Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Chocolate cake, peanut butter cream cheese frosting, peanut butter chocolate ganache. Sound delicious? It is. And I don't even like chocolate. Or peanut butter. But this cake is to die for. I found the recipe here and tweaked it some for a coworker's birthday. Within a week, I was asked to make it two more times in cupcake version. Once for the big boss' birthday, and once for an admin who love the cuppity cakes so much, she wanted some at home for the weekend. Awesome. And earlier this week, another coworker asked if I could make another cake for his mother's birthday. Happy to oblige.

I really love making this cake. What's great about making it as a cake is that, unlike butter cream frosted cakes, it doesn't have to be perfect. Normally, I have to do a crumb layer, freeze the cake and do another layer and skillfully ensure that no crumbs are picked up by the second layer, all while making sure that it's level and the sides are lovely and neat. With this cake, the "crumb" layer is covered by a layer of rich, peanut butter ganache, so crumbs are irrelevant. Even though the components are a little complex, the cake as a whole is a dream come true. The hardest part is leveling it. Even then, frosting can be used to make up slight differences in height around the cake. And ganache by nature is lumpy, so voila! An awesomely delicious cake that's relative easy and stress-free for me to make. Hopefully, I'll be able to experiment with the recipe some more and make it a Purple Castle Confections classic.