Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
What the visionary Marie Antoinette actually said was, "Let them eat cakes." Plural. She then went on to say "Also let them enjoy tortes, cupcakes, little molten-centered chocolate cakes baked in individual ramekins, and those soft cakey things the British call 'pudding'."
Okay, that may not be historically accurate, but you know she wanted to.
Easy, appealing, soft, and comforting - a cake reminiscent of childhood flavors, but not childish. It makes one round 9-inch cake but you can easily double the recipe and stack the cakes on top of each other.
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Cake:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable shortening
1 large egg
Frosting:
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper or wax paper.
- Sift the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the milk, peanut butter, vegetable shortening, and vanilla and beat for two minutes. Add the egg and beat for another two minutes.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 26-32 minutes, just until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or just barely moist.
- Cool for 10 minutes in the pan on a rack, then run a knife aaround the edges of the cake and turn it out onto a rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a pot of simmering water.
- Slowly beat in the powdered sugar. When the mixture becomes a bit too thick to beat, add any remaining sugar and the milk, vanilla and salt, beating until the frosting is smooth. Use immediately.