Peanut Butter Cup Cake

♥ Beginner

This isn't the prettiest of all of my creations, but it still tasted good.  If you want yours to be pretty, it's certainly possible - I just didn't have the time or energy.  My husband LOVES Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  It doesn't matter what time of day it is, he's happy with one or two of them in the cabinet.  So for his Birthday this past Sunday, he asked me to make him a peanut butter cake and I was happy to try it out.

I found a recipe online, and altered it some to make it as similar to a peanut butter cup as possible.  I like filled cakes too, so this one has a nice creamy peanut butter center.

What you'll need:

• 1 Package of Yellow Cake Mix (or a Butter cake mix works really well too!)
• 1 Package Vanilla Instant Pudding and Pie Filling
• 4 Eggs
• 1 C. Water
• 1/4 C. Oil
• 1 C. Peanut Butter 
• 1 Package Reese's Peanut Butter chips
• 1/4 Heavy Cream
• 1 Can of Chocolate Fudge Frosting 

How it's done:

1. Preheat your oven to 350*F (or whatever temp your box mix calls for) and grease your cake pans.  If you're using a 9" or larger, make sure you invest in some Cake Baking Strips for evenly cooking your cake.

2. Mix together cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, water, and peanut butter in large mixing bowl. It will be thicker than the normal cake mix because of the added peanut butter.

3. Pour the mix into the cake pans, and cook for 20-25 minutes (or whatever you box mix suggests).  Once baked, allow to cool completely.

4. Cut off tops of cakes to make them even.  (If you're like me and can never get a perfectly even layer, you should invest in a cake leveler!) Pipe chocolate frosting around the edge of the top of one of the cakes.

5.  Melt Peanut butter chips in small saucepan on low heat with cream, until creamy. Pour some or all, into the center of frosting on top of the cake layer. Allow to cool for 2 minutes.

6. Stack the other layer on top of the filling.  Frost cake completely.  If there was some melted peanut butter chips left over, then you can drizzle the remainder of them over the top of the cake. (Add more cream for a thinner drizzle.)

Mine may not be pretty, but it sure did taste good!  The next time I make this, it will be a much smaller cake, it was so rich that you can only eat a small slice at a time.  Feel free to add your own flair!  (Just make sure you share with me too!)