No Reese’s Reese’s Cake
I was asked to make a Reese’s cake, but I didn’t have them at my pantry, and got kind of lazy to buy some. I don’t quite understand the hype though… It’s just a simple flavors profile of peanut butter and chocolate, so why not try to recreate it home?
This next recipe of a Reese’s cake, takes several elements you need to make in advanced, but when you read through them, this cake is not that complicated to make.
Despite my big love for whipped cream, some cakes are just not compatible with it. When trying to mix nut pastes into the cream, you realize that it does not incorporate just as nicely, despite the high fat content found in nuts. The cream tends to be softer than usual, and even separate if you don’t whip is correctly, which means it has to be stabilized in some creative ways. Therefore, this time I’ve chosen to use a peanut butter buttercream. And when I’m making buttercream, it must always be a German buttercream, which is not too cloyingly sweet, like other buttercreams tend to be. It is soft and velvety thanks to incorporating the butter with pastry cream. This cake was devoured minutes after it was serves, and I immediately thought to myself that there’s no chance I am not sharing this recipe.
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No Reese’s Reese’s Cake:
Equipment: Rectangular loaf pan cake, sized 25cm (l) x 10cm (w) x 7.5cm (h), lined with parchment paper.
Recipe: One cake sized 24cm (l) x 9cm (w) x 8cm (h)
Chocolate Cake Batter:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Cake Flour | 110g |
| Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder | 18g |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp |
| Baking Powder | 1 tsp |
| Baking Soda | 1/2 tsp |
| Softened Unsalted Butter | 65g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 145g |
| Milk | 125g |
| Vanilla Extract | 10g |
| Eggs | 70g |
Chocolate Ganache (for piping):
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Dark Chocolate (55-60%) | 115g |
| Heavy Cream (38%) | 115g |
Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Cream filling:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Natural Smooth Peanut Butter | 40g |
| Salted Caramel (Recipe) | 25g |
| Vegetable Oil | 4g |
| Peanut Halves | 13g |
Peanut Butter German Buttercream:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| German Buttercream | Half Recipe, calculate based on 80g of sugar in the original recipe. Please carefully read the entire recipe before making this cream. |
| Natural Smooth Peanut Butter | 90g (45g goes into the hot pastry cream, 45g goes into the final cream). |
Preparation:
Cake Batter:
- Preheat your oven to 170C (fan mode off), placing a baking rack at the lowest shelf inside the oven.
- Into a large mixing bowl, sift all of the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda, and mix them together.
- Add in the softened butter, and incorporate it into the dried ingredients using a spatula, until the mixture looks like small peas.
- Inside a separate container or a measuring glass, mix together the milk, eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add this mixture in 3 parts into the dry ingredients’ mixture, alternating with the sugar, while beating the mixture together with a handheld electric mixer, on medium speed. Ensure to occasionally scrape the mixing bowl as you go. When you first start mixing, do this carefully on the lowest speed to prevent the dry ingredients from flying all over the place.
- After all the liquid ingredients’ mixture and sugar were added, continue beating with the mixer on medium speed for about 3 to 4 minutes. The batter should be silky smooth and airy.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Transfer the cake pan to a cooling rack and allow the cake to rest for 15 minutes before unmolding.
- Allow the cake to cool down completely, before cutting it into two layers, 2cm thick, each.
Salted Caramel peanut butter cream filling:
- In a small mixing bowl, add the peanut butter, salted caramel and vegetable oil, and mix them together thoroughly to a smooth paste. Note that if you are not using salted caramel, you make loosen the filling by using heavy cream (38%) and some sugar to taste. Add the cream little by little until you reach a spreadable consistency.
- Add in the peanut halves and mix them into the paste. Set to the side until assembly.
Chocolate Ganache:
- Into a microwave safe mixing bowl, add the chocolate and heavy cream and melt them together in the microwave.
- Mix to a smooth ganache and set to the side while working on the other cake elements, to bring its temperature down to a pipeable consistency (19-21C).
Peanut butter German Buttercream:
- Prepare the half a recipe of German buttercream as per the separate instructions. Please consider using the full 80g of sugar when calculating the final sugar amounts (i.e., use 40g for half a recipe), and add half the amount of peanut butter to the hot pastry cream, apply the plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cream and allow it to cool down to room temperature.
- After mixing the pastry cream with the softened butter fully, add in the other part of peanut butter left and beat it into the buttercream with your electric mixer.
Cake Assembly:
- Transfer the buttercream into a large piping bag, fitted with a 20mm plain round piping tip.
- Pipe long strips of cream on top of the first cake sheet, and smoothen the top and sides using a spatula.
- Using a teaspoon, carve out the middle section of the cream to make some room for the filling. Using a teaspoon, fill the center of the cake with the salted caramel peanut butter cream filling. Lightly flatten it with the back of the teaspoon.
- Cover the cream with the second layer of cake.
- Using any remaining buttercream left in the piping bag, pipe shallow strips of cream on top of the second cake layer, and smoothen it with a spatula. Arrange the sides for a neater presentation.
- Once the chocolate ganache has reached to a pipeable consistency, transfer it to a piping bag fitted with a large closed star Wilton 6B piping tip (or any other piping tip of your preference), and pipe the decorations on top of the buttercream.
- Garnish with some peanut halves. Store refrigerated, but serve at room temperature, to allow the creams to soften.
