Full disclosure: This is adapted from a hand-written recipe by me but I’m sure I ripped it off from a boxed cake mix. It is very rich and very peanut-y, so go easy on it. I may have had a slice once or more as part of a balanced weekend breakfast. Much to The Better Half’s amazement/horror.
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For the bundt cake:
Bundt pan (this is crucial)
1 box super-moist yellow cake. They’re all a strange, standard size. It hovers around 16 oz.
1 cup whole milk
5 heaping tbsp. creamy peanut butter
3 eggs
A small splash of vanilla
“2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips, like you use for chocolate chip cookies”
For the icing:
2 or 3 heaping tbsp. of more creamy peanut butter
1 more cup of the chocolate chips. An online converter tells me that I’m using 12 oz. for the cake and 6 oz. here. That sounds about right. When I’m in the mood I buy these jumbo bags of chocolate chips from the wholesale club so I just pour with abandon.
Top with some of your stash from the giant tub of Planter’s peanuts you also got at the wholesale club. You might need to chop these though so save this until the end and chop as necessary/desired.
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Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.
Butter and flour your bundt pan.
Put your bundt cake ingredients except for the chocolate chips (and the bundt pan) in a mixer bowl. Beat slowly at first on low so the ingredients get used to this, then speed it up a little. This should take three minutes, one on low and two on medium. Your batter is going to be thick and sticky so carefully, using a spatula, push it all back in the scrum. You don’t want to turn this into a froth. Turn the mixer off and with the spatula mix in the chocolate chips as evenly as you can. With the spatula move the be-chipped batter into the bundt pan. Try to make a smooth top.
Put that in the oven for just under an hour, maybe 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it hang out in the bundt pan for a few minutes. Then, and here’s the fun part, tip it over onto a plate you’re planning to serve it on. It’s going to be quite hot, so make sure the plate can take it. Now is not the time to press into service the delicate glass plate you bought that one time you went to that factory outlet store.
It needs to cool for about two hours and will provide you with some downtime. At some point roust yourself and put the peanut butter and chocolate chips you’ve set aside for the icing into a small saucepan and stir over a low heat until everything melts together. With a spoon drop it on the top and watch it drip down the sides. Try to get an even amount all over.
Take a look at the thing and start chopping peanuts. If you buy the jumbo tubs I do you might not need to do much of this, they’re small to begin with and many break in transit. Just sprinkle a few here and there, don’t try to cover the whole thing. It’s peanut-y enough.
Now here’s the thing. You can serve this immediately while the icing is still warm or, if you’re me, you make this in the morning, cover it tightly and refrigerate, and serve it cold. The icing will form a crust which I like, but to each their own.
Note: This is very rich. When you serve this cut maybe an inch slice per person. You might appear to be a little stingy but people can always come back for more. I would also advise making sure that everyone’s water glasses are topped up before they dig in. I serve this not with more wine but with a big communal pitcher of water on the table.
Yum. This is the kind of cake I can get behind. (I’m not much of a cake person in general, but damn do I love peanut butter desserts.)
I’m pretty sweeted out for the day. Had cinnamon rolls this morning and French toast casserole (and tater tots) for lunch. It’s been a nice day. Hope you’re having a good one too!
Mmmm – doesn’t that look delicious. And, as you say, rich.
Reese Peanut Butter Bundt Cake?!?!
I would have eaten the whole damn thing and gone into full sugar coma.
Merry Christmas everyone! May your 2021 be filled with bundt cakes.
A friend of mine, the only other person I know who has a bundt pan, makes a savory one, basically a ham and cheese frittata, almost quiche-like, but I’ll have to consult with her on how she does it. The form of the pan could mean you wind up with crispy/burnt sides, top, and bottom, and an eggy mess in the middle. But there must be a way. And let that be our motto for 2021.
Your Bundt cake recipe sent me down a rabbit-hole, Cousin Matthew!😉😂🤣💖
I’m sure you probably know the pans started here, when some Jewish ladies went to the guys at Nordic Ware, to ask if they could make them a few cake pans similