Recipes

Peanut Butter Cake with Maple Butter Cream

Cake  Fondant  Frosting  Reynolds® Parchment Paper  Thanksgiving 

• For cake:
• ¾ C Peanut Butter
• 1/2 C butter (not margarine) softened
• 2 C sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 ¾ sifted cake flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 ¾ C whole milk
• For butter cream frosting:
• 2 sticks butter, room temperature
• 1 cup shortening
• 1 teaspoon maple flavoring
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp meringue powder
• 2 pounds powdered cane sugar
• 2-3 Tbsp water, if necessary
• *Gumpaste or fondant accents, opt

Preheat oven to 350F

Line the bottoms of 2 -9” rounds with Reynolds parchment paper

Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside

Cream together peanut butter, butter and sugar. Beat until smooth, add in vanilla.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.

On low mixing speed, alternately add dry ingredients and milk, beginning and ending with the milk.

Scrape down sides of bowl and mix on medium speed until smooth. Pour into pans.

Bake in middle rack of oven for 30-35 min or until a tooth pick in center comes out clean.

Let cakes cool on a rack for 10-15 min. Remove from pans and immediately pull off parchment paper and wrap cakes while still warm in plastic wrap. Refrigerate.

Meanwhile, make butter cream icing. Beat butter and shortening until smooth. Add in maple flavoring, maple syrup and salt. Mix well. Add in about half of the powdered sugar, mix on low until incorporated, then add in the meringue powder. Add the rest of the powdered sugar a cup at a time mixing well between each addition. Add water, one tablespoon at a time, as necessary to make frosting spreadable. Set aside (do not refrigerate)

Once cakes have completely cooled, remove from wrappers and lay each round on piece of parchment paper. (this will make layering and manipulating the cakes easier later on)

Level the tops of each layer. Torte each layer in half with a long serrated knife. Carefully work your hand under one layer and gently place it on another piece of parchment.

Place the other half onto a serving plate (Hint: use 4 wide strips of parchment underneath the cake that can be removed after frosting so that your plate stays neat.) Ice the top of the bottom layer. Now place your hand on the bottom of the second layer and as you turn it onto the bottom layer, secure it with your other hand guiding it onto the bottom layer. Repeat this process for the other two layers.

For a smooth look, crumb coat first with a bit of icing that has been thinned down with water. (This will prevent crumbs from getting into your finished frosted cake.) Once that dries, frost the entire cake. Get as smooth as possible with a long offset spatula. Allow butter cream to crust (about 15 min) Use a sheet of Reynolds parchment paper, gently lay on top of cake then gently smooth out any imperfections. Hint: use something lightweight and that has a flat surface. A fondant smoothing tool works great. Then repeat this process on sides of cake.

Store covered at room temperature.

Growing up with "southern folks", it was common practice for our biscuits at a meal to serve double duty as a dessert. We would swirl together butter, maple syrup and peanut butter and "sop it up" with our biscuits. This evolved into also putting peanut butter on pancakes and drenching in maple syrup. So that's were the idea for this cake came from. In fact, I did it as a torte to kind of replicate the whole pancake thing. I know the flavor combo might seem strange, but trust me....it's a perfect match! I think my granny would approve! This one's for you granny! Decorate this cake with gumpaste or fondant accents if desired. I used marshmallow fondant (MMF) for the acorns and leaves. The acorns were hand painted, the leaves were airbrushed. For the leaves, please see the fondant leaves instructions/recipe here: http://www.bakespace.com/recipes/detail/Fondant%20Fall%20Leaves/33352/# For a tasty homemade fondant, please check out the recipe here: http://www.bakespace.com/recipes/detail/Rolled-Marshmallow-Fondant/13583/