Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Ganache

Revisted a tried and true combination of chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and added a new twist of chocolate ganache.

Valentine's Day Round Up

Whether you love or hate Valentine's Day, it's the perfect excuse to indulge in something sweet.  Here's a round up of tried and true recipes for your sweetie or sweet tooth!

Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Strawberry Pound Cake

Sweet and Salty Brownies

Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

Cocoa Caramel Cake

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

My company hosted a Bake Off this past Monday and despite the fact that I was out of town the weekend prior and sick as a dog all week long, I made an effort to enter just because I couldn't pass up the opportunity to bake.  I racked my brain but couldn't come up with anything creative so, I stuck to a tried and true combo, chocolate cake and peanut butter frosting.  I absolutely love this flavor combo and I must've made it numerous times as seen here, here, and here.

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that the competition was fierce.  The actual winners were lemon cupcakes, chocolate ice box cake, and coconut cake; which I have to confirm were all delicious.

Banana Peanut Butter Cake

The bananas in this cake makes it much healthier than other cakes right?  I jest, but everything in moderation, I say.  For my husband's brother in law's birthday dinner last weekend, I made this banana cake with peanut butter filling and cream cheese frosting.

I tested out a new banana cake recipe, which I included below, but I'm not 100% happy with it.  The banana taste was too subtle and I wish the cake wasn't as dense.  Given all the positive reviews, I might go back to this recipe but substituting cake flour and adding sour cream.

Also, I used melted chocolate to pipe "Happy Birthday" and I realized how much I liked the flow of the chocolate versus frosting.  Will definitely use this method again.

Banana Cake

adapted from Allrecipes.com

Makes 1 8 inch cake

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter

2 1/8 cups white sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease and flour 3 8 inch baking pans.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt together.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Add the vanilla.  Stir in the flour mixture alternating with the buttermilk.  Stir in the bananas.  Pour the batter evenly among the pans.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs stuck to it.

Remove from oven and let cool in the pan on a wire rack.  Remove from pan and continue to let cool completely on the rack.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cupcakes

Chocolate and peanut butter is a combination that never gets old in my book.  I have made these exact cupcake combination multiple times.  However, this time around, I added a surprise element.  A few of the cupcakes had a mini reese peanut butter cup inside.  Next time, I would toss them in some flour as they did sink all the way to the bottom.

Peanut Butter Frosting
A Baked By Jen Original
Makes enough to generously frost 24 cupcakes

1/2 cup of butter
1 cup of peanut butter
3 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of milk

Beat the butters together until light and fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar.  Add the vanilla extract. Add enough milk until desired consistency is reached.

Chic Birthday Cake

By adding a bow to the cake, I turned it from simple to chic!  This cake was made from the extra chocolate cake layers and peanut butter frosting I had saved in the freezer from the Hello Kitty Baby Shower cake I made the other week.  I sampled some of the trimmings when I was reshaping the cake and I swear it seemed more moist than the first time around.

When I freeze my cake layers, I triple wrap it in saran wrap and then place in it a Ziploc bag.  The cakes can be frozen for up to two months without losing its flavor.  When I need to use it, depending on whether I'm carving or not, I'll thaw it slightly or completely before use.

Hello Kitty Baby Shower Cake

For those following my progress, I've made a baby shower cake before and a Hello Kitty cake, not once but twice before.  So, it couldn't be long before I made a combo of the two, a Hello Kitty baby shower cake!

I had a lot of fun decorating this cake.  I absolutely love Pink Cake Box's work. So, this was definitely inspired by their baby shower cakes; especially the ones with the cute bows!  I did make it my own by handcrafting a baby Hello Kitty topper for my friend (the receipient) who loves Hello Kitty.  I also added a bunch of teddy bear cutouts onto the cake.

 

The tiers were made from carrot and chocolate cakes with cream cheese frosting and peanut butter frosting.  Everything was covered and decorated with homemade marshmallow fondant.  I'm sharing the peanut butter frosting as it was ridiculously good for something I just threw together because I was too lazy to go to the store to buy more butter and powdered sugar.

Peanut Butter Frosting
A Baked By Jen Original
Makes about 3 cups

1 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup of butter
4 oz cream cheese
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons of milk


Cream together the peanut butter, butter, and cream cheese until smooth.


Add the vanilla extract.


Slowly mix in the powdered sugar.  Scrape the bowl down often.


Add the milk.  Beat until light and fluffy.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

 Peanut butter frosting (from All Recipes) has been on my long list of things to make for awhile now.   It was my brother's coworker's birthday today.  Decided to use this opportunity to check one off the list.  Also, I decided to switch up my go to recipe for chocolate cakes.  Since the last few times I made it, I thought it was too dry compared to all my new stand bys.  This new recipe for chocolate cakes (adapted from Hershey's) is definitely a keeper.  Very moist and fluffy.  Topped with mini peanut butter cups.