Chocolate Peanutbutter Overload Cake

Happy birthday to me!! This is the birthday cake I baked for my birthday. When I first decided to make my own cake

I was pretty sure I needed it to be utterly sinful. What can be more sinful than chocolate and peanut butter. Then I came across this recipe from the browneyedbaker. The very name caught my attention. Yummm!!!

There are a few changes I made to the recipe mainly because of the extreme cold here. The temperature is around 2 degrees Celsius and butter simply does not melt. Any butter I put in the cakes makes the cake rock solid. So I have started making oil cakes. The recipe calls for buttercream. I have replaced that with whipped cream. Rest of the recipe is the same.

Recipe source : browneyedbaker.com

Ingredients

For the cake

2 cups creamy peanut butter⅔ cup heavy cream

2 ½ cups + 1 tbsp all purpose flour

3 cups granulated sugar

1 cup+ 1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tbsp baking soda

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp salt

3 eggs

1 ½ cups buttermilk, at room temperature

1 ½ cups strong black coffee, hot

¾ cup vegetable oil

4 ½ tsp vanilla extract

For the Peanut Butter frosting

2 cups whipping cream

1 cup creamy peanut butter

For the ganache

2 cups grated chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

For garnish

½ cup roasted peanuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Line and grease 3x9” cake tins.

Mix together sifted flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix for 2 minutes. Divide the batter equally into three tins. Bake for 25 minutes.

Make the frosting. Whip the cream till it starts to thicken. Then add the peanut butter and whip till stiff peaks form.

Now layer the three cakes with the frosting. Use only half the frosting for the layering. Keep one cupful of frosting for piping and use the rest to cover the top and sides of the cake.

Make the ganache. Melt the grated chocolate on a double boiler. Add the heavy cream and whisk well to make it smooth and glossy. Pour over the cake and let it drizzle down the sides.

Pipe designs on the cake using the cupful of frosting. Garnish with roasted peanuts.