Kitchen Dandy: Peanut Butter Cake with Peanut Butter Icing

My oldest daughter, Laura asked for a peanut butter cake for her birthday this year. I have never made a peanut butter cake, never. so, I had husband look up a recipe for me on a recipe website and here it is. It was surprisingly easy and very good. Now I will list the line-up if I have flung a craving on you for rich peanut butter cake with icing. Lineup: 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, 1/2 cup butter, softened.

4 large eggs

1 box butter recipe cake mix

For the icing, powdered sugar, peanut butter, cream cheese and either milk or cream.

In a mixing bowl, put 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter and the 1/2 cup of softened butter, mix until creamy.

While these first ingredients are mixing, grease and flour 2 round cake pans.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one.

After the eggs are beaten in, add the cake mix alternately with the 2/3 cup of water. A little cake mix, blend, then a little water, blend, so on until all ingredients are in, then mix well.

Divide the batter between the 2 greased and floured pans, shake and tap gently to release any air bubbles in the pan. Then pop into a pre-heated 325 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes or until tested done.

Allow cakes to cool for a few minutes before turning them out onto cooling racks. I allowed my to cool completely on the cooling racks and then I double wrapped them with plastic wrap and put them in the freezer overnight, so they would be easier to slice and frost the next day. You would not have to do this, shoot, bake it in a standard rectangle cake pan and cover it with the icing, it would still be good.

This morning, I pulled them from the freezer and sliced each layer into 2, very easy to do with them frozen, they don't crumble, also the cake is unbelievably moist after freezing, this is a secret we discovered from a wedding bakery, they always freeze layers.

To make your icing, soften 1 package of cream cheese and put into mixing bowl.

I then plopped in a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter and started creaming, after they had blended, I starting adding powdered sugar and small amounts of cream to blend the icing into a nice creamy consistency. You know, kinda just wing this, if you need a little, make a little, if you need a lot, make a lot. Just add more sugar and then smooth it with either milk or cream, a dash of vanilla extract is also good. When you get this a nice smooth texture, get ready to Spackle.

Ok, I know mine looks crooked, it kind of was until I adjusted it, this probably wasn't the best choice of picture to show how to build a layer cake, but look at it this way, at least I'm not a brick layer. Start with the first layer, spread on a nice amount of icing and then top it with the next layer and so on. Ice the entire cake, making it as pretty as you like, if your icing seems a little too firm to spread, add a bit more milk and whip again, if the icing seems too runny, just add a little more sugar. It need to be easy to spread and not crumble or tear up the cake. To make my birthday cake more beautiful, I melted some chocolate chips and mixed with some remaining icing to make the drizzle, I also crumbled some Reece's Peanut Butter Cups around the top edge and re-drizzled again. I thought it turned out pretty nice.