A Little Bit of Baking

Tim has had to work late pretty much ever day for the past 2 weeks and tonight and tomorrow night he will be working even later, like till about 11 p.m. and tomorrow till about 1 a.m. So his office has a party/dinner each year on these two days. Tim asked me to make dessert. He asked me to make the chocolate chip cookie dough truffles, which I still am, but I wanted to make something a little more over the top. I think I accomplished that.

 It is called Reese Peanut Butter Cake and boy does it look awesome, I just wish I was going to be able to eat it. The cake is chocolate cake, made from scratch and it is egg less. It looked very moist. The filling of the cake is a layer of chocolate peanut butter fudge with chucks of Reese peanut butter cups. I had to dump the chocolate on top and let it harden before I could frost it with the peanut butter frosting. Oh, don't kid yourself, there is nothing healthy about this cake, I'm sure it is about 1000 calories a slice but damn does it look good. I have included the recipe below as it pulled it from several different sites.

 Reese Peanut Butter Cake
Cake

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup sifted natural unsweetened cocoa powder (sifted, then measured)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups water
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides with nonstick spray. Line pan bottoms with parchment paper. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into large bowl. Whisk 2 cups water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla in medium bowl to blend. Gradually add water mixture to dry ingredients, whisking until batter is smooth. Divide batter between prepared pans (scant 3 cups each).

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out with a few crumbs still attached, about 28 minutes. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Cut around cakes and turn out onto racks. Peel off parchment and cool.

Filling

• 8oz semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped
• 8oz heavy cream
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup Reese's peanut butter cups, roughly chopped

Heat the cream until it just begins to boil. Pour it over the chocolate in a medium bowl. Whisk until the chocolate melts, then whisk in the peanut butter until it's all incorporated and smooth. Set aside 1/4 of the filling for the first layer of frosting. Cool the other 3/4 completely, then gently stir in the peanut butter cups.

Frosting

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Cream together the butter and peanut butter. Add the vanilla, then the sugar. I beat mine until it was pretty fluffy.

Assembly

Place one 9-inch round on a cake stand or plate. Cover the top in the peanut butter fudge filling. Place the second 9-inch round on top. Using the reserved filling, spread a thin layer on the outside of the cake. Refrigerate until the fudge is set and firm to the touch.
Slather the whole thing in the peanut butter frosting. Decorate with peanut butter cups.
**The only thing I would change about this recipe would be to make sure that your peanut butter frosting is smooth and creamy. My was a little clumpy but it still tasted good, just didn't look all that great and didn't spread very well on the cake.

I also saw a recipe for Sugar Cookie Truffles. They looked interesting and thought I would try them. They are okay, not my favorite and I would make them again, but not for myself. I'm sure everyone at Tim's work is going to love them but I have had better truffles. The recipe is below.

Sugar Cookie Truffles



Ingredients1 16 oz. package of sugar cookie dough
2 ounces of cream cheese, room temperature
4 oz white melting chocolate OR 1 cup white chips
1 Tablespoon shortening
sprinkles for garnish

Directions
1. Bake cookies according to package directions until CRISP and cool completely. (You will likely have to cook them a little longer than the package instructs.)

2. Add the cookies to a blender or food processor and process until the cookies are fine crumbs. Add cream cheese and process until they begin to hold together. (You can also do this part by hand, which is what I did. It was messy but it worked. The mixture is going to feel a little dry, which is OK.)

3. Line a cooled baking sheet with wax or parchment paper. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on sheet. Freeze about 20 minutes.

4. Melt white chocolate and shortening according to package directions. Dip each ball into melted chocolate and add sprinkles while wet.

5. Allow to dry completely before storing, covered, in the refrigerator.

Link to webpage where I found the sugar cookie truffles
http://www.mrsbettierocker.com/2011/02/sugar-cookie-truffles.html