Reese's Peanut Butter Cake

There are many wonderful food blogs in the food blogosphere, but few are as good as Annie's. Annie has quality recipes, beautiful pictures, and often unique recipes that aren't found on everyone else's blog (well... that is until we all copy her haha!) I decided to make her Reese's Peanut Butter Cake for Mother's Day since both of our mothers love the chocolate/peanut butter combo. Last minute I decided to go with vanilla frosting in place of the peanut butter frosting recommended in Annie's post. It came out excellent with the vanilla, but I am sure it would be much more rich and decadent with the peanut butter. If you are looking for a good cake give this a try. The batter was amazing and if there weren't 4 raw eggs in it I would have eaten a bowl full of the batter. Delicious!


Ingredients:

For the cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled (optional) I did use it

For decorating:
Frosting (I used vanilla)
miniature Reese’s cups, halved and/or chopped

Directions:

For the cake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°. Butter two 9×2” round cake pans, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess and line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper. (I used baking spray and skipped both the flour and parchment paper. It worked perfectly) Place the pans on a baking sheet.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat for about 2 minutes, until thoroughly blended into the butter. Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk; add the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the buttermilk in 2 (beginning and ending with the dry ingredients). Mix each addition only until it is blended into the batter. Scrape down the bowl and add the melted chocolate, if using, folding it in with a spatula. Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans.

Bake for 26-30 minutes or until the cakes feel springy to the touch and start to pull away from the sides of the pans. Transfer to wire racks to cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.

To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a cardboard circle or serving dish. Spread frosting on top of the cake layer. (If desired, sprinkle with chopped Reese’s cups.) Place the second cake layer on top of the frosting. Frost the top and outside of the cake with remaining frosting. Decorate with halved and chopped Reese’s cups as desired.