peanut butter + chocolate = love

My next baking adventure was a peanut butter chocolate layer cake for my partner’s birthday.  I used my now favorite chocolate cake recipe (you can find it here) and doubled the recipe so I could make a 5-layer cake.  It’s become my favorite because it’s so versatile; the recipe calls for yogurt and coffee and thus you can choose to use a flavored variety of either which will give the cake a great depth of flavor.  For this particular cake though I stuck with the staples: plain greek yogurt and bold coffee.

I buttered and floured each pan instead of using oil.

I used peanut butter cream as a filling between each layer and over the cake as a whole.  You can find the recipe I used here, though I substituted shortening for butter.

In addition to the peanut butter cream filling, each layer of cake also had a healthy dose of milk chocolate ganache between the cake and peanut butter cream.  Recipe can be found via the same link as the cake though I don’t own a microwave so I did everything over low heat on the stove.

Now that each component is prepared, we can start the assembly!

Chocolate cake, milk chocolate ganache, peanut butter cream & repeat… & again plus a few more times.

Chopping up the peanut butter cups for the decoration.

Cake is assembled, now for decoration!  Once I frosted the whole cake in peanut butter cream, I added one more layer of chocolate ganache on top and allowed it to cascade down the sides of the cake.

Finished.

Side shot.  I lined the base of the cake with whole peanut butter cups so it wasn’t jealous of the top.

Some handmade flags and letter candles complete the look.
Time to eat!  5 layers of deliciousness.

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