Reeses Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

Okay. Every once in a while I am going to post recipes on here for you to pin onto pinterest. Unlike my other posts, this is not something I found on pinterest that I've tested, but it is a recipe that I can promise you tastes incredible. So, feel free to pin it if you'd like, or make it first and decide from there!

The Best Reeses Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small pkg Jello instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups mini chocolate chips (I actually opted not to use these, and it still tasted amazing)

*For Colby's birthday cake I used this recipe + another half of the recipe…that way I ended up with 3 round cakes to stack 3 tiers high. 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease pans. In a very large bowl or kitchen aid, mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into greased cake pans of choice (I prefer using 9-inch round cake pans). For cooking time, I used the cooking times on the back of the devil’s food cake box as a guide and added 10 minutes to whatever it said. Then I did the toothpick check and checked on it every 5 mins after that until it was done. It usually takes around 45 mins for two, 9-inch cake pans.

After my cakes were out of the oven, I immediately dumped them upside down on individual pieces of aluminum foil so they wouldn't sink. I then wrapped them up in the foil and stuck them in the freezer. A couple hours later I took them out, unwrapped them, and stacked them with a layer of frosting between each tier. The cake is much easier to frost if it's frozen. 

After it was stacked I frosted the whole cake in a thin layer of frosting, and then I did a second coat to cover up any chocolatey crumbles that got stuck in the first layer.

Crumble up some reeses and sprinkle them on top, and surround the base with mini reeses cups. Enjoy!!

Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting (this is the buttercream frosting from my previous post with one spoonful of peanut butter added)

Ingredients:

1 cup salted butter

1 T vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar (or icing sugar)

4-5 T coffee cream (18% and up)

1 small spoonful of peanut butter

Directions:

Whip the butter with a paddle beater. Add in the powdered sugar (using a fresh bag makes all the difference–powdered sugar goes stale and you can taste the difference!)

Add in the cream and peanut butter and mix.

Add in the Vanilla and mix until fluffy and thoroughly combined.

Rating:

Difficulty:

The Best Buttercream Icing

Once again...there's that "best" word that taunts me so. I'm pretty gullible, so if you say your recipe is the best—and you have a nice picture to prove it—I'll probably believe you.

Usually I just throw in my own measurements of powdered sugar, butter, vanilla extract and milk when I make frosting. Unfortunately, this often leads to frosting that's either too runny or too sweet, and I get stuck adding in more ingredients to balance it out. As a result, I always make way too much frosting.

So, I figured it wouldn't hurt to find a great recipe with exact ingredients to help me out. I have actually pinned a few different frosting recipes on pinterest, but this one looked and sounded the best by far. It has a secret ingredient, that I think really does make all the difference. Coffee Cream. Yes, more unhealthy—but frosting isn't healthy anyway, so what are a couple extra calories?

I've now used this frosting on sugar cookies and cake, and it was wonderful on both. Just add a tiny bit more cream if you're using it on cookies. Here's a link to the original recipe if you like step-by-step pictures.

Buttercream Icing
Ingredients:
1 cup salted butter
1 T vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar (or icing sugar)
4-5 T coffee cream (18% and up)

Directions:

Whip the butter with a paddle beater. Add in the powdered sugar (using a fresh bag makes all the difference—powdered sugar goes stale and you can taste the difference!)

Add in the cream and mix.

Add in the vanilla and mix until fluffy and thoroughly combined.

Rating: 

Difficulty: