Chocolate chip peanut butter cake

 This cake. Ohhhh, this cake.

As you may have seen, I made it for my birthday this year - and yes, I always WANT to make my own cake - and I have to say I fell a little bit in love with it.

Being the peanut butter obsessive that I am, I was always going to make something PB-related. Remember my peanut butter and nutella cupcakes, triple layer chocolate, nutella and peanut butter cake, and my chocolate chip peanut butter cupcakes?

I didn't, lol. In fact, I totally forgot about those last cupcakes when I made this cake.

But yes, let's get back to this cake. This glorious, glorious cake.

The sponge is incredibly moist but crumbly and fluffy, chock-full of chocolate chips, smothered in lashings of light vanilla buttercream, and topped with chunks of chocolate praline and chocolate fudge.

Is it indulgent? Yes. But is it so worth it? HELL yes.

Did I eat the final quarter by myself the day after my birthday? You betcha. And I don't even regret it.

I knew I was going to love this cake because it's full of all my favourite flavours (could you guess?) but I was also super pleased because even my friends who don't really like peanut butter - honestly I don't know why I'm friends with them - loved it.

Or they told me as much anyway. It was my birthday after all, they were hardly going to say they didn't like my cake.

It's flavoursome and rich, but the hint of saltiness means it's not too sickly.

Honestly, it's probably in the top five best cakes I've ever made.

I was really worried I'd underbaked the cakes, but actually they were perfect, so don't worry if you feel the same.

Hope you love it as much as I do!

Ingredients

Cake:
1.5 cups self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup crunchy or smooth natural peanut butter
1/3 cup slightly salted butter, at room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup Greek yoghurt
100g milk chocolate chunks or chips

Icing and topping:
250g unsalted butter, at room temp
600g icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate, fudge pieces and sprinkles of your choice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line two round sandwich tins.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a medium-sized bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the peanut butter, butter and brown sugar and beat using an electric which until well combined. Beat in the vanilla and eggs until just combined.

3. Add the yogurt and flour mix bit by bit, alternating as you go and mixing well in between. Don't over-beat the mixture though.

4. Fold in the chocolate chunks and then pour the batter evenly between the two tins. Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out just a bit moist. Leave to cool in the tins for ten minutes before turning on to a wire rack to cool fully.

5. To make the icing, beat the softened butter until smooth and light, then beat in the icing sugar a bit at a time. Once all combined, carry on beating with your electric whisk for five minutes to ensure your icing is lovely and fluffy. 

6. Place one cake on your serving plate and spread about a third of the icing on top. Sandwich together with the other cake and do the same with another third of the icing. Spread the remaining third around the sides of the cake. Top with chocolate praline pieces, fudge, chocolate buttons, silver balls and even edible glitter if your party is silver-themed like mine.

Enjoy!