Hands down, my most requested cake is Chocolate Cake With Peanut Butter Filling and Chocolate Buttercream but sometimes it's fun to experiment and mix things up a bit. So staying with the peanut butter and chocolate theme I instead made two Guinness Chocolate Cakes and topped each of them with Peanut Butter Filling and Cream Cheese Icing.
I just thought the smooth lightly sweet icing would go really well with the chunky peanut butter filling. And, there really is no cake better than super moist Guinness chocolate.
When it came to decorating, I kept the sides of the cakes bare since I like the look of the bright white cream cheese icing against the dark chocolate brown cake. For a little extra pizazz I piped borders around the top, middle and base of the cake. The border also hides the not so pretty edges of where the peanut butter filling and icing meet.
I'm serving this cake tomorrow at the Wednesday Community Meal in recognition of our volunteers who have November birthdays and I hope it's a hit.
Here's how I made it:
Guinness Chocolate Cake
(makes two 9-inch cakes)
2 cup Guinness
2 sticks plus 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups sour cream
4 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla
4 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons baking soda
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and line two 9-inch springform pans.
Pour the Guinness into a large saucepan, add the butter in slices and heat until the butter is melted. Turn off the heat and whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and pour into the beer mixture and finally whisk in the flour and baking soda.
Divide the cake batter among the two greased and lined pans and bake the cakes for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Leave them to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack before releasing them from the pan.
Once the cakes are cool, make the filling and cream cheese icing.
Peanut Butter Filling:
1 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk
In a mixing bowl, whip peanut butter and butter together. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Finally add milk and beat just until the filling comes together and is spreadable. Don't over beat.
Cream Cheese Topping
2 packages (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup heavy cream
Whip the cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar and whip again. Add the cream and whip again until it's light and spreadable.
To Assemble:
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| Place one of the cakes on a platter and top with half of the filling. |
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| Spread the filling evenly over the cake being careful not to get too close to the sides. |
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| Add a little more than a third of the icing to the top of the filling and spread it evenly, trying your best to keep it neat and the layers separate. |
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| Top the first cake with the second cake and repeat, adding filling and cream cheese icing to the top. |
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| Put the remaining icing into a pastry bag fitted with the tip of your choice and pipe a border around the top of the cake. |
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| Also add a border around the middle of the cake. This hides the messy edge of where the filling meets the icing. |
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| Finally, add a third border to the base of the cake. Keep the cake chilled until you are ready to serve. Enjoy! |
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