Reese's Peanut Butter Cake

Come hither, all faithful fans of peanut butter and chocolate!

This video includes recipes for perfect chocolate cake, peanut butter buttercream, and drip ganache, along with directions on how to make this fun and glam Reese's Peanut Butter Cake! Go wild!

This chocolate cake recipe is consistently moist, rich, and delicious! And the best part? Its base is a cake mix. Whaaaaat??

PERFECT CHOCOLATE CAKE

Chocolate Cake Mix (I prefer Chocolate Fudge or Devil's Chocolate, but anything chocolate will do!)

4 eggs

1 cup Buttermilk (make your own by mixing 1 cup whole milk with 1 TBS vinegar, and waiting 5 minutes)

1/2 cup Vegetable Oil

1/2 cup Strong Coffee (I mix 1/2 cup warm water with 1 TBS instant coffee)

1 cup Sour Cream

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/4 tsp Almond Extract

Pour into three (3) 6" cake pans, or two (2) 8" cake pans.

Bake at 350` for 35-40 minutes.

Cool completely.

This recipe is so good it will make you die. Literally if you have a peanut allergy, but only fabulously if you're a peanut butter fan!

PEANUT BUTTER BUTTERCREAM

1 cup softened, unsalted butter

1 cup Crisco (plain, NOT butter flavored)

1 TBS vanilla

2 LBS (or 8 cups) powdered sugar

2 splashes of whole milk (approx. 1/2 cup)

Directions:

In a standing mixer, beat butter, Crisco, and vanilla, until creamy. Turning the mixer to low, carefully add all the powdered sugar at once, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add milk one splash at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl, until all powdered sugar is moist. Then crank mixer to high, scraping sides of bowl continuously, until buttercream is light and creamy, with no lumps.

With the cakes cooled and the buttercream made, the last third of the perfect Reese's Cups Cake set-up is Reese's Cups themselves! Chop or pull apart about 3 cups for each 6" layer, or 6 cups for between your two 8" layers.

Cake

Buttercream

Reese's Cups Pieces

.......Repeat!

Once assembled, your cake (I made a double cake batch to make 4 tall layers instead of 3) should be wrapped in plastic wrap for protection and stability, and popped into the freezer for at least 30 minutes to chill.

A Crumb Coat is the first step in achieving a smooth buttercream finish! They're aaaalways ugly, literally catching all the crumbs that will naturally be pulled off even a chilled cake as you frost. Cover every bit of cake that's visible, smoothing is as well as you can.

This generally takes about 1 hour. The crumb coated cake should be places UNcovered into the freezer, and left for 1 hour, but no more than 3 hours, before moving on to the next step.

The smooth finish you see on professional-grade cakes is achieved with a turn-table, and a smooth scraper. You just pull the scraper around and around and around, sharpening the edges along the top as you go, with a little buttercream spatula.

Ganache Drip is different from filling ganache or coating ganache, in that it's suuuuper runny. It's extremely easy to make, you ready?

GANACHE DRIP

1 part chocolate

1 part whole milk.

That's it!

Combine the two in a porcelain bowl, and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Microwave in 15 second increments, stirring between, until smooth, with no lumps.

Pour your ganache drip into a piping bag, OR, believe it or not, a sandwich baggie!

Clip a tiny tiny corner, and drip along the top edge of your cake.

Cover the top of the cake smoothly with more ganache.

I like to pipe swirls with leftover buttercream along the top edges, and place whole pieces of whatever is inside the cake into each swirl. In this case, the perfect topper is more Reese's Cups!

Stand back and admire your hard work! You did it!

This cake is a showstopper both for looks, and for taste. The flavors in this cake have gotten some of the highest reviews I've ever received on my cakes.

You've got this!