Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

We had a cozy pizza & cake party on the holiday weekend. Chocolate and peanut butter seems to be an ever-popular flavor combination around here, so I dug into the bookmarks and found the perfect recipe to try- peanut butter cup chocolate cake from Baking Bites. The recipe looked suspiciously simple. Aren't layer cakes supposed to be a pain to make?

To make it just a bit more complicated, I decided to make some crunchy candied peanuts as a topping for my cake. The recipe is from David Lebovitz and I followed it quite faithfully. In a heavy metal pan went raw peanuts (with pink skins on, the ones I buy in the Indian store), sugar and some water. Then it is a matter of stir, stir and stir again for nearly 30 minutes until the peanuts are coated in dark caramel and some grainy sugar. A final generous sprinkle of sea salt, cinnamon and red chilli powder, and the candied peanuts were poured onto a baking sheet to cool off.

We used some for the cake, as you will see later, and the rest became a too-tasty, addictive snack.

Now for the cake, which happens to be eggless, and the whole thing, cake and frosting, only used a stick of butter in all. Nice. Again, I followed the recipe closely. My only modifications:

  • Cut down sugar by a third of a cup.
  • Baked the batter in 2 cake pans, which needed only 20 minutes or so baking time since the cakes were not as tall.
  • Used powdered buttermilk.

Then came the frosting: crunchy peanut butter, unsalted butter, icing sugar, tiny bit of salt and milk. Spread frosting on one layer...


...slap on the other layer. Drizzle generously with melted chocolate (I used a combination of milk and dark) and scatter the candied peanuts.


Gooey, messy and oh so good. With this cake, I can finally use the words "layer cake" and "quick and easy" in the same sentence. This one is a keeper.

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I've loved participating in food blog events ever since I started writing this blog. Now, Jacqueline has started a great new website to keep us all informed about the fun events being hosted every month- it is called The Food Blog Diary. I want to thank her for including the Blog Bites: Sandwiches and Wraps in the July line-up.

32 comments:

  1. That looks beautiful, I love the crunchy topping :)

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  2. That's a really cute cake. Celebration weekend I guess! :)

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  3. Lokks and sounds very healthy! Peanut butter is my favorite. Shall try this out. Thanks for sharing. Nice to be here. Best wishes.

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  4. Chocolate and candied peanuts on cake… drool! Sounds so good! Interestingly I never have come across a cake recipe that calls for cider vinegar but it totally works here.

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  5. Looks delicious... Lovely cake and awesome clicks..

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  6. Wow Nupur! That's one drool worthy cake :D

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  7. Looks too tempting and truly yummy :)

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  8. i've made a few layered cakes...but i am still scared of them... yours looks fab and goey and so yumm...i must wait till i burn out a few kgs to attempt this! i've never seen a cake topped with candied peanuts before...you do come up with very interesting ideas!

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  9. Yummmmmmmyyyyyyy!!!Iam a very bad baker. So I admire your skill even more!!

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  10. Ive never worked with peanut butter..but this looks awesome...

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  11. Gorgrous cake, looks utterly delicious and yummy..

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  12. Oh wow, that looks amazing. I'm not eating peanuts while I am breastfeeding, but I am going to save this recipe for later in the year and try the treatment on other nuts for now.

    Thanks for the shout out :)

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  13. love this peanut chocolate combo...cake looks mouth watering

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  14. These cozy parties are wonderful Nupur. Can I invite myself over? This cake is irresistible.

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  15. This is truly a keeper recipe.. Looks very delicious.

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  16. Oooh yum!!! I am not a big fan of peanut butter but the cake looks delicious!

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  17. Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal- Yes, the crunchy topping added a lovely texture.

    SS blogs here- With food, we celebrate every single day ;)

    Sanjeeta kk- I won't go so far as to call it healthy but as desserts go, it is not too sinful.

    The Housewife- The cider vinegar and the baking soda together produce lots of CO2 bubbles to help the cake rise.

    Nitha- Thanks.

    Anjali- We certainly did our share of drooling!

    Nithya- Thanks.

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  18. arundati- Share it with people and you won't have to wait until you lose weight to try it :) this layered cake is the easiest I have made so far.

    Sarita- There's no such thing as a bad baker! You just need a good reliable recipe and some practice perhaps :)

    s- Peanut butter is wonderful stuff, tasty and versatile.

    Priya- It was very yummy!

    Jacqueline- Oh yes, all kinds of nuts would work in this recipe and I think hazelnuts would be simply outstanding.

    Raaga- Or you could move closer to me ;)

    Neha- Thanks.

    notyet100- Thanks.

    indosungod- You have a standing invitation so come on over!

    RV- Thanks.

    Sangeetha- You can make it with other nut butters if you prefer those! Or you might try this and fall in love with peanut butter ;)

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  19. I found you through Eats Well With Others and right when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to stick around! Heaven!! Don't you just love David Lebovitz??

    Sues

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  20. Nice topping, very different one!

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  21. The very common peanut butter gets a great avatar ... wonderful idea of teaming it up with chocolate and cake! Will brighten up any party. :-)

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  22. There is nothing I love more than chocolate and peanut butter...what a fantastic cake!

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  23. This cake looks Deliciiiiiiiiiouus!
    I can imagine myself eating all the candied peanuts first and then, starting the cake... So tempting :-D

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  24. Looks amazing, even though for some reason I seem to have gone off any kind of nuts inside my chocolate anything. I too found and posted a keeper of a chocolate pudding recipe this weekend!

    The peanuts seem definitely addictive...so is the peanut butter you buy salty? the Indian ones here are very salty for my taste..

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  25. My son would adore this, but he can't have peanuts. do you think almond butter and the like will work?

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  26. this looks fantastic - so little butter and icing sugar compared to other layer cakes - have bookmarked for when the right occasion arises

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  27. Nupur--WOW! Two of my faves right here! I love what you did with the peanuts, too. I've had my eye on your post for the past few days and finally made it in to take a look, really glad I did!

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  28. Sues- I do love David Lebovitz and especially his candy recipes!

    Sook- Thanks!

    Parita- Thanks!

    Sharmila- Yes, I love how versatile peanut butter is.

    Joanne- Thanks, everyone who tasted it loved it :)

    Sweet Artichoke- LOL I ate bites of the cake teamed with the candied peanuts.

    Miri- The peanut butter I buy is salted but lightly, you can also buy unsalted peanut butter here.

    delhibelle- Oh yes, almond butter or hazelnut butter or even nutella would be fine.

    Johanna GGG- I personally don't like icing much so this cake is perfect for my tastes.

    Kelly- What's more I would imagine this cake would be very easy to veganize.

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  29. Yum! I'm always on the hunt for new pb/chocolate recipes...this one looks awesome!

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