Peanut Butter and Chocolate

So I'm not a fan of them together actually, but Mr Cherub loves them - they are his favourite sweetie.

So his gorgeous daughter Sarah brought some home from her boyfriend's mama who had visited Hawaii recently and so of course trawling through Pinterest I found this cheesecake cake.   I think it's a super idea, cake with cheesecake how could you go wrong.

Terrible photos taking in a rush on the iPhone but that's what happens sometimes.

Anyways adjustments to the recipe.

I made my devil's food cake recipe, it quick, its easy and I know it works every time.  And I think its the right amount of sweet.  I find a lot of the US recipes a bit sugary, but if you don't have your go to chocolate cake recipe, I reckon the one that it comes with looks pretty good.

For the cheesecake, I made half a batch in a 20cm round tin.  Which I lined with baking paper and then cooked in a water bath at 160 for about 35 - 40 minutes, so it still had a wee bit of jiggle to it.  Then I let cool on the bench for 1/2 hour before putting it in the fridge.  It really needed more fridge time and cracked a little on assembly, not that you can tell.   I also just used normal cream as I didn't have any sour  cream in the fridge and i used 2 eggs.  It worked out fine.

I had buttercream as always in the fridge so I just added some peanut butter.  The chocolate ganache I was sure had seized but it just needed a bit more cream and a bit more heat - i used the microwave and then it was done, it was a bit warm when I applied it and well some of the peanut butter cups just slid right on off lol!!   But a stint in the fridge and it was good to go - nice and shiny and slick.

Apparently it was pretty darn good to, though rich, which is nothing less than expected lol!!  I didn't add as many peanut butter cups as the original which although they look amazing, might have been a touch of overkill.  I think the ratio of cheesecake to cake looks good and although its a bit lopsided, that's what happens when you need to rush, should have started the day before, I'm pretty sure I'll use this technique again - stay tuned for a lemon meringue version.