A few of you may already know, my birthday was on the 14th. I am getting older. I like it. I think age suits me.  I am more comfortable in my skin. I am less concerned what people think of me. I am more aware of the gifts that are around me every day rather than the gifts that I want from glossy magazines or Etsy shops. The VERY  BEST gift I have ever received for my birthday?? That would be, hands down, without a doubt my middle son David. He is my birthday child. On the stroke of midnight of November 14th, 1995 I went into labor. The most painful birthday gift? YES! But the absolute most awe-inspiring, smile inducing birthday gift in history. David is good stuff.

Another good stuff in my life?  (Not as good as David, but almost) Double Chocolate Layer Cake, a recipe found on Epicurious.com. As I have stated before, there are very few recipes that I can keep from tinkering with. I just don’t like to follow instructions when it comes to other people’s recipes. For the most part.

The recipe for this cake is a recipe that I will NOT tinker with. It is amazing. Delicious. Moist. Rich. Deep. Super chocolatey! It is an amazing recipe. My all time, never fail, go to recipe for chocolate cake. I had never made the frosting until last night. I WILL be making it again. Now the frosting I did tweak a bit…but the non-conformist in me just can’t stick to more than one recipe at a time. I just can’t.

This particular, extra special cake, David and I came up with together. Chocolate cake, homemade caramel, peanut butter cream filling, Snickers bars all slathered in a Dark Chocolate Mocha Ganache.  It was supposed to include fresh bananas too, but they weren’t beautiful at the store so we went without. It would have been good but this was still an awe-inspiring cake.

Ok, so here’s what you do.

Bake the recipe for the chocolate cake from my favorite recipe. Allow the cakes to cool covered well overnight in the fridge.

The same night, make the caramel.

Kickin’ Caramel (adapted from recipe found on CandyLabs Blog)

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 Tbsp. kosher salt
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter cut into 1 inch pieces
• ½ pkg. Via instant coffee (the individual serving packet)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 4 Tbsp. favorite booze

**Gather all of your ingredients and have them nearby because you will be moving quickly and won’t be able to walk away.

1. In your pot, mix together the sugar, corn syrup, water and salt over medium heat and whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Raise the heat to medium high and boil mixture WITHOUT stirring until it reaches 315 degrees F. Or until the sugar is a beautiful, fragrant, amber. Remove immediately from the heat.
2. Add butter pieces to the pot and whisk until the butter is well blended in…be careful, the mixture will sputter and steam, you might want a long-handled whisk or to wear a glove and long sleeves to be on the safe side. Whisk in the Via.
3. Add the cream and whisk again until completely smooth and combined.  Whisk in the booze.

Morning has broken and it’s time to Make the frosting and peanut butter filling. I would say make the frosting…it take a while for it to come to a spreadable consistency. So, Dark Chocolate Mocha Ganache…here we go. There weren’t a tremendous amounts of change but a few to make it perfect for us.

Dark Chocolate Mocha Ganache Frosting

• 1 pound semi-sweet chocolate (best quality you can afford) chopped fine
• ¾ cup+ 2 Tbsp. heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 Via instant coffee packet (for 1 individual serving)
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
• 4 Tbsp. coffee liqueur

Directions:

1. In a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan bring cream, sugar, corn syrup and Via coffee to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved and mixture is almost to a boil.
2. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth. Whisk in liqueur
3. Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (depending on chocolate used, it may be necessary to chill frosting to spreadable consistency).

Now let’s move on to the Peanut Butter Cream filling. This is  MUCH like a standard peanut butter pie filling but I didn’t want it to be too soft for the filling of the cake so I kept out the whipped cream and subbed half the milk for vanilla flavored creamer and the other half for cream. Here ya go. (By the way I am watching Epic Meal Time with my birthday gift boy right now. WATCH it! Some will love it (me) other’s will be supremely disgusted. Epic Meal Time…we need to work together…call me) Anyways…on to Peanut Butter Cream Filling.

Peanut Butter Cream Filling

• 8 ounces cream cheese
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup cream
• ¼ cup vanilla nut coffee creamer (liquid)
• 1 ½ cups smooth peanut butter

Directions:

• Beat together cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth.
• Add vanilla extract , cream and creamer, beat until smooth.
• Add peanut butter and again…beat until smooth.

Chop up 6 regular size Snickers bars.

DONE!

Now it’s ASSEMBLY TIME!!!!

1. Trim the domed tops off of the cakes if they are there.

2. Spread half of the caramel sauce onto the first cake layer, you might have to heat up the caramel just a little bit to make it a little more spreadable. I used a buttered knife to help in the spreading without having sticking issues.

3. Spread half of the peanut butter cream over that then sprinkle half the Snickers bites over that.

4. Place the second cake over that and repeat steps 2 and 3.

5. Place the last cake on top of this upside down to make for a clean, less crumby cake.

6. lightly cover the whole cake in ganache frosting just to cover and seal in the crumbs. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to firm up.

7. Slather the rest of the frosting on there. Sprinkle to your hearts content and enjoy!

Products I used and LOVE

Snickers Candy Bars

Domino sugar

Starbucks Via Instant Coffee Packets

*in no way was I compensated by these companies…I just love them and want to share with those I love.