Chocolate Peanut butter Overload Cake

Chocolate Peanut butter Overload Cake

Recipe source : browneyedbaker.com

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.

Ingredients

For the cake

2 cups creamy peanut butter

⅔ 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.

Peanut Butter Cookie Brownie

Peanut Butter Cookie Brownie

Its chocolate time again!! And it is combined with rich chunky Peanut butter!! Can it be any more sinful than this?

 I am shutting my ears against all the nay-sayers, the health freaks, the salad people… it is OK to let go at times, to indulge oneself, to have that lip smacking dish you drool about. After all it is just this one life that you get ..so its chocolate and peanut butter time.

The brownie is the chewiest, the fudgiest. Then you layer the brownie batter with the peanut butter batter. When the cake is ready cut it and you can see golden nuggets of peanut butter peeking through rich, dark, dense chocolate. It is a match made in heaven. 

One of my favorite cooking websites is ‘thelittlekitchen.com’. It has the most amazing recipes. So is this Peanut Butter Cookie Brownie recipe!! Enjoy !!

Ingredients

For the brownie

1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2tsp coffee powder
½ cup+ 2 tbsp boiling water
2 oz chocolate, chopped
½ cup+ 2 tbsp oil
4 tbsp butter, melted
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 ½ cups sugar
1 ¾ flour
¾ tsp salt
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut unto ½ “ pieces (I have omitted this ingredient because I felt cocoa powder+ chocolate was already enough )

Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Take a big bowl. Whisk together cocoa powder, coffee powder and boiling water. 
Add chopped chocolate and whisk till it melts. Add oil and melted butter. 
Add the eggs, egg yolk and vanilla and beat well. 
Add sugar and whisk till completely incorporated. 
Whisk in the flour and salt. Now your brownie batter is ready. Keep it aside and prepare the Peanut Butter batter.


For the Peanut Butter Batter

½ cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup butter
¼ cup peanut butter
1 egg

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cream butter and both the sugars. Add the peanut butter and egg. Beat well. Fold in the flour mix. Your Peanut butter batter is ready.

To assemble the cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9” cake pan. 
Pour half the brownie batter in the pan. Pour the peanut butter batter over it and swirl gently. Cover with rest of the brownie batter. Bake 40 -45 minutes. The cake will be dense. It will be hard on the outside and soft in the inside.