Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

While on the subject of birthdays, this weekend I celebrated birthdays with my friend Katie. Katie and I were born exactly 2 weeks apart, and for the past several years have celebrated our birthdays together in some truly bizarre ways. For example, when we turned 28 we decided to have a ‘classy night out’, so Katie, our friends Jackie, Brandon, Frank and Kristin (otherwise known as Dennis) got all dressed up for dinner at a fancy restaurant to be followed by Shakespeare in the Park. It was going to be great*.

*(it has since come to my attention that this entire thing was actually for Jackie's birthday, which is a month earlier... but since one should never let facts get in the way of a good story, I will just say "Happy Birthday, Jackie!" and carry on).

Well. We got to the fancy restaurant and, surprise surprise, the prices were beyond the budgets of most of us cash strapped grad students. So we ordered the cheese plate. The cheese was one piece of gross cheese. We ordered the salad. It was literally 3 pieces of lettuce, two croutons and a little sprinkling of parmesan cheese. We spent $30 a piece for bad cheese, a tiny salad, and bitter disappointment. Determined to make the evening a success, we made our way to the local grocery store to get some snacks for Shakespeare in the park—sunchips, little debbies and wine.

We had great seats – we could see the whole stage, we ate our snacks, things looked like they were getting better! However, when the play started, we discovered that, although we had a great view, we couldn’t hear a thing. When you can’t hear, “The Tempest” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense (just a lot of people sort of flailing around… yes, I know it’s supposed to represent a shipwreck, but without sound it’s just weird). So, one at a time, so as not to create a scene, we snuck out of Shakespeare in the park so we could go see a movie instead. Our classy night out was taking a swift downward turn. It spiraled down further when we stopped at Wendy’s en route to the movie. Sigh.

Over our deluxe cheeseburgers, we chatted about which movie to see. Having lived under a rock for most of my 20s, I trusted my friends to be more informed in current pop culture and to therefore pick a good movie. I trusted them implicitly not to lead me astray. They told me that they wanted to see “Bruno”, a film starring Sacha Baron-Cohen. Now, the only Baron-Cohen I know is Simon Baron-Cohen, renowned autism researcher. I thought it was a little weird that they wanted to watch an educational film, but it seemed fitting that it would go with our ‘classy night out’ theme so away we went.

Jerks.

Needless to say, that was a very memorable birthday! And I’m hoping that this birthday, the year Katie & I turn 30, will be memorable too, but for better, less traumatic reasons. Maybe it will be memorable for the cake that I made!

This cake, a chocolate peanut butter cake, is amazing. My friend Suzanne has made it for my birthday two years running. Last year when she made it, another friend ate so much of it that he went on a vision quest and met his spirit animal. A fox, if you’re interested.

The cake is supposed to be a 3 layer cake, but since it had to travel from New Haven, CT to Baltimore, MD (where Katie just started a postdoc) by train, I thought a better solution would be to… yes, big surprise, bake it in jars!

So, happy birthday Katie! I hope this year is better than the year of the classy night out! 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

(adapted only very very slightly from Smitten Kitchen's recipe)

Ingredients (makes 12 half pint jars):

Cake: 
1 c flour
1 ¼ c sugar
1/3 c cocoa powder
1 T baking soda
½ t salt
½ c vegetable oil
½ c sour cream
3/4 c water
1 ½ T white vinegar
½ t vanilla extract
1 egg  

Peanut Butter Frosting: 
8 oz cream cheese
1 stick unsalted butter (softened)
5 c confectioner’s sugar
2/3 c smooth peanut butter

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze 
4 oz semisweet chocolate
1 ½ T smooth peanut butter
1 T light corn syrup
¼ c half-and-half or cream  

Instructions: 

Preheat then oven to 350 degrees then butter (or use cake release) the sides of the jars.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt into a large bowl, whiking to combine well.

Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend.

Gradually beat in the water, be careful because it wants to be splashy.

Blend in the vinegar and vanilla. It’ll get funny and bubbly, but that’s ok, it’s just the baking soda and vinegar having a party.

Whisk in the egg and beat until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure it’s well mixed.

Divide among the jars, filling about a third to half way.

Bake for 30-35 minutes (less if you fill it only 1/3) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean.

Cool on wire rack for about 20 minutes.

Then, run a knife around the edge of the jars to lossen up the cakes. Dump them out on the wire rack, and wash your jars up while the cakes cool.

To make the peanut butter ganache beat the cream cheese and butter with a mixer until light and fluffy.

Add the confectioner’s sugar, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition and scraping down the bowl frequently.

Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.

Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

Depending on how much your cakes have risen, cut them into 3 or 4 approximately equal sizes. If they fill most of the jar, cut them into 4 and reserve the 4th top layer to make cake balls with at the end! Use a serrated knife to cut them, it’ll be way easier and less crumbly (though, as you’ll see from the pictures below, still pretty crumbly).

Place one layer in the bottom of the jar.

Using a pastry bag pipe some peanut butter frosting into the jar.

Then place the next layer on top, alternating cake and frosting until you’ve got a layer of peanut butter frosting on the top.

Smooth down the peanut butter frosting on top so it's flat.

Repeat this with all your jars.

Now make the glaze – melt the butter, peanut butter and corn syrup in a double boiler over simmering water.

Remove from the heat and add the half and half or cream.

Spoon over the top of the jars then spread with an offset spatula to make it smooth and pretty on top.

Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve, at least half an hour.

Remove from the fridge a little bit before you plan to serve it.

Enjoy!