Reese’s Cup Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
This Reese’s chocolate cake is a moist chocolate cake that’s covered in peanut butter frosting and topped with chopped peanut butter cups. It’s rich, decadent, and totally delicious.
When Eric and I moved to Virginia in January, we were so happy to be only an hour away from a set of friends from Alabama. Then, two more sets of friends from Alabama ended up moving to DC. Since Virginia is the fourth state we’ve lived in, we considered ourselves especially lucky to have so many friends living in the area. Our friend Andrew’s birthday is five days after mine, and this year we actually got to celebrate both our birthdays together. We haven’t done that since college! There’s no fun in being a decent baker if you can’t make birthday cakes for your friends, so I was quite happy to make this cake for him. I can’t wait to make more birthday cakes for my other friends here!
Chocolate and peanut butter is one of my favorite combinations. It’s right up there with goat cheese and caramelized onions. This dessert, combining moist chocolate cake with rich and creamy peanut butter icing, is perfect. Add in some chopped Reese’s Cups, and this cake is truly decadent.
- COOK TIME:
- YIELD: 8-12 slices
For the cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
For the frosting:
2 cups confectioners sugar
2 cups creamy peanut butter
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon kosher salt
⅔ cup heavy cream
Miniature Reese’s cups, halved and/or chopped, frozen for at least 15 minutes
- 1
Heat oven to 350º. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans. Sprinkle flour on the inside, tap out excess and line bottom with parchment paper.
Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
- 2
Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and continue beating for about 2 minutes, until it is thoroughly blended into the butter. Add eggs and yolks one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. If needed, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and alternately add dry ingredients and buttermilk, with the dry ingredients in 3 portion and the buttermilk in 2, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix only until just blended into the batter. Scrape down bottom and sides of bowl.
- 3
Divide batter evenly between two pans and bake for 26 to 30 minutes, until the cakes feel springy to the touch. Allow cakes to cool in pans on rack for about 5 minutes, then remove from pans and allow to cool to room temperature. At this point, cake layers can be wrapped airtight and left at room temperature overnight or frozen up to 2 months.
- 4
While cake is cooling, make frosting by combining confectioner’s sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl as needed. Add the cream, and beat on high speed until smooth.
Freeze the Reese’s Cups while filling and frosting the cake, then chop/halve them as desired and use them to top the cake.
I wish you could make my birthday cake because this one looks delicious!
I would KILL to have an excuse to make that. I'm the chocolate and peanut butter lover in the house, and my husband isn't nearly as into it as I am. Since eating the whole thing would probably be a bad idea, I may have to wait. 🙁
Glad you enjoyed it! Yours is so gorgeous. I think I need to reblog mine with better photos!
Star, I wish I could! I don't think cakes mail very well, though.
Thanks, Annie! I refrigerated the cake for about 15 minutes, which made smoothing the icing so much easier.
I consumed that cake and as the said consumer I give it three thumbs up, 5 1/2 stars, and an A++.
Delish.
Ooh my goodness this is simply amazing!
Where does the heavy cream go?
It goes in after beating the butter, sugar and peanut butter together.
I baked this cake for my husband and it was a huge success. now my grandaughter requests it for her birthday! huge success.
My co-worker made this cake, it was to DIE FOR!!!! It’s the BOMB!!! All I can say it was AAAAAAwesome!!!!! Enjoy, it was the BEST EVER!!!!!
My friend had begged me for ages to make some sort of cake based on a Reece’s peanut butter cup (her fave US sweetie). She recently climbed Ben Nevis (tallest mountain in the UK) for charity, and I figured she deserved a treat, so I went internet searching for a recipe. We don’t really get Reece’s peanut butter cups in the UK (unless you’re willing to pay ridiculous import prices), so I started looking for US recipes, which I’m always a bit wary of because of the conversion from imperial to metric weights.
Turns out I needed have worried – this recipe is THE BEST I’ve ever found on the internet. Converted all the weights, spent 3 hours baking and decorating it (including covering in peanut m&ms – much easier to get hold of!), and it looked and tasted fantastic. 5 days later and I’m still getting compliments about it – to the point that some of my friends now have a mild peanut butter icing addiction!
Thanks so much for posting – think I’ll be baking this cake for years to come! 🙂