You know, sometimes you just have to throw all the healthy eating aside and enjoy a sinfully, decadent cake on a special occasion! What better reason to celebrate than Ambitious Feller’s birthday.
Several years ago, I searched the internet for a special cake recipe that I thought my feller would love. Once I stumbled on the Chocolate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cake, I knew I had a winner. After all, it has his two favorite things. . . Chocolate and Reese cups! From that birthday forward, this is the cake he always requests.
Have you ever noticed sometimes things that take a lot of effort yield the most reward? By far, this recipe is a labor of love! After all, if you are going to indulge, you might as well go all in. This is a process and several stages, but at the end, you wind up with this fabulous creation!
Although I managed to make this gluten-free, that’s as far as it goes. It’s loaded with sugar and sweet stuff, but isn’t that what a birthday cake is supposed to be? If there is one thing that drives me crazy it’s this phrase, “The cake is good, but it’s too sweet for me.” What? Huh? Seriously!! I hope you are not one of those people…and if you are, go eat a rice cake! Or for a healthier chocolate alternative, check out our Guilt-Free Sea Salt Almond Bark recipe.
This 4-layer beauty is amazing. The layers are super moist, and I love that it contains not only buttermilk, but coffee! The batter is quite thin, but it bakes up beautifully. Don’t make the mistake I made this time.
Using two 9 inch pans is not enough space for this mix. It called for three 8 inch pans which I still have in storage somewhere. Unfortunately, I overfilled them. There were a few minutes I watched nervously as it overflowed the pans. Thankfully, I had placed foil under the pans which spared me a messy oven cleanup! My chocolate lava finally slowed and the layers turned out just fine.
If you really want to impress your family and friends, this makes a big statement! The 4-layers including fluffy peanut butter frosting and peanut butter cups between layers equals a very heavy cake. As you can see, there is a lot of cake! Too much to hang out in the refrigerator and too much temptation! After a couple of pieces, it has been our tradition to slice the rest remaining, wrap in parchment paper followed by foil and freeze. It freezes beautifully without sacrificing flavor!
What a great way to make a birthday last and be enjoyed for months to come!
Wishing you a life filled with special, sweet moments!
Lover Darlin’
Reese’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten-Free Flour)
3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup + 1 tablespoon cocoa power
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups strong black coffee, hot
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:
- Preheat over 350 F. Grease three 8-inch round cake pans. Line bottom with parchment paper. I used coconut oil for bottom and sides to keep cake from sticking.
- In a bowl with an electric mixer, sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla.
- Add wet to dry ingredients and mix for a couple of minutes, scraping sides. Don’t worry, the batter will be thin!
- Divide equally among cake pans.
- Bake for 20 minutes, rotating. Bake as needed until a tester in the center of the cake comes out clean. A little moist is fine!
- Cool in pans for 15-20 minutes before turning out of the pans to cool further.
- Place wrapped cake layers in freezer until cooled enough to slice without tearing layers, but not frozen.
- With a serrated knife, slice layers in half.
- Spread peanut butter frosting between layers along with chopped Reese cups.
- Frost the top and sides and place back in refrigerator an hour or more to completely cool and allow frosting to set up.
- Remove from refrigerator and drizzle chocolate ganache over the top along with chopped Reese cups.
Peanut Butter Frosting
2 cups confectioners sugar
2 cups creamy peanut butter
10 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cup heavy cream
Directions:
- Place confectioners sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in a bowl. Mix on medium speed until creamy, scraping down the sides of bowl as needed.
- Add heavy cream and beat on high until the mixture is smooth.
Chocolate Ganache
6-8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup heavy cream
Directions:
- While cake cools, place chocolate and cream in a small saucepan on low heat.
- Whisk until thoroughly melted and smooth, leaving slightly thickened, but able to be poured.
