It has been a while since I shared a recipe with you here, so today I have a special celebration cake for you
How pretty?
An Ombre Chocolate Peanut Butter Celebration Cake. Tasty.
This centrepiece cake is deliciously rich and indulgent and topped with shards of agave salted peanut brittle for a truly eye-catching finish.
Serves: 12
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Ombre Chocolate Peanut Butter Celebration Cake:
What You Need
For the brittle:
For the cake:
For the peanut frosting:
For the dark chocolate Icing:
What You Do:
1. Start by making the brittle. Measure the agave syrup and coconut oil into a medium sized heavy based saucepan. Bring to a boil stirring continuously until the syrup reaches hard crack temperature (150C/300F). Remove from heat and stir in peanuts then pour onto a silicone or non-stick parchment paper. Put into freezer for two hours to cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan, grease and line two 20cm sandwich tins. In a large bowl beat the butter until pale, soft and creamy. Whisk in the rice bran syrup then the unrefined brown sugar. Beat in the eggs one by one, then the yogurt. If the mixture looks like its curdling at any point, add a few spoons of flour and continue whisking.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa and gently fold in, adding the milk towards the end to make a smooth batter. Once combined, spoon into the sandwich tins, spread to the edges and bake for 25 minutes until they spring back when touched. Cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. For the peanut butter frosting, beat all the ingredients together till smooth. Slice the cooled cakes horizontally in half to make four equal layers. Put the bottom layer on a board or plate, cut side up and spread with a quarter of the frosting. Repeat until you have four layers of cake and three layers of frosting.
5. To make the dark chocolate icing, beat all the ingredients together until smooth. Divide the frosting into thirds, mix half of the remaining peanut frosting into one third of the chocolate frosting.
6. To apply the ombre icing spread the top of the cake with one third of the chocolate icing, spread the next third down the side of the cake just covering the top layer. Use the remaining peanut frosting at the bottom of the cake to cover the sides and fill in the gap in the middle with the mixed frosting. You will now have striped sides to your cake. Use a pallet knife to smooth the sides and blur the colours together to create an ombre effect.
7. Crack the brittle into big shards and use to decorate the top of the cake.
Do you have any celebrations coming up?
For the brittle:
- 250ml agave syrup
- 80ml coconut oil
- 90g salted roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
For the cake:
- 115g butter, room temperature
- 150g rice bran syrup
- 115g unrefined brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 125ml low fat greek yogurt
- 300g self raising flour
- 80g cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp milk
For the peanut frosting:
- 400g light cream cheese
- 100g smooth peanut butter
- 100g unrefined icing sugar
For the dark chocolate Icing:
- 70g butter, room temperature
- 60g good quality 85% chocolate, melted
- 200g unrefined icing sugar
- ½ tsp Meridian molasses
- 2 tbsp milk
What You Do:
1. Start by making the brittle. Measure the agave syrup and coconut oil into a medium sized heavy based saucepan. Bring to a boil stirring continuously until the syrup reaches hard crack temperature (150C/300F). Remove from heat and stir in peanuts then pour onto a silicone or non-stick parchment paper. Put into freezer for two hours to cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan, grease and line two 20cm sandwich tins. In a large bowl beat the butter until pale, soft and creamy. Whisk in the rice bran syrup then the unrefined brown sugar. Beat in the eggs one by one, then the yogurt. If the mixture looks like its curdling at any point, add a few spoons of flour and continue whisking.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa and gently fold in, adding the milk towards the end to make a smooth batter. Once combined, spoon into the sandwich tins, spread to the edges and bake for 25 minutes until they spring back when touched. Cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. For the peanut butter frosting, beat all the ingredients together till smooth. Slice the cooled cakes horizontally in half to make four equal layers. Put the bottom layer on a board or plate, cut side up and spread with a quarter of the frosting. Repeat until you have four layers of cake and three layers of frosting.
5. To make the dark chocolate icing, beat all the ingredients together until smooth. Divide the frosting into thirds, mix half of the remaining peanut frosting into one third of the chocolate frosting.
6. To apply the ombre icing spread the top of the cake with one third of the chocolate icing, spread the next third down the side of the cake just covering the top layer. Use the remaining peanut frosting at the bottom of the cake to cover the sides and fill in the gap in the middle with the mixed frosting. You will now have striped sides to your cake. Use a pallet knife to smooth the sides and blur the colours together to create an ombre effect.
7. Crack the brittle into big shards and use to decorate the top of the cake.
Recipe and photo courtesy of Meridian Foods.
Do you have any celebrations coming up?
Fancy making this Ombre Chocolate Peanut Butter Celebration Cake?
