Chocolate Fudge Cake with Peanut Butter Icing

I made this cake for my Dad's birthday this year (2010)! Which would explain why there is a huge chocolate "R" on top haha. His favourite chocolate bar is Oh Henry so I decided to try and create one in cake form! This cake definitely delivered all the flavours and textures of an Oh Henry bar and it should satisfy even the most serious chocolate and peanut lovers.

Cake Ingredients:

2 cups white sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

4 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1 cup water

2 sticks unsalted butter

½ cups buttermilk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Peanut Butter Icing Ingredients:

8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

2/3 cup softened butter

1 and 3/4 cups peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla extract

3-5 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup of milk

Cake Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Prepare two 9" round cake pans by placing a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of each pan and spraying with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

Whisk together sugar, flour, and cinnamon. In a saucepan, mix the cocoa powder and water. Add the butter and bring to a boil. Pour this into the flour mixture and blend well. (Do not use an electric mixer; blend by hand.)

Mix together the buttermilk, beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Add to the batter and blend well.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Completely cool the cakes on wire racks before frosting.

Icing Directions:

With a mixer, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Then add the peanut butter and vanilla extract, combine. Add about 3 cups of powdered sugar and mix together. The icing will look very crumbly. Then add the milk, beat until light and fluffy. Keep adding in icing sugar and blending until the icing is nice and smooth but firm. You don’t want the consistency of the icing to be runny at all. It should be spreadable and able to hold its shape.

To assemble the cake:

With a long serrated knife or a cake leveller, level off your cakes so they are completely flat and even. Using a spatula or small knife, spread a layer of icing on the top of the cake that will be on the bottom. Sprinkle some chopped peanuts onto the icing layer and then place the other cake on top. 


Use the remaining icing to cover the top and sides. When icing the entire cake, it's easiest if you just put a large glob of icing on the top and then spread it outwards from the middle and down the sides of the cake. I topped the cake with more chopped peanuts, some roughly chopped chocolate chips, and an "R" I made out of chocolate. For the piping detail on the sides of the cake I used a star tip in the corner of a Ziploc bag and piped lines up and down all the way around. For the piping detail around the top of the cake I used the same tip and just made small “S” shapes all the way around.

UPDATE:


Because this cake was so darn good I make it AGAIN for my dad's birthday this year (2011)! It was his 50th so we had a big party for him.. and I made the cake x3! I used the same cake and icing recipe but switched up the look of each cake. Here are some photo's:

 The "main" birthday cake. After I iced the two 9" round cakes I pressed roasted peanuts all over the outside of the cake, then drizzled melted dark chocolate over the top.

 Two sheet cakes - I topped one with chopped mini peanut butter cups and the other with chopped white and semisweet chocolate chips. It was difficult to decide which option out of the three different cakes to have... so I may have sampled all three hehe.

*Recipe by Brooke McMillan