Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Chocolate Layer Cake

 This is the cake I made for my sister's birthday. She is a HUGE peanut butter/chocolate fan, so I scoured the internet for a fun cake that incorporated those two ingredients (there were a LOT to choose from) and settled on this one because c'mon, who doesn't want cookie dough with their cake and frosting? I barely made any changes to it, so this is less an adaptation than a copy, but I wanted to share my results with you all anyway. 

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup canola oil

Eggless Peanut Butter Cookie Dough

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk

Double Chocolate Frosting

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup chocolate chips, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray two 9 inch cake pans with cooking spray.

2. Heat the milk in a microwave safe bowl until hot, about 45-60 seconds. Remove and add chocolate chips. Let sit for 1 minute then stir to melt.

3. In a stand mixer, mix the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and baking soda to combine. Slowly add the eggs, sour cream, oil and melted chocolate mixture until combined. Divide batter between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for about 40 minutes (recipe says 30, mine needed 40), or until baked through. Remove and let cool. Remove cakes from pans.

 4. To prepare cookie dough, beat butter and peanut butter until creamy and smooth. Add sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, flour and milk, mixing until thick and cookie dough consistency.

5. To prepare frosting, beat butter until creamy. Slowly add powdered sugar and cocoa until thick. Beat in melted chocolate. Stack one cake on top of a cake plate, and top with peanut butter cookie dough layer. Top with second cake and frost entire cake. (Since my cakes rose more than the original recipe's cakes did, I had to shave a thin layer off the top of the bottom cake in order for the top layer to sit flat on top of it and the dough.)

And voila! This cake is a bit labor intensive, so I would save it for a special occasion. BUT the cookie dough part is easy and perfect for just making a bowl of and eating straight. Eggless cookie dough is awesome like that.

Anyway, happy birthday to you, little sister!

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