Chocolate and Peanut Butter? Yes, Please!

For the past few weeks I've really been getting the itch to bake. Badly. I am not what I would consider a master baker by any means, but I do like to have fun in the kitchen. The only thing is, it's been so HOT! I can't really justify heating my whole house up to my husband, just because I have "the urge." Well, my father-in-law's 50th birthday was coming up and I figured it was the perfect opprotunity to give myself the excuse. I asked my mother-in-law if she'd thought of anything for the birthday cake and she hadn't. She jumped at the chance to not have to make it, as she has been doing Nutrisystem and it's pretty tempting to bake a big cake. So after I got the permission, I got to planning.

I know my FIL loves Reeses, really anything chocolate and peanut butter, so I knew that's what I wanted to incorporate. I found lots of different ideas on Pinterest but a lot of the recipes called for something funky, or I wasn't sure on something. I have used a recipe a few times from another blogger, Lick The Bowl Good (Take time and check out her stuff, she's really great in the kitchen!). I decided that it was the one I wanted to go with, afterall, I knew it was good. But I wanted to find a really good peanut butter buttercream. I actually did a trial run a few days before the party (which I HIGHLY reccommend, for the following reason) and the buttercream  recipe I found and read raving reviews about, was not very good. The peanut butter taste wasn't as strong as I felt it should be. I didn't want it over powering, you don't want to feel as though you were eating straight peanut butter, but I wanted it noticable. Also, the texture was off. It was really difficult to frost the cake, so I had to nix that recipe. Then I went back to Lick The Bowl Good and found one she'd posted. I should've looked there in the first place. It was perfect! 

I orignally wanted to crush up frozen Reeses (frozen, so they'd resemble a Reeses inside when all was said and done. I read this tip somewhere and highly recommend it.) in the batter. I did this in the test cake and it didn't work out the way I wanted. So I froze the rest of my Reeses, choped them up, and threw a bunch in part of the buttercream. I didn't measure it out. I just did a few at a time until it gave me the consistancy that I wanted. I have to say, this buttercream was so light and easy to frost with, I was really impressed. After my trial run cake, I thought it was going to be difficult but it really wasn't. You can see in the pictures how smooth it is.

I made a 3 layer round cake. In between each layer I used the peanut butter buttercream with the crushed up Reeses mixed in. On the top I used plan peanut butter buttercream. On the sides I used a store bought (sshhh...!) chocolate frosting. I wanted to make a chocolate buttercream, but I haven't found a good enough one yet. I didn't want to do it all in the peanut butter, because I didn't want it to be too overwhelming. I did whip the chocolate frosting with my mixer for a few minutes to make it a little lighter. I cut Reeses in half and edged the bottom of the cake with them.

For the "50" on top, I just used a butter knife to outline the numbers, once I got it how I wanted it, I lined it in chocolate frosting and filled it in with crushed up Reeses.

Let me tell you, it was good. Seriously, if  you have a chocolate/peanut butter lover in your life, they will love you forever. My husband, who does not like cake (I know, what a weirdo!), loved this cake. He's actually asked me to make it for him since then. He was eating the peanut butter buttercream straight from the bowl. Seriously, make this cake! You won't regret it!

Chocolate Cake Recipe


Peanut Butter Buttercream

Let me know what you guys think!!

Until next time,

BBNO