Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cup Layer Cake

Been a while, am I right?

Not doing a ton of cooking these days because … 5 month old. This means most cooking is either completed with one hand or squeezed into occasional brief moments of baby’s relative contentment when playing in his Exersaucer.

This week, however, I decided I wanted to amuse myself by baking a birthday cake for my friend and business partner. I had Tuesday off, and baking and decorating this cake was LITERALLY my only accomplishment, performed in incremental steps throughout the day (and the day before).

He night before, I hastily measured out my dry ingredients and left them in the bowl of the stand mixer. Then I buttered and floured my cake pans. Ready to roll for the morning! In the a.m. the final steps actually weren’t that big of a deal – I just had to time them right. (And cleaning the kitchen – the final step of all cooking projects – was NOT successfully executed… Meh.)

So, said friend requested a chocolate cake, the richer the better. As a known fan of peanut butter, I thought it would be fun to take a classic chocolate cake and make it stupidly rich and decadent with a thick layer of chopped up Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups inside!

I turned, as I often do, to my trusty girl, Ina. I used her recipe for Beatty’s Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Frosting and did zero other fancy things besides chopping up the candy and adding it to the middle layer.

Did I overdo it? That’s possible. Definitely could have gotten away with fewer Reese’s cups. This was a case of eyes being bigger than the cake. I used a whole bag, and I almost got a bigger bag … it didn’t look like so much until they were all spread out on the cake!! I didn’t know!!

I did edit Ina’s frosting recipe a teeny bit. It calls for a raw egg yolk which I have zero qualms about for myself, but when I’m serving food to other people, I’m slightly more conscientious about trying to avoid food-borne illnesses. What can I say? I’m considerate AF.

I used a circle of parchment to guide my sprinkle placement, and frankly, I was extremely pleased with the presentation!

Ok so obviously this is not an original recipe, but you can find it here.

And I highly suggest you take the time to do that very thing. It required all my mental fortitude to avoid cutting into this cake before delivering it to its rightful owner, but I was rewarded for my patience. It was everything a chocolate cake is supposed to be!! Rich, moist, dense, and SO CHOCOLATEY! The batter includes a cup of brewed coffee to perfectly complement and enhance the chocolate flavor. I’m not typically a frosting lover, but this thick creamy very chocolate forward frosting was an asset (and an excellent vehicle for holding all my candy in place).