Chocolate and Peanut Butter Fudge Cake

My oldest son Aidyn just turned 13. And one thing we know for certain about him: he absolutely LOVES Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (and really anything that has both peanut butter and chocolate). So for his birthday cake, he wanted me to make him a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.

As a surprise, I decided to get a little creative with the decorations. The most fun part was adding Reese's Pieces around the sides of the cake! I wasn't exactly sure that it would work since they are heavier than sprinkles, but I just pressed them on by the handful and the placed the whole cake in the refrigerator to set the frosting. If you are a more professional baker than I am, you could also carefully line them up or even make a pattern around the cake with them.

It came out really cute! (And delicious - did I mention delicious?) The consistency of this cake is really more like a fudge brownie and the frosting recipe makes a generous amount so that you can just pile it on!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Fudge Cake

I just happened to have two recipes that I've used for years, but I've just never put the two of them together in one cake. You'll need these recipes for this cake:

• Chocolate Fudge Cake
• Peanut Butter Fudge Frosting 
• plus 2, 4 oz. boxes of Reese's Pieces (I used about 1 1/2 boxes full to go around the side of the whole cake.)

I have always made a chocolate frosting for the chocolate cake and a peanut butter cake to go with the peanut butter frosting. (Those recipes are included too - in case you want to try that!)

But, let me tell you - the Chocolate Fudge Cake with the Peanut Butter Fudge Frosting was a real winner! Doesn't that look yummy?

And here's a few photos of the cake with candles and the birthday boy blowing them out!

This makes for a really pretty cake that would be perfect for birthdays, fall, or Halloween since it is decorated with orange, yellow, and brown fall colors. And, since fall is the time of year for organizations to ramp up on bake sales and cake walks, this would also make a great contribution for one of these!

I hope you'll give this cake a try. If you have a Reese's lover on your hands - I promise they'll love it!