of cake