DWD: PEANUTBUTTER & CHOCCO MADNESS

As much destain I have for Cotton, it was a perfect opportunity for me to get out and showboat.
I'd be a fool to let that pass me by, so for that reason, I volunteered to do all the birthday baking. It also gives me a perfect opportunity for a baking blog. 
We're not going to be using any box mixes today, but you can sub them if you don't want or can't make a regular chocolate cake. You'll need 2 boxes of cake mix to do the cupcakes and the cake that I'm about to make. And of course, lil Pork Chop is going to be here helping me in the kitchen as I churn out this birthday surprise. 


First, off we're going to make the deliciously dark chocolate cake. You're going to want to use unsweetened baking cocoa for this cake. (The Dutch process version is the one that I'm using in this blog.) What's listed below is needed for the cake and one large cupcake. 
You'll Need: 
230g flour 
415g granulated sugar 
85g baking cocoa 
2 1/4 tbs bicarb of soda 
1/2 tsp baking powder 
2 tsp of sea salt 
240ml milk
120ml vegetable oil 
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence 
2 large eggs 
240ml hot water
3 tbs peanut butter

Before making the cake, you're going to want to pre-heat the oven to 175C (350F) For your baking pans, line them with parchment paper and lightly grease them. You don't want the peanut butter sticking to the bottom of the cake pans! 

To make the cake, we're going to start out with the dry ingredients first. All of them minus the cocoa powder, just chuck them into a large mixing bowl and give them a good whip round with a cooking spoon.  In a separate bowl, you're going to do the same with the liquid ingredients. Whisk all the liquids together.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix with electric mixer on low-medium speed. Once ingredients are blended and are a nice pale yellow colour, it's time to add in the cocoa. Sift the cocoa powder into the mixture creating a small hill; into the hole, you will add the hot water slowly and mix with your hand mixer on low speed. 

After about a minute of mixing, scrape down the side of the bowl and ensure that mixture is evenly blended. Spoon in your peanut butter and mix in with a cooking spoon. The mixture will not be overly thick. Little bubbles in the cake batter are normal. If you so desire you can chop up a few of the peanut butter cups to add into the mixture like I did. 

Evenly pour into your two cake tins and your large muffin tin. You need to make sure that you've ladled out the batter to make at least one large cupcake because you're going to need that, as it's your centre topper piece! 

While them suckers are baking up, we're going to whip up something almost as thicc and delicious as Chubbs, the peanut butter icing. It doesn't matter the brand of peanut butter you use.  Do note this does make enough icing for the cake, decorating and 6 large cupcakes / 12 average sized cupcakes.   

You will need: 
450g of salted peanut butter 
1035g of confectioner's sugar (icing sugar) 
90-105ml double cream (depending on your peanut butter and desired thickness)
You can also use milk if you wish, it doesn't make much of a difference here. 

Firstly, you're going to need softened or semi-melted butter. You can either rub it between your thighs or put it in the microwave as I did. Add to your peanut butter and mix on medium speed with an electric mixer. Attempting to hand mix it won't go over well. You're going to need an exceptionally large bowl for this; I started out with a regular sized mixing bowl and ended up having to transfer the semi-blended mixture.

Once you've blended the two, you're going to start in adding the icing sugar little by little. Add a quarter of the icing sugar and one tablespoon of double cream to the butter-peanut butter mixture. Mix on medium-high with your electric mixer for about two minutes. Add in more of the icing sugar and double cream, mixing well until you've added the rest. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and give one final mix for about 2 minutes. The mixture should be a pale beige colour and thick, but spreadable. The texture will be smooth and silky. 

Look at those delicious creamy ribbons!
I'm gonna spread the extra icing all over Chu-never mind! Make sure that you refrigerate any leftover icing. Do not put icing in fridge before icing/ decorating cake. Icing needs to be light and easy to spread. Once cake is decorated you may refrigerate it. 

You can add chopped peanut butter cups to the icing if you wish before you ice the cake. You put the peanut butter cups in a food processor and then add them to the icing. I saw it on Pinterest or something, but I broke my food processor. Yes, the lovely green monster from the 80's has finally wrasped it's last sour breath. I should get another one with the blog and all that, maybe. I dunno. I'll probably get a used one. I don't really use it that much. It blows my mind how many different kitchen things they have these days. So many pieces of equipment. I don't even keep all the stuff I use in the kitchen. Some are in a cupboard storage.  

Setting out your equipment is always an important part of any project, especially in the kitchen or the bedroom. When you're providing people with any sort of pleasure, you need to make sure that you have the tools to do your job. And here, we have my lovely assistant Pork Chop with the icing tool. For the centrepiece cupcake, you're going to fill the centre of it with the peanut butter icing.

Be careful not to add too much!
After you will change the nozzle to a large star tip in order to ice the cupcake and to do the decorating on the rest of the cake.  Carefully, like a surgeon, I move the icing tool around the top of the cupcake, creating a mountain of icing. 

Dice up two peanut butter cups and sprinkle them around the top of the cupcake. Set to the side until needed. I placed it in the fridge so that it was nice and cool when I added it to the top of the cake. You don't have to, it's just to make sure it all stays nice and lovely.
I actually froze the cakes for a little bit before I popped them out to ice them. I find that it helps you to remove cakes that have candy or peanut butter in them. Once you remove the cakes make sure they are an even height by using a cake leveller to cut a thin sliver of the top section off. (I forgot this step as I was being yacked at.)

Taking an icing spatula, take a large amount of icing and place on top of the first cake. Evenly ice the top of the cake and place the second cake on top and repeat. Carefully ice around the sides of the cake. Workaround the sides of the cake with a decent amount of icing. You don't want the chocolate of the cake to keep through the icing. If desired, smooth out the top and sides. It will give it a more polished appearance.

Once the cake has been iced, carefully place your cupcake from earlier into the centre of the cake. Taking an icing tool and the same large tip from earlier, pipe a line of little stars/flowers around the base of the cupcake. It acts as an eyecatcher and helps to keep the cupcake anchored to the cake. 

Once the stars/flowers have been piped along the bottom of the cupcake, you're going to evenly space them also around the sides of the cake. Between the spaces, you will place a mini peanut butter cup. It creates a lovely chocolate peanut butter aesthetic that is welcoming and a bit fancy if I do say so myself. 

And here we have the finished product! A rich salted chocolate cake with a delectable creamy peanut butter icing decorated with mini peanut butter cups! It works great not only for birthdays, but get-togethers or events! If you try the recipe, I'd love to hear your results so let me know via my social media links below! Sorry, this blog wasn't as explicit as the others, I just was really focused on the baking I guess. I also had a bit more to do than just crack witty banter. I'm preparing to go on a birthday getaway / mini meet and greet tour! You can find all the information on a previous blog. If you have questions, feel free to ask! Until next time. 

Buy Reese's Miniatures: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reeses-Miniatures-Gift-Tray-Pack/dp/B073VR8BQP/ref=sr_1_9_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1506182125&sr=8-9&keywords=reeses+peanut+butter+mini+cups
Buy Reece's Peanutbutter: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reeses-Creamy-Peanut-Butter/dp/B0004MXX6W/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1506182898&sr=8-2&keywords=reeses+peanut+butter
Buy Baking Powder: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dr-Oetker-Baking-Powder-170g/dp/B016IOUPJC/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1506182742&sr=8-3&keywords=baking+powder

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