Chocolate and Peanut Butter Drip Cake

This cake is rich and moist and packed with flavour! You'll never want a different birthday cake again!This Chocolate and Peanut Butter Drip Cake is completely sinful. With smooth peanut butter buttercream and a moist, rich chocolate cake topped with MORE chocolate AND peanut butter cups, it’s hard to say no to a slice of this!

INGREDIENTS

Cocoa Fudge Cake (The recipe below will make two 81/2 inch pans, so I doubled it for a four-tier cake)

• 1⅔ cups all-purpose flour or 2 cups cake flour
• 1½ cups white sugar
• ⅔ cups cocoa
• ½ cups vegetable oil
• 1½ cups buttermilk (OR 2 Tbsp vinegar in 1½ cups milk)
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs

Peanut Butter Buttercream (The recipe below will only be enough to cover a 2-layer cake, so I doubled it for a four-tier cake)

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 3-4 cups sifted powdered sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3-4 Tbsp milk or heavy cream (I always use cream with this recipe!)
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter

Chocolate Ganache (As long as your cake is 8-10" round, this should be all you need no matter the height!)

• ½ cup melted semi-sweet chocolate
• ½ cup cream

Optional Toppings: Mini Reeses' Pieces, Mini Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups, and Reese's Peanut Butter cups, crushed.

INTRUCTIONS

For the Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350°, and grease and flour four 8½ inch round pans (or two pans twice!)
2. Mix all of the cake ingredients together in the order they're listed on medium first, scraping the sides occasionally. Then turn it up to high and let it go for 3 minutes, scraping occasionally.
3. Pour into your pans, and pop in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. LET COOL COMPLETELY AND I MEAN COMPLETELY BEFORE YOU TAKE THE CAKE OUT OF THE PANS. I'm serious here. It should take about 45mins to an hour.

For the Buttercream

1. Mix all ingredients together, scraping the sides occasionally. The peanut butter will make the buttercream stickier, so you may have to add a little more powdered sugar. This needs to be very easy to spread, so make sure the frosting isn't stiff at all. Add a little more cream if necessary.

Assemblage:

1. Level your cakes. There are many tutorials online, but you want to make sure they are FLAT.
2. Using a spatula, distribute about ½ cup of frosting between each layer of cake. Make sure it's level before adding the next level directly on top.
3. Frost the outside of your cake with a very thin layer of buttercream to lock all those crumbs in!
4. Pop it in the fridge or freezer for about 30 minutes to harden the crumb coat and seal those in. We don't want any crumbs on our final product!
5. Bring it out of the fridge or freezer and frost the rest with a nice thick layer of buttercream.
6. Pop back in the fridge or freezer for another 15-20 minutes.

For the Ganache

1. In a pot on the stove, SLOWLY heat the chocolate and add the cream, stirring frequently. You don't want it to boil at any point, or for the cream to curdle. If your ganache separates (like mine did), just add a tablespoon or two of warm milk, works like a dream! You'll know it's done when it is smooth and creamy!
2. Set that aside to cool for at least ten minutes, or until the pot is cold to the touch. The ganache needs to be pretty thick, but still liquid enough to drip!
3. Using a spoon, drop the ganache in the centre of your cake, gently spreading outwards with a spoon or spatula juuuust to the edge, then slowly coax it over the side. Do this all around the cake.
4. Sprinkle with treats all over the top!

Notes

If you wanted to have cocoa buttercream in place of, or in addition to the peanut butter buttercream (peanut buttercream?), just add ½ cup of cocoa instead of the peanut butter

Source>>Chocolate and Peanut Butter Drip Cake@halifaxbloggers

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