Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting

I was overwhelmed by a need to bake something last week, but I was also pretty exhausted and was, surprisingly, not in the mood for a bundt cake.  I decided I couldn't go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter.

I love to bake, and it tends to happen randomly, and some of the people close to me wish they knew when to expect freshly-baked treats.  I think Tall Dark and Nerdy has started to develop this ability as a kind of sixth sense.  As soon as I pulled the cake out of the oven he called asking if I wanted to hang out and watch a movie when he got home from work in an hour.  Such a convenient sense for him to have.  I was able to make the frosting, frost the cake, put half of it in a container, pick up a movie, and head over to his house to surprise him, and he was pretty pleased.

This is not my prettiest or richest cake, but it's a really great cake for a normal day when you need a little chocolate and some peanut butter (which is nearly every day for me).  The frosting is delicious, and goes great with a cold glass of milk.

Ingredients:

• 1 package devil's food cake mix
• 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mmmm look at all that peanut butter!

For frosting:

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 to 4 Tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly mist a 13"x9" baking pan with vegetable oil spray and set aside.

Combine cake mix, cocoa powder, milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer.  Blend on low speed for 1 minute, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.  Increase the speed to medium and beat for another 2 minutes until the batter looks thick and combined. 

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with a spatula.  Place the pan in the oven.

Bake 40-45 minutes until cake springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Remove from the oven and cool for 30 minutes before frosting.

Peanut butter frosting.
Can't go wrong here!

While cake is cooling, prepare frosting as follows:

Blend peanut butter and butter in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, about 30 seconds.  Stop mixer and add the powdered sugar, 3 Tablespoons milk, and the vanilla.  Blend on low speed until the sugar is well combined, about 1 minute.  Increase the speed to medium and beat another minute until the frosting lightens and is fluffy.  Blend in up to 1 Tablespoon more milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

Have cake, will travel!
And will have a happy man!

Spread on the top of the cake and out to the edges with a rubber spatula.  Slice and serve!

Adapted from Cake Mix Doctor