This cake was made for a peanut butter fiend, my brother. When I say fiend, imagine someone who dumps about a 4 or 5 inch layer of peanut butter between twice slices of bread and calls it a sandwich. Having seen that sandwich-making marvel many, many times, I judged that this cake would be enough to impress someone so voraciously fond of peanut butter.
Said peanut butter fanboy also happens to be big on space. Always has been. But this year was special. We had just witnessed and marveled at the first manned SpaceX launch of its Crew Dragon spacecraft with the Falcon 9 rocket. We were like a bunch of kids watching a blockbuster movie with amazing special effects, so much cooler since it was real life. With that unforgettable moment freshly emblazoned in our minds, the cake’s theme absolutely had to be space. I actually drew out the design and planned out each of the different elements–something I had never done before. I settled on purple as a happy alternative to the usually black or really dark galaxy cakes I had seen. I was hugely amazed when the peanut butter frosting actually took the rich purple color from the food coloring, a true testament to the quality of the dye. I’m not a cake decorator by any stretch, but I have to admit I am really proud at how this turned out. Makes me happy to look at it; LOOK AT THE PICTURES.🤩
Although the actual cake is chocolate-based, it’s not the typical, richly decadent chocolate you’re used to. It’s light enough that the peanut butter is still very much the star flavor of this sweet stack of cakes. The crumb is firm, yet somehow still soft on the palette. The peanut butter frosting is so balanced that the nuttiness beautifully tames the would-be cloying sweetness of plain buttercream. The Butterfinger chunks between the cake layers give a surprisingly delightful bit of texture and crunch (yay, no nuts!). It’s just so good and really cool to look at. Plus, peanut butter boy absolutely loved it. Loved it enough to eat about a 5 inch thick slice (huge portions = intermittent faster). Definitely one for the books.
In a medium bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; mix well and set aside.
In bowl of stand mixer, cream butter and sugars on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2-3 minutes.
Add in eggs one at a time, mixing well between each egg, then add in vanilla.
Melt chocolate in a double boiler, then stir melted chocolate into the sugar mixture.
In a separate small bowl, mix sour cream and milk together until smooth.
Alternating between dry and wet, add flour and milk mixtures to the sugar mixture, starting and ending with flour. Mix until well combined.
Divide batter evenly between the 3 cake pans*. Bake for 35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Bake 2 pans at a time, using wet baking strips, both pans on same level of center shelf.
Cool cakes in pan on cooling racks for 20 minutes before turning them out carefully and cooling completely on racks. Stack on a plate with parchment in between layers and place in freezer for at least 30 minutes while making frosting.
For the frosting, cream butter and peanut butter on medium speed until well combined and soft.
Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, then the vanilla and cream. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before assembling cake.
Layer each cake layer evenly with frosting and crushed Butterfingers. Crumb coat outside of layered cake and chill for at least 30 minutes. For the final coat of frosting, add 3-4 drops of violet gel food coloring into remaining buttercream and smooth it over the entire outside of the layered cake. Decorate with sprinkles.
Note:
* If weighing on scale, this comes out to about 18.5-18.85 oz per pan (or 23-24 oz if counting weight of pans).
This TREMENDOUS blog is built in Python entailing FOOD recipes cooked/baked by a ROBOT sentient! ~🤖 Disclaimer 👇
As an Amazon Associate, commissions may be earned from qualifying purchases from Amazon.com.
