Now we've all see recipes online and in cookbooks that just sound wonderful and the pictures are amazing. And we've all tried those recipes and some have looked somewhat like the photo's and tasted somewhat okay. and we've tried those recipes that might as well not even been worth the thought. So I thought I would use today's post to tell you about my latest trial and error with a recipe off of Pinterest. Now I'm not the best writer or photographer so keep that in mind and as you take this journey with me.
I found this recipe:
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter (don't use natural unless you have the no-stir kind)
- 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
- 3 cups granulated white sugar
- 6 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
For the cake:
For the glaze:
Instruction
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray 10-cup bundt pan generously with nonstick spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together peanut butter and butter. Add sugar and beat an additional 5 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until well combined. Add dry ingredients a little at a time, beating just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Scrape batter into prepared bundt pan. Tap it a couple of times on the counter to shake out any hidden air pockets.
- Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes, or until a skewer, sharp knife, or toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Check on the cake at 1 hour to make sure it's not browning too quickly on top. If it is, just place a piece of foil loosely over the top of the pan. Let the cake cool for 20 minutes, then flip it onto a rack or platter and let it cool completely.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, milk, peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle glaze over the top of the cooled cake, letting it drizzle down the sides. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips on top.
For the Cake
For the glaze:
So, doing as I had always been taught, I gathered up all my ingredients and set to work in the kitchen. After all it was 111 degree's outside. .so let's just heat the house up more by turning on the oven. LOL! I sprayed my Bundt pan with baking spray. This Bundt pan is pretty special to me. It belonged to my grandmother and she will be 97 years young next week. It's not one of the newer silicone one's or one of the thinner metal one's. This thing is HEAVY! Drop it on your foot and you'll break a toe for sure! I have no idea how old it is but it's been a round a very long time.
Next up was what I consider the "main ingredient". Peanut Butter. Like I said. .peanut butter to my family is like bee to nectar. So you betcha I'm a choosey and Mom and chose Jif. My daughter and I also like all natural peanut butter as well but since the recipe says not to use it I grabbed the Jif. We always have a debate in our family on creamy or crunchy so there is a jar of both in the kitchen. For this recipe I used creamy.
Also if you have not purchased one of these handy little measuring devices from Pampered Chef you really should. It is perfect for measuring anything gooey or sticky. Everything comes out clean and right into the bowl. No doubting if you have everything measured in the bowl. It's there! So I creamed by butter and peanut butter. Really who waits on butter to come to room temp? Just pop it in the microwave on defrost for like 20 seconds!
Love how the pic turned out. No expensive KitchenAide mixer at my house. Not that I wouldn't like one but I have this mixer that I bought at Target years ago for around $35. Works fine and has dough hooks and two sizes of bowls. Some day though I will have a KitchenAide. This was just a normal looking mixture of creamy stuff. Next came the eggs. Six large ones.
I added them while the mixer was still going along with the vanilla. Starting to look more like cake batter at this point. The recipe said to incorporate the dry ingredients a little at a time. I've always wondered why recipes say that but I did. Well let me tell ya. .this stuff became very thick very fast. The mixer was getting a work out. Cleaned the beaters off and stirred the chocolate chips in.
Poured everything into the bundt pan.. . .that very heavy bundt pan and popped it in the oven. Now the recipe says to bake for 1 hour and 2o to 30 minutes! WOWZER!!! That's a long time for a cake but I set my timer and went about my business of cleaning up the kitchen and folding laundry. My teenage son appeared about 45 minutes into the baking process and asked "What is that heavenly smell?' I had not noticed the smell but it was strong enough for him to smell it upstairs in his room with the door closed.
I checked the cake at the 1 hour and 20 minute time and it was done! Everything came out clean and it looked a nice shade of tan. I let it cool for 20 to 30 minutes and had a wee bit of difficulty getting it to come out of the pan but it finally after some persuasion with knife it came out clean.
The recipe says to cool completely before adding the glaze. .guess what? It didn't last that long! It was cut into and feasted on before I got that far! So I have no idea how the glaze tasted! As far as the cake it's a pretty good cake! We did find it to be a bit dry so next time I will check it at the one hour mark for doneness. It has a nice little pound cake style "crust" on it and the chocolate chips stayed soft and gooey.
I am positive I will make this cake again but with some changes. Such as the timing and the fact I will make it when nobody is home so that I get the glaze on it!
