CHOCOLATE CAKE with peanut butter frosting | Tonganoxie KS

Happy Labor Day, Friends! I hope everyone has had some rest and relaxation as we support working folks who made today possible.

I have been trying to perfect my chocolate cake for some time and most are either too dry or too dense or not “chocolate-ee” enough and though this recipe is amazing, it’s still not THE ONE.

This cake mix makes 3 – 8″ rounds so if you’re only wanting a 9×13 then I would half the recipe. I think this recipe needs some sour cream and possibly even some coffee as both those items always make the cake that much more good. (That’s probably not proper grammar, but be glad I didn’t say gooder. Ha!)

With this cake I started with the chocolate cake, then made peanut butter buttercream for between layers and on the outside, then attempted a ganache (but this didn’t go as planed – post on this debacle with another attempt later), then made homemade peanut butter cookies and crumbled them for the topping. Lots of work but tasty!

If you’ve known me a short minute you know I am all about being authentic and transparent because hey we can absolutely learn from each other!! – this was supposed to be a ganache drip cake and I was going to stand the PB cookies in between “poofs” of PB frosting and it was going to look so amazing…but as you read above the ganache got feisty and wanted to do it’s own thing so I scratched that whole idea. 😀 I’ll try this idea again next time I attempt a chocolate cake batter?

CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk (No buttermilk? In measuring cup add slightly less than 1 1/2 cups and fill the rest with white vinegar and let sit for a few minutes. Stir before adding to batter.)

1 1/2 cups warm water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 3 – 8″ cake rounds and dust with flour then tap out excess.
2. Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix using low speed until all combined.
3. Add eggs, buttermilk, warm water, oil and vanilla. Beat medium speed until smooth – couple minutes.
4. Pour batter into pans.
5. Bake 30-35 minutes until set.
6. Cool completely.
7. Stack ’em and frost ’em and enjoy the way your house smells!

This cake recipe is good, but I know it can be perfected. Trial and error and I don’t mind taste testing. 🙂

UPDATED to add – recipe has been modified slightly – read about the changes HERE.

xo – JB

JB Photo and Design, LLC | Jenni Blake is based out of Leavenworth County, Kansas but proudly serves the areas of Lawrence KS, Tonganoxie KS, Basehor KS, Eudora KS, Leawood KS, Mcclouth KS, Spring Hill KS, Gardner KS, Eudora KS, Lenexa KS, Olathe KS, Bonner Springs KS, Leavenworth KS, Overland Park KS and surrounding areas.  We love to capture images of seniors, families, children, events, landscape, maternity, and macro. But we also love to bake homemade items with love from our kitchen.

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