Reese's Cake

I love peanut butter, probably more than any healthy person should, so when I saw a picture of a Reese's peanut butter cake online, I knew I had to recreate it.  Since I made a tiered cake, you'll need to double all of the ingredients to make the same one I did, but for a basic two layer cake, the ingredients below are what you need.  I made a basic chocolate cake, however, you can also add in one cup of chopped Reese's cups to the batter if you want a more peanut buttery feel throughout the cake.  You know, in case it being covered with peanut butter frosting doesn't do it for you.

Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
     3 eggs
     3/4 cup butter (softened)
     2 cups flour
     3/4 cup cocoa powder
     1 tablespoon vanilla extract
     2 cups sugar
     1 1/2 cups buttermilk
     1 teaspoon baking powder
     1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease two 9 inch cake pans (or, if you're doing the tiered cake, two 8 inch pans and two 10 inch pans).  Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.  Beat together eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract.  Alternate between adding the flour mixture and buttermilk gradually, starting and ending with the buttermilk.  (If you are adding in a cup of chopped Reese's cups, add them to the batter at this time and mix them in thoroughly.) Pour into the cake pans, then bake at 350 for about 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.


Frosting
Adapted from allrecipes.com
Ingredients:
1 cup, 2 tablespoons of butter, softened
2 cups Jif creamy peanut butter (NOT the chunky kind, unless you want your frosting to have chunks in it and not smooth properly)
5 tbs milk (more if needed to make it slightly thinner)
4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar

Beat together butter and Jif until well blended, then gradually add in the sugar.  When frosting gets thick, alternate between adding 1 tbs of milk and more confectioner's sugar until it's as thick as you want it.  Continue to beat for 2 - 3 minutes to make the frosting fluffier, so the peanut butter flavor isn't too dense.


Chocolate Ganache Recipe
Ingredients:
     1 cup heavy cream
     12 oz chopped chocolate
Bring heavy cream to a boil over medium high heat, then remove saucepan from heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth and glossy.  Allow to set for 5 to 10 minutes (or long enough to set slightly), before glazing over cake.


Assembly
Frost the top of the first cake layer, then place the second layer on top.  Frost the top and sides of both cakes, then pour ganache over the top.  I threw my cake in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes after that, so the ganache would drip down the sides, but cool before reaching the bottom of the cake.  I did a ring of unwrapped Reese's minis around the base of my cake, then chopped up small Reese's cups (but the ones you have to unwrap yourself), and decorated the top of my cake (and the visible top of my bottom tier) with them.