Sprout & Pea

My cousin and I were born about 3 months apart and we share most things in com­mon, except for his love of any­thing with choco­late and peanut but­ter. For what­ever rea­son, I’ve never been one to order peanut but­ter fla­vored any­thing on the dessert menu. I seem to be a rar­ity as I find myself sur­rounded by many friends who like to eat the stuff straight from the jar. Don’t get me wrong–  I love a good PB&J sand­wich, but I don’t reach for the spoon when a jar of Jif is around. The cake pic­tured above that I made for my cousin’s 28th birth­day, how­ever, has pos­si­bly made me a con­vert.

Mark’s boyfriend asked me if I would make the cake for his party this past week­end so of course I started scour­ing the inter­net for any­thing and every­thing choco­late peanut but­ter. When I saw the photo of this recipe on Smit­ten Kitchen I knew this was the one. Upon fur­ther googling, I dis­cov­ered a great gluten free ver­sion of it on Fire and Salt! With a slight adjust­ment, I cre­ated a cake that made Mark light up just as I’d hoped. The rest of the party seemed to be drool­ing as well and after tak­ing a bite myself, I was sold on this choco­late peanut but­ter craze.

This cake was per­fectly moist and fla­vor­ful. As promised to peo­ple at the party, here is the recipe from Fire & Salt (note: I replaced the corn syrup with agave)…

Cake:
2 cups gluten free flour mix
2–1/2 cups sugar
3/​4 cup unsweet­ened cocoa pow­der
2 tsp bak­ing soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp xan­than gum
1 cup oil (veg­etable or canola)
1 cup sour cream
1–1/2 cups water
2 Tbs apple cider vine­gar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Peanut But­ter Frost­ing:
10 ounces cream cheese (room tem­per­a­ture)
1 stick unsalted but­ter (room tem­per­a­ture)
4–5 cups pow­der sugar (sifted)
2/​3 cup creamy peanut but­ter
Choco­late Peanut But­ter Glaze:
8 ounces semi-​​sweet choco­late
3 Tbs creamy peanut but­ter
2 Tbs light corn syrup (I used agave)
1/​2 cup half & half
Makes a three layer eight inch cake
Bake cakes at 350 degrees F for 30–35 minutes

For the cake: Whisk together all the dry ingre­di­ents in a large bowl or stand mixer bowl. Stir in oil and sour cream. Grad­u­ally beat in the water. Mix in vine­gar and vanilla. Finally, whisk in the eggs and beat until thor­oughly mixed.

Grease three 8 inch cake pans with but­ter. Line the bot­tom of the pan with parch­ment paper. Divide the bat­ter equally between the three pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30–35 min­utes or until a tooth­pick comes out clean.

While the cake is in the oven, it’s a good time to make the frost­ing. Beat the but­ter and cream cheese together. Add pow­dered sugar 1 cup at a time and mix slowly at first to avoid send­ing sugar all through­out your house. Taste the frost­ing for sweet­ness after about the third cup of sugar. Sweeten to your lik­ing. Finally, mix in the peanut but­ter until thor­oughly combined.

When the cake is done bak­ing, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for about 20 min­utes. Invert the cakes onto a wire rack or a large cookie sheet. I would sug­gest lin­ing the wire rack or cookie sheet with parch­ment prior to invert­ing the cakes to avoid the cake stick­ing to the rack or pan.

Once the cakes have cooled com­pletely, the frost­ing can begin. Check out the smit­ten kitchen for some great tips and tech­niques for frost­ing the cake. Begin with one layer, use about 2/​3 cup frost­ing to frost the layer. Add the next layer and repeat. Add the third layer and (you guessed it) repeat. Frost the sides of the cake. You may have some frost­ing left over. Place the cake in the freezer for about 15 min­utes which will allow the glaze to solid­ify as it is poured over the top.

To make the choco­late glaze, com­bine choco­late, peanut but­ter, and corn syrup in a dou­ble boiler. Whisk fre­quently until melted and com­bined. Remove from heat and whisk in half and half until smooth. Pour the choco­late glaze over the top of the cake, allow­ing it to run down the sides.