Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake?

Looking for a bday cake that I hoped would be chocolate with peanut butter frosting. I've heard that Bleeding Heart makes a good one (in cupcake form) although I'd like to get a non-vegan cake if possible.

Any rec's would be greatly appreciated. This doesn't have to be fancy nor a pensive cake that re-casts the theoretical relationship between the signifer and the signified. Just a simple 2 layer cake would be wonderful. If there is a tasty cake that is fancy (and/or smart) then I will delightedly drop a pile of cash at some baker's register without a moment's hesitation. thanks for any help as i hoped to order this by tonight....

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Hi,

Worse comes to worse, I saw over at epicurious.com a number of chocolate-peanut butter recipes from cakes to brownies. If you go that route, read the user reviews because they often have ideas on how to improve the recipe.

Regards,

thanks cathy2. I'd be willing to bake the cake if didn't take more than a cpl hours. I think finding a good peanut butter frosting recipe is gonna be key though.

I had the peanut butter chocolate cake at Feed cpl years ago and I thought it was great at the time but I also had no expectations so I may go back and try it again. Maybe they'll bake me a whole cake?

Hi,

I once needed a gallon of pickled beets for a Greater Midwest Foodways event. I got what I needed from Feed. If they still do it, I am sure they would help you.

Regards,

For a coworker's party and the LTH picnic this year, I baked chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. I also used the frosting for whoopie pies. I love this frosting! I can't find the link to the blog where I found it, but here are the ingredients:

2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
pinch salt
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp milk

Sift the confectioner's sugar into your mixing bowl. Beat together confectioner's sugar, butter, and salt until creamy. Add peanut butter, beating well. Add milk and beat until smooth and creamy.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

The peanut butter buttercream I made recently included cream cheese and a little sour cream. Better than the cake!

thanks so much for all this info. I'm going to try making this frosting tonight -- will it hold up a couple of days?
I'm not a baker *at all* (the only thing I've successfully baked is the crispy salted oatmeal cookie on smitten kitchen) but I'm going to give this a shot. (I actually experienced mild panic to be in the "Shopping and COOKING" forum....)

I'll also drop by Feed to see if there's a slice to taste.....

trotsky wrote:thanks so much for all this info. I'm going to try making this frosting tonight -- will it hold up a couple of days?
I'm not a baker *at all* (the only thing I've successfully baked is the crispy salted oatmeal cookie on smitten kitchen) but I'm going to give this a shot. (I actually experienced mild panic to be in the "Shopping and COOKING" forum....)

I'll also drop by Feed to see if there's a slice to taste.....

I have made those cookies from SK too. You can definitely handle making the chocolate cake and pb frosting, assuming you have a mixer, even a handle held would be fine. Yes, in my experience, the frosting will keep in the fridge for a couple of days. You can also freeze frosting, but just allow enough time to thaw. The frosting I posted pipes BEAUTIFULLY.

Pucca -- would you mind posting directions as i'm not at all intuitive with this stuff. whip butter, add sugar, then pb? thanks again, I'll let you know how it goes!

Another thing, trotsky - any bakery worth their salt should be able to make up a chocolate/peanut butter cake for you.

I'd offer a recipe, but the version I tried was a peanut butter cake with chocolate filling (the cake itself was very easy, I'd ice it with a plain chocolate ganache; nobody liked the cream cheese frosting listed on the recipe.)

trotsky wrote:Pucca -- would you mind posting directions as i'm not at all intuitive with this stuff. whip butter, add sugar, then pb? thanks again, I'll let you know how it goes!

I updated my post above.

Oh I just remembered that Smitten Kitchen made a really good looking chocolate peanut butter cake for her husband's birthday last year (?) from Sky High Cakes. It looks so good. I've been looking for an excuse to make it.

So Feed doesn't make the cake anymore and then I thought to try Mama Hoosiers and check out a Peanut Butter Pie but it was closed until tomorrow. So went to store for the frosting ingredients and remembered I don't have a hand blender and stopped at Target -- but couldn't find parking. So I left and stopped at a Walgreens near my house for a cheap hand blender.

