Chocolate Peanut Butter Layer Cake from a Box Mix
This chocolate peanut butter layer cake from a box mix looks gourmet and fancy, but is actually easy to make with a few ingredients.
Equipment
- 2 Piping bags 1 will work fine, but you may want to wash it in between rounds of frosting
- 1 Star piping tip I like the Wilton 1M tip
- 1 cake board
- 3 round cake pans
- 3 pieces of parchment paper cut to fit your cake pans
- 1 cake leveler
- 1 offset spatula
- 1 bench scraper
- 1 squeeze top bottle for ganache optional
- 1 lazy susan or turntable optional
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1 chocolate cake mix
- 1 cup coffee replace water your cake mix calls for with coffee, it might not be 1 cup exactly depending on the mix you use
- 1/2 cup oil or however much oil your cake mix calls for
- 3 eggs or however many eggs your cake mix calls for
Peanut Butter Frosting (x2 for whole cake)
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 cup peanut butter smooth
- 2 cups powdered sugar possibly more to adjust for texture
- 2-3 Tbsp milk or heavy cream (possibly more to adjust for texture)
Chocolate Ganache
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Make Cake
- Prepare your chocolate cake mix per the box instructions but replace any water with coffee (The coffee brings out the flavor of the chocolate)
- Line your cake pans with parchment paper and grease them
- Divide cake batter evenly in 3 and bake
- Cake is done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow your cake rounds to cool completely before leveling
- Using your cake leveler, carefully take off just the top part of each cake layer so you have 3 flat layers. Try to avoid taking off too much with the cake leveler, as your cake layers will already be thin if you only use 1 box mix.
Make Frosting and Crumb Coat Cake
- Make your first batch of frosting by beating the frosting ingredients together until smooth. If the frosting is too thick, add more milk a tablespoon at a time. If frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time. You do want your frosting to be more on the thin side so it's easy to spread, but not so thin that it's dripping off your cake.
- Put your frosting in a piping bag with no tip, or with a plain round tip.
- Pipe a small line of frosting down the middle of your cake board, and place a cake round of top of that. The frosting "glues" the cake down. Place your cake board on a lazy susan or turntable if you have one.
- Pipe a circle of frosting around your cake round and then fill in the circle with more frosting. Smooth the frosting flat with an offset spatula.
- Place your second cake round on top of the bottom one. Pipe a circle of frosting and then fill in the circle with more frosting. Smooth flat with an offset spatula.
- Repeat this for the third cake round.
- Pipe some frosting in straight lines down the sides of the cake.
- Hold your bench scraper flat against the sides of your cake. Give your cake a gentle turn on the lazy susan to smooth the frosting on the sides flat.
- You may have to give the cake a couple turns to get the frosting on the sides flat. It's okay if you can see some cake through the frosting for this first layer!
- You'll also have to smooth the top of the cake again. Keep smoothing the sides and top until everything is decently flat.
- Chill your crumb coated cake in the fridge for 1 hour or in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Add Final Layer of Frosting and Decorate
- Make a second batch of peanut butter frosting. For now, put some frosting in a piping bag with no tip or a plain, round tip.
- Pipe another circle of frosting around the top of your cake, fill in the circle with more frosting and smooth it flat with an offset spatula (Just like you did with the inner layers).
- Pipe more frosting down the sides of the cake and smooth the sides with your bench scraper.
- Keep smoothing the sides and top of the cake until everything is flat. Your goal is to just add a thicker layer of even frosting all around the outside of the cake.
- Chill your cake in the fridge for about an hour or the freezer for 30 minutes.
- To make your ganache: Place your chocolate chips and cream in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Keep microwaving for 30 seconds and stir in between until you have a smooth ganache.
- Place some of your ganache in a squeeze top bottle if you have one. If not, you can use a spoon. Carefully drizzle a little bit of ganache around the edge of your cake on the fop. You don't want the drizzle going all the way down the cake, just an inch or so is fine.
- Then, fill in the top of the cake with ganache and carefully smooth it flat with an offset spatula.
- Chill your cake again until the ganache sets, probably at least 30 minutes in the fridge or 15 minutes in the freezer.
- Put some more peanut butter frosting in a piping bag with a star tip this time. I like the Wilton 1M tip.
- Pipe frosting swirls around the top edge of your cake. Chill your cake one last time before serving.