Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

I just realized that I have never featured the cake that got me into cake decorating. It is a really easy cake to bake and put together....I mean, if I can do it on the first go-round then anyone can! I was searching for a good cake to make for my then boyfriend, now husband, and since he loves Reeses I searched for chocolate peanut butter cakes. Here it is, the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake. (Link goes to Smitten Kitchen where once I saw this, I explored a little and fell in love with her blog!)

 The pictures are absolutely terrible, but this was really the first time I started taking pictures of food.....and at that point I really didn't care too much about the lighting and more about posting these pics online...I was so proud!



Three layers of cake! I froze them before icing them to make them easier to deal with and less crumbs.



The cream cheese peanut butter frosting.....yum.



All three layers of chocolatey goodness, held together with peanut butter frosting.



This is the chocolate peanut butter ganache that is poured over the top of the cake.



The  finished product. BE WARNED! This product is very rich and you will need lots of milk :)



It was a piece of cake. It doesn't look nearly as 'neat' as Deb's @ SK's does but hey, it was my first attempt. It still tasted damn good.



The recipe is avaible if you click on the link before the pictures. If you are looking for other absolutely yummy recipes just browse smittenkitchen.com and you're sure to find something you will love. Another good foodie blog is 17 and Baking, and if you don't go there to read about the food at least read her posts.....she is an amazingly talented writer!! She paints a very vivid picture!

After I first made this cake people have been demanding it....friends, family, coworkers, everyone! I have found that I liked making this cake and I actually had fun cleaning up as the cakes are baking, making the icing as the cakes chill in the freezer, and melting chocolate and peanut butter together and pouring it all over a cake. I like baking.

When I was younger my sister and I were in 4H and took a cake decorating course but never followed through with the whole thing, but we always had cake decorating supplies. We rarely made cakes after that, let alone decorated them, but I held onto those supplies. Then, last Christmas, my Aunt bought me a huge carrying case full of supplies - enough for the first Wilton cake decorating course! I signed up for four classes once a week in April and learned a lot. I posted pictures of those a while ago so if you would like to see them just click here, here, here, and here.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my first cake venture and if you decide to try it, please take pics and let me see!!

♥kayla

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1 Class 2

Today's class was the second class in course one, and it was completely different than what I thought it would be. We were asked to bring in a cake that was already frosted, and I assumed that we were going to make our own design. When we got there we were told that it was going to be a 'practice cake', and that we would be making a cake with a hot-air balloon on it in the next class. They will show us how to transfer a picture onto a cake and then we are going to fill it in.....cool, but I was hoping for the rainbow. I can do that on my own though once I learn how to do it!

Double Fudge Cake with Chocolate Pudding Filling and Cream Cheese Icing

Wilton Class Buttercream Icing, slightly tweaked. This is stiff stuff!

This is my practice cake, 3 roses, a heart made of stars, a large shell border, and on the side there are zig zags and ropes.

This shows the side detail a little better. First there is a zig zag pattern all the way up and down the sides and then the ropes are hung over them.

I'm rather proud of what I've done for my first cake decorating venture. Our teacher is terrific and I found out today that she helped write the class cake decorating books! I just thought that was awesome! She also told us that she used to make cakes for hire and had done it for 50 years and would be willing to tell us any tricks of the trade.....sounds like shortcuts and timesavers! Something that she told us that would save a huge mess was about the colors for our icing. She said rather than pull the entire protective aluminum top off, just poke a hole that you can put a toothpick through! Amazing!

I've learned so much in the past two weeks that I would like to continue going, however, money issues hold me back. I also learned today that they are going to be discontinuing the third cake decorating class after May's class because of lack of interest. Boooooo. That's the class where you learn the proper way to stack teired cakes, which would be handy to know if I were to become a decent enough cake decorator to make wedding cakes.

Anyway, thought I would share this with you! Haven't been on in a while because I've been busy with cakes since Sunday!! Still have some pictures to post from around the house.....need to do.....where are my post its?!?!

♥