Thanks for the directions for frosting Pucca. I also looked at the peanut butter cake with chocolate filling recipe mhays -- it looks pretty good. You think w/ Pucca's frosting on top would be too peanut buttery? Am I not allowed to grab a box of Betty Crocker Chocolate cake and slap Pucca's frosting on top?

Mhays -- do you know of a bakery I could ask to do this for me? (although much of labor already done with all that lame driving around.....) I looked up Dinkels and Lutz but honestly they don't sound that much better than a Dominicks when it comes to bday cake. I'd like to show up with cake for my friend Thu evening. I have a sinking feeling that cooking it myself will create disappointment though.

Trotsky, I'm nowhere near the baker Pucca is, but I made a cake from scratch and nobody thus far has died from eating it - my more severe failures ate up just fine, and are now the stuff of legend!

I'd try calling just such a place as Dinkel's or Lutz's; I don't know if such a thing would be possible, but you never know until you ask.

I also think that there is nothing wrong with a box cake if you're a novice baker. I keep a box or so of cake mix around for emergencies (yes, I've had cake emergencies: once, I suddenly found out about a birthday and I was really grateful I had a box mix and could react quickly) I don't know if it's still available, but Target had a house brand boxed chocolate cake that I liked a lot: it really wasn't that far off of making one from scratch: you add eggs and oil, but the cake mix has basically flour, leavening, and cocoa powder.

I also think the peanut butter cake would benefit from a chocolate/peanut butter frosting if that's the way you want to go (FWIW, I'm too lazy to make 4 layers, I just do two.) It was a very dense cake, almost like a banana bread in texture, and lightly peanut-flavored.

But your signature says "no guts no glory!" OK -- with your merciful permission and encouragement, gonna make a box cake and use Pucca's frosting recipe for my first try.

If this goes well, buying cake pans at TJ Maxx today was not *the* absolute worst use of my time....

I consider changing plans from buying it to making it yourself pretty gutsy! Pictures, please! Good luck!

Thanks, mhays, but you're being way too modest!

Good luck Trotsky! I'm sure it will be great! Your friend will totally appreciate it and love you for it!

Trotsky,

Since you're a "novice baker" here are some tips I got when I learned to bake (with box mixes!) many moons ago:

1. Sometimes the box mixes will have been sitting for a while at the store and tend have a lot of big lumps. Run a fork through the mix before adding the other ingredients while it's in the bowl, just to break up any large lumps.

2. Be sure to grease (with some kind of solid fat/shortening) and dust your cake pans with flour well. Just make sure every part of the inside of the pan is touched with it. This will ensure that when you turn the cake out of the pan, it won't stick.

3. Use a toothpick or skewer to test the cake to see if it's done. Insert it into the middle of the cake after the suggested baking time is finished and if it comes out without looking like there's wet batter on it, the cake is done. If not, leave it for another 3-5 minutes in the oven and then check it again. It should come bake out clean or with minimal crumbs on it.

4. Cool the cake completely before icing it. If you have time, it's even better (after it's cooled), to firm it up in the freezer for a little while. Cake mixes tend to produce really light, moist cakes and freezing it until it's firmer can make it easier to frost.

5. If your frosting seems too stiff, add just a little more milk (a teaspoon at a time) until it gets to the consistency you want. You can always add MORE, but you can't take it out.

6. Don't worry if it doesn't look like it came from the bakery. First off, you don't have all the tools the bakery does to make their cakes look so perfect. Most importantly, your friend will not only love the cake, but the fact that you took so much effort to do it yourself.

Baking is love. Good luck!

thanks everyone for the much needed tips (and psych. support) -- will making this tonight (& refrigerating) vs. tomorrow morning make a difference?

would it be ok if i poured a little batter into 1 cupcake foil wrapper? I realize my cake won't be as high but it would be reassuring to taste it frosted.

Do i not attempt to write on it - just candles? I mean I'm sure the un-even, shaky script of an *actual* 7 yr old would make for a charming message but ....

Is it ill-conceived to add little peanut butter to cake mix?

