peanut butter overload

I bought a chocolate cake mix from Trader Joe's 2 or 3 years ago, but never made the time to bake it. As part of my clear-out-the-pantry efforts, I decided to make it to share with friends this week. Dave is a huge peanut butter-chocolate fan, so a flavor profile was chosen! I baked the whole mix in a single spring-form pan (which I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to do), and then sliced it into three layers (a slight dome had to be shaved off the top). I got to use my new cake decorating stand, a wedding gift from my friend Anna!

I filled the cake with peanut butter frosting from this recipe. I didn't have enough to make a crumb coating, so it ended up with a more "rustic look" (read: total n00b):

The presentation was not the most elegant, but once I sliced it up, it seemed to matter less! Stephen and Grace gave me their old ice cream maker, so we fired that up, too. I paired the cake with a peanut butter honey ice cream that was pretty good.

Alas, this combination was simply too much peanut butter. I couldn't finish my serving! Even Dave, the great lover of all things peanut butter chocolate, admitted that it was too much. I'll try to remember not to overdo it next time.

There was someone who didn't seem to mind: TUCK! Tuck, the world's greatest dog, has appeared on this blog before (here and here). Sarah and John were house-sitting again, and we enjoyed this dessert together. (You can see them preparing tea for us in the background.)

No cake for Tuck. Plenty of hugs, though!