Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Cream

Yum

Happy Birthday Brent! To celebrate this fine occasion I made the moistest and tastiest chocolate cake. I’m pretty sure it’s the absolutely best chocolate cake ever to exist! No whipping of egg whites and folding in, that always makes me a bit nervous. This recipe is so simple, it just tastes like you’ve slaved over it.

You should never try a recipe for a first time on guests, at least that’s what my mom and others tell me, alas, I just dive in and go for it and this time it was a super hit. I was surprised at how well the cake held out and how moist and wonderful it was… and… It. Was. Heavenly. Paired with a cream that comes from my mother’s old faithful Czech background this cream easily works as a frosting beneath a fondant dressing and can be flavoured any way your heart desires. This time my heart desired peanut butter.

First the chocolate cake. I saw this on Jules Food and she sang its virtues, no kidding… it is simply fantastic. Have I said that yet? Seriously GOOD. I made the cake on Saturday night and frosted it and decorated it with fondant on Sunday and served it Sunday evening. I sent the leftovers home with Brent but kept a piece for us and it was still great… that’s day 3 folks! Like I say, this cake holds up nicely.

I doubled the recipe and used two 12 x 12 square pans. I wanted a reasonably high cake and I needed a square for the decorating I had in mind. The original recipe on Jules’ site has the half amounts.

Chocolate Cake

3 1/2 Cups flour
3 Cups Sugar
1 1/2 Cups Cocoa Powder
3 Teaspoons Baking Soda
1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
4 Large Eggs
2 Cups Buttermilk
2 Tablespoons Vanilla
2 Cups hot Coffee

First butter and flour your baking pans. Mix all the dry ingredients in a stand mixer. Add in the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and mix until smooth (I mixed on medium speed until creamy). Take the bowl off the mixer and slowly mix in the hot coffee. The mixture will be a bit runny. Split the batter between your pans and bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out a tiny bit crumbly 25 – 40 minutes, I know this seems like a large spread in time, mine took about 40 minutes but if you do half the recipe and normal sized cake pans it won’t take as long as mine did.

I have to admit that my cakes didn’t come out exactly even, I know that my oven has a hot spot and that could have been my issue. Regardless, it was still excellent.

Cream and Frosting

1 litre of Milk
4 Heaping Tablespoons of unsweetened pudding mix ( I use Dr. Oetker’s)
4 Heaping Tablespoon(s) Flour
4 Egg yolks
500 Grams Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1 Cup Sugar (or more to taste)
1/2 Cup PB2

I used PB2 but any flavouring works here, Rum is the Czech favourite but you can add just about anything you like, jam, cocoa powder, pureed fruit… whatever your heart desires! For those of you who aren’t familiar with PB2 more detailed information can be found here. It’s a fabulous dehydrated and fat removed version of peanut butter, the flavour is intense and fresh and works well in this frosting. You could probably also use real peanut butter but then I would decrease some of the butter. This cream recipe make enough so that I could layer the cream in between the cakes as well as frost but can easily be halved or quartered to make just enough to layer or frost. Also, this cream freezes really well and can be made ahead of time, before or after you whip in the butter sugar and flavour.

In a saucepan mix the milk, pudding, flour and egg yolks and bring to a simmer slowly, stirring often to keep from burning. The mixture will become very thick. Then transfer to a container, cover with plastic wrap (place the wrap so that is actually touches the top of the cream) and let cool. I refrigerated overnight.

Place the cold cream mixture in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment and add butter and sugar and flavouring and mix until cream and smooth. This could take a while, I whipped mine for about 4 minutes first slowly then on medium high speed. Voila… your cream is ready. Decorate and frost as you wish.