Peanut Butter + Chocolate = Heaven On Earth (★ ★ ★ ★ ☆)

It was my sister's boyfriend's (now husband) birthday in March. Now, my sister "doesn't" cook or bake and James...well, he "can't." So with my parents being out of town, my "eldest child" syndrome kicked in and I took it upon myself to present him with some sort of edible item for his birthday. What a better excuse than to whip up a cake?! I remembered that James loves Reese's peanut butter cups so I set out to find a chocolate-peanut-butter cake recipe.

I found a sour-cream-chocolate cake recipe that sounded amazing. Anytime I see a recipe that calls for sour cream or plain yogurt, I'm hooked. It makes the cake super moist and gives it a creamier flavor. The recipe also called for homemade peanut butter frosting. Score.

I made the cake by taking a devils food box mix and adding about a cup of sour cream to it. It's supposed to be a 8' triple layer cake, but I just followed the 9' two layer recipe on the back of the box mix. The peanut butter frosting, however, I wanted to be delicious as possible...so I followed the recipe exactly. And boy was it GOOD!


The recipe I found also calls for a "chocolate peanut butter glaze," which I did not want to do. It looked too tricky and I didn't want to mess up the one cake I was making as a birthday present. The risk seemed too high. BUT my friend Trevor was here, and after making him help me and listen to Devo's "Whip It" over and over, he insisted we make it. I like to have things planned out and done properly, but when you ask for help you've got to give alittle...so I gave him full reign on making the glaze. I even let him put it on the cake himself...it hurt me to do it, but I got over it eventually.

I didn't want to add peanut butter into the glaze because I didn't want the cake to have an over- powering peanut butter taste and we didn't have any of the other items. So we ended up just melting a bunch of chocolate chips over the stove. It tasted great, but as you can see by the picture--it was VERY thick.

Sadly, at this time in my life I was trying to suppress my "true self" by forgoing all sugary treats. So I only allowed myself to sneak one bite. But everyone else said it was really good. I'm of the mindset that one should know from experience before touting a baked good's praise, however, in this one case I have to go based off of second-hand information. But don't worry, from then on--I've personally taken the time to enjoy each of my baking creations...no matter the cost.

To make this cake yourself, please visit my source: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
Her pictures are much better...and the glaze is thin and super shiny.