You'll do fine. Single tester cupcake will work; just realize you'll have to bake it all at the same time; you can't pre-mix your cake batter. I almost always bake the day before for cakes; it's just too much to do.

Even better than refrigerating - if you can freeze your cakes overnight after they're cooled, frosting will be easier the next morning. Do a "crumb coat" (a thin first coat of frosting to make sure everything is glued down) wait a little until the cake defrosts partially, frost the rest of the way, leave it on the counter or fridge to defrost fully. IMO (and I hope another baker will chime in) frozen cake is easier to handle.

I wouldn't add peanut butter to your cake mix unless you're ready for some trial-and-error baking. It probably will work, but the extra oil might mess with the structure. However, you could probably add chopped peanuts without a problem (add them to the dry mix first, stir them until they're coated, then make mix as usual.)

You can always practice your script on a piece of wax paper and see how you do, and keep in mind that you can always scrape off a mistake and frost over it. I find that the gel tubes are easier to control than most of the other stuff you can buy at the grocery - although well-melted chocolate in a parchment-paper tube(or a ziploc with a tiny hole in the corner) has worked well for me in the past. (Gel might be slightly more difficult to remove if you mess up.)

Another cool thing to do would be to add some peanut butter/chocolate as a decorative element like Reeses Pieces or peanut butter cups on top or pressed into the side. If you make a straight chocolate cake you could mix peanut butter and/or chocolate chips into the batter. Something more firm, like brownies, can also be done with a swirled layer of batter mixed with peanut butter (there are boatloads of recipes out there for peanut butter brownies).

Oh I just remembered that Smitten Kitchen made a really good looking chocolate peanut butter cake for her husband's birthday last year (?) from Sky High Cakes. It looks so good. I've been looking for an excuse to make it.

I just made this cake for my assistant's birthday and it was a HUGE hit. Easy to make. Beautiful. And, very satisfying to the biggest pb chocolate fan I know. I'm curious how yours turned out.

Success! (Kind of). You were all right -- when comes to baking, DIY goes a long way even if the cake is slightly asymmetrical because someone forgot to even out the batter after pouring it into pans.... I took a pic of my towering peanut butter confection (not really -- never realized how *flat* a 2 layer cake is) but I think i need to upload to a photosite to put the img here.

My assessment: Pucca's frosting was great although I didn't use enough of it. I was afraid of a too thick layer of frosting but it turns out I could have used twice as much as I did. I don't know if my texture was off cuz I didn't have milk in fridge and substituted heavy cream -- but I loved this frosting. And the ziplock piping thing was a great trick!

Cake Mix: Never bothered me before but I didn't like the light, spongy, airy cake I got from my mix -- I craved a dense texture with real, dark chocolate flavor. When i tasted my tester cupcake, I literally thought "this cake is not worthy of this frosting". I've turned the corner -- next time I do this, I'm baking my own cake. Before this, I would have thought it wasn't worth it.

Looks like the SK PB cake is next? Thanks so much everyone -- I would have *never* *ever* done this without the cheerful encouragement and easy to follow tips/advice of everyone who posted. thank you!!

Congratulations on your cake success! Can't wait to see the photo(s).

For future PB Chocolate cake baking, this is my favorite chocolate cake: Alice Medrich's Fastest Fudge Cake. Note it only makes one layer, so you have to double it or make it twice, but you only need a spoon and it's dead easy and dense and delicious. Chocolate cake is probably my least favorite cake and I love this one.

trotsky,

While you did spend money on pans et al. Overall, you will save tons of money making it yourself along with the pleasure of accomplishment. If you need help hosting your glorious cake, then e-mail me your picture to upload to my flickr account.

Congratulations!

Regards,

Yay! Can't wait to see pics!

Fwiw, box cake mixes are loosely based on chiffon recipes, designed for a fluffy texture. This is usually makes homemade cake off-putting to novice bakers, but I see you are ready, grasshopper...

One thing for your next effort-sometimes in baking, sifting is NOT optional (my fave,genoise, in particular.)

I made this cake for an LTH dessert exchange. It was easy and delicious! Good for a new baker:

Jane and Michael Stern's Cola Cake with Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting