Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Serves 8-12
My niece always says “Chels, you’re the best cooker of sweets” and while she’s not entirely correct, I can usually produce pretty dope results when I put the effort in. You can too with my monster Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake; a rich brownie-like cake covered with two types of fluffy frosting, teensy blocks and peanut butter cups made from dark, white and peanut butter chocolate (OMG).
If you don’t have moulds, use whatever chocolatey bits and pieces you can find to turn a simple cake into a baking masterpiece. It’s really not that hard to do but I threw that difficulty rating up there because mustering the time and effort to do it is half the battle. Worth it tho. Just look at the result…
Ingredients
Mini Blocks
- 125 vegan dark chocolate
- 250 grams vegan white chocolate
- 2 teaspoons powdered peanut butter
Mini Peanut Butter Cups
- 250 grams vegan dark chocolate
- 250 grams vegan white chocolate
- 1/3 cup peanut butter
Cake
- 3 cups soy milk
- 3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 4 cups plain flour
- 3 teaspoons baking soda
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups caster sugar
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1 cup chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate)
Peanut Butter Frosting
- 1 cup vegan margarine
- 3 cups icing sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons powdered peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Chocolate Frosting
- 1/2 cup vegan margarine
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Method
- Make your chocolate blocks in advance by breaking up the dark chocolate and melting 30 seconds at a time in the microwave until melted, stirring well between each blast (if you have any other preferred method of melting chocolate feel free to do that).
- Gently spoon the dark chocolate into a silicone mini block mould (I got mine on eBAY), tapping gently on the bench before placing in the fridge to set.
- Repeat this process with the white chocolate however once you’ve added half to the mould, thoroughly mix the powdered peanut butter into the remaining white chocolate before adding to the mould and setting in the fridge.
- Now it’s time to make the mini peanut butter cups. Melt the dark chocolate as above, but this time spoon 1/2-1 teaspoon of the chocolate into the bottom of a small silicone chocolate mould (you can grab those online too).
- Do the same with the white chocolate, tap the moulds on the bench and place in the fridge.
- While the chocolate is setting, scoop your peanut butter into a piping bag and squeeze with your hands to soften.
- Remove the partially set chocolate from the fridge and using a small nozzle, squeeze a small amount of peanut butter into the middle of the base of the mould.
- Pour the remaining melted white and dark chocolate on the corresponding PB filled sections until filled to the top.
- Tap on the bench again and place in the fridge to set.
- Okay, time to get started on the actual cake.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C and line 3 26cm springform baking tins with baking paper.
- In a large bowl or jug, whisk together the soy milk and apple cider vinegar before setting aside.
- In an even larger bowl, sift together the plain flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt before mixing through the caster sugar.
- Slowly pour the soy milk mixture into the dry mixture while stirring. Do the same with the vanilla extract and canola oil, mixing well until combined.
- Melt the dark chocolate bits/pieces and fold gently into the cake batter until well distributed.
- Evenly pour the batter into the tins (it should be about 2.5 cups of batter per tin). Tap gently on the bench and place in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Allow to set in the tin for about an hour before very gently transferring to cooling racks (I keep the baking paper on the bottom to reduce the dents often made by the racks).
- While the cakes are cooling, get stuck into the peanut butter frosting by chucking the vegan margarine into the bowl of your electric mixer, mixing on medium-high until pale (about 2 minutes)
- Sift the icing sugar into the bowl in 1/2 cup increments, mixing for 20 seconds between each addition of icing sugar until light and fluffy.
- Now sift in the peanut butter powder and add the vanilla extract, mixing again until combined.
- Place the first cake on your cake plate, flat side down and dump a third of the PB frosting and spreading evenly on top.
- Gently place the second cake on top, flat side down and repeat the same process with the frosting.
- Now it’s time to place the final cake on top, flat side up and add the final lot of frosting, spreading nicely on top.
- Make the chocolate frosting using the same process as Step 18, subbing the PB powder for cocoa powder in Step 20.
- Add the chocolate frosting to a piping bag and pop in the fridge until you’re ready to decorate the cake.
- When you’re ready to decorate, grab all of your chocolate from the fridge and gently press out of their moulds and keeping them somewhere cool.
- Using a small, round piping tip, add nice dollops of icing to the top of the cake and gently adding mini blocks and PB cups until you’re happy with how it looks.
- Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
