I've been looking for a bundt cake recipe to break in the bundt pan I got for Christmas last year; yesterday I finally found one that struck my fancy. I've been on a peanut butter kick lately but nothing I've made has been very successful these past few days. My cake burnt a little around the edges; my oven cooks things too quickly for it's own good - I pulled this out about fifteen minutes earlier than the recipe calls for. I was angry at myself for not pulling it out sooner but the cake tastes great!

The center is moist and has a strong but not overwhelming taste of peanut butter (I actually added 1/3 cup of peanut butter to my cake batter) and the small layer of streusel adds just the right amount of ZING! to the cake. I also had to compromise for the frosting; I ran out of smooth peanut butter and had to use crunchy peanut butter halfway through the recipe so my frosting is a little crunchy but I actually really like the way it turned out. The frosting also firms up a bit after sitting out for a few hours, so there's no mess! Overall, I am very satisfied with how everything came together.

2-1/4 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup milk
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs

Frosting:
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 cup bundt pan and set aside.

In large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, and butter and mix at low speed until crumbly.

Reserve one cup of this streusel mixture and set aside. Add remaining ingredients, except chocolate chips, to crumb mixture in mixing bowl. Blend at low speed until combined, then beat three minutes at medium speed. Pour half of batter into prepared pan.

Stir 1 cup chocolate chips into streusel mixture. (I skipped this step and just threw a few chips on top after laying the streusel topping down.) Sprinkle streusel over batter in pan. Spoon and spread remaining batter over streusel mixture. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-66 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then loosen edges and turn pan onto serving plate. Cool completely, then frost as directed below.

Frosting:
In small saucepan, melt 1 cup chocolate chips with 1/3 cup peanut butter. Spoon over cake.

Labels: bundt, peanut butter