02 June 2011

peanut butter & cherry chocolate cake

Before you read this post, please take a little time to vote for my lentil recipe. Click here to vote by leaving a comment. You can vote anonymously, and you can vote once a day through June 6. Thank you!

peanut butter & cherry chocolate cake

We celebrated my dad's birthday over Memorial Day weekend. We played poker with spare change, suffered through a power outage, and ate cake. When I asked him on Friday what kind of cake he wanted, he replied with "chocolate, peanut butter, and cherry." Might sound like an odd trio of flavors, but if you think about it, it's like a peanut butter sandwich with cherry jam, sandwiched between chocolate bread.

peanut butter & cherry chocolate cake
You know what's annoying about yellow counters? The color matches the color of most baked goods and provides no color contrast. This makes for a rather dull picture.


To start, I messed up the cake. The recipe was fine, though I accidentally measured out too much liquid. The other suspected cause was the lower baking temperature, 325 instead of the traditional 350. It seemed odd. I decided to follow the recipe and do what it said, but I wonder if the lower temperature contributed to the sunken centers. However, most of the fault is mine, and my inability to read the recipe and accurately measure ingredients.

Dilemma. Should I remake the cakes or figure out a way to use them, sunken centers and all? Since the middle was going to be filled with cherries, I figured that the craters could face each other. The flat sides would face outwards, providing a smooth icing surface. This worked out well, and prevented the waste of additional ingredients.

The cherries used for the filling were from a can. I decided on Queen Anne cherries in a sweetened syrup, drained, and coarsely chopped. Twelve cherries were reserved to decorate the top. The color matched the frosting, though that wasn't intentional.

peanut butter & cherry chocolate cake

For the frosting, I developed my own recipe using heavy whipping heavy cream, confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, and a little salt. The result is a nice and airy frosting with a strong peanut butter taste, and a lighter texture in comparison to other recipes. Even though this frosting is less dense, it holds up well and is easy to work with. I'm sharing the recipe with you guys.

Overall, I'm happy with how this cake turned out. Most importantly, my dad liked it! Happy Birthday!



Print this recipe

Light and Airy Peanut Butter Frosting
Recipe by Christina Provo

Makes enough frosting for one 2-layer 9-inch cake

ingredients -

1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled
4 cups confectioners' sugar
16 ounces smooth peanut butter
3/4 teaspoons coarse salt

directions -
  1. In a large bowl, beat whipping cream on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing until smooth.

  2. Add peanut butter and continue to mix, on medium speed, until thoroughly combined. Stir in salt with a spatula.

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01 June 2011

Voting is now open!

gluten free chocolate-raspberry mousse cake

The lentil contest has come to and end, and now it's time for you to help me out. As per instruction, the rules are to pick my favorite recipe out of what I created. This recipe is submitted as my entry to the contest, which will be voted upon by my kind and generous readers.

I chose my Gluten Free Raspberry Cake. This gourmet chocolate cake is made with a lentil puree that gives the cake a moist and fudgy texture, but cannot be tasted. I created this recipe very early on in the lentil challenge and knew it would be a hit. Don't be hesitant to try it out!

To vote, leave a comment on this post. You can vote once per day from June 1st to June 6th, after which votes will be counted and the winner chosen. If you don't have a Blogger account, please vote anonymously. Every vote helps me out! If you like She Runs, She Eats on Facebook, I'll post daily reminders.

There's something in it for you, too. If you remember, last year voters were able to sign up for a free lentil sample. That continues this time around, only you need to email peasnlentils@edelman.com to request your sample, including your name and address in the message. The first 500 voters will receive a sample.

I hope the selection of recipes I've created leaves you with a new take on lentils. It was a challenge modifying the recipes to be gluten free, though I made some headway in the end. I have a few more lentil ideas I'm wanting to test out, so stay tuned for those as well.

Thank you again for your help, and thanks to the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council, Le Creuset, and Chicago Metallic for giving me another opportunity to participate. Come back tomorrow to vote!

gluten free chocolate-raspberry mousse cake
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