October 12, 2011

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake


Two of my sisters celebrate their Birthdays today! Hooray! So Happy Birthday to big sister Ettie and small sister Raedi! I made one of my favourite cakes from my book MakeBakeLove which will be out next week, it's so exciting to see it all printed and bound. Being able to flick through it and look at all the photos is great. It's like having the blog come to life!
This cake is the ultimate celebration. Peanut butter and chocolate is a winning combination. Covering the inside of the tins with chopped nuts adds a lovely texture and flavour, but you can just use flour if you like. To go totally overboard, you could pile some mini chocolate peanut butter drops or chocolate-covered nuts on top. A salty-sweet dream cake!


Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Serves 8–10

For the cake:
60g dry roasted peanuts, chopped, plus extra to decorate
225g butter, softened
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
100ml milk
225g self-raising flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder

For the peanut butter cream:
250g icing sugar, divided
125g smooth peanut butter
30g butter, softened
50ml milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter 2 x 20cm sandwich tins and cover with the chopped nuts.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the milk.
3. Sieve the flour, cocoa and baking powder into the egg mixture. Mix until just combined, taking care not to overmix.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared sandwich tins, taking care not to disturb the nuts. Bake for 30 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool fully on a rack.
5. To make the icing, cream together half the icing sugar, the butter, peanut butter, milk and vanilla in a bowl until well combined. Add the rest of the icing sugar and mix well, until fluffy.
6. Sandwich the cake together with the icing. Top with more icing and roasted peanuts.

Lilly x

14 comments:

  1. this sounds divine!Will bake it tomorrow.Only the other night my hubby asked if i could invent a new choccy bar what flavour would it be...i said that if i could mix choc with either salty nuts or crisps -that would be perfection-a memory of my childhood indulgence of eating a bar of cadburys and a packet of cheese and onion taytos at the same time...heaven!

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  2. Such wonderfully named sisters, and I'm sure they deserve that fine cake. Good luck with the cookbook; I bet it gets onto lots of Christmas wishlists!

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  3. That looks very, very lovely Lily, and I like your book cover a lot - can't wait to see it in the shops! You must be soooo excited!

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  4. Oh heaven on a plate! I simply love the combination of chocolate and peanuts, and my little girl has now developed a love for the same, regularly requesting peanut butter cups (I've promised to make them for her birthday - even I can't wait!!)
    I can't wait for an occasion to try this cake! Looking forward to you book - congrats
    Nicola

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  5. Hi Lilly, that cake looks fab! Nice combination of chocolate & peanut butter! Really like your blog and will be picking up a copy of your book-it looks lovely!

    Clare

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  6. Got your book today. Absolutely fabulous. Cant wait to try some recipes. Well done!!

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  7. Love, love, love the book Lilly - can't decide which are better the recipes or the photos!

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  8. That cake looks delicious! Hope your sisters had amazing birthdays!

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  9. Hi Lilly! Thanks for the recipe, going to try to one out tomorrow as Halloween treat! That's definitely self raising AND baking powder there, right? Just checking cos you don't usually see the two together...I'm a nervous nelly!

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  10. Hi! Yes it is baking powder and self raising flour! It'll give you a gorgeous lit and high cake! Happy baking x

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  11. I have had this page open on my iPhone for the past week. Unfortunately I'm going to have to wait for an occasion to bake this cake, as with the combination of peanuts & cocoa I know I wouldn't be able to resist eating the best part of it!

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  12. Just wondering about Step 4 "...Bake for 30 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool fully on a rack."

    Does this mean cool on the rack while still in their sandwich tins or turned out?

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  13. Hi Lisa,
    They need to cool on the rack out of the tins! X

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  14. really nerdy question but is it 180 in a fan oven?!

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Let me know what you think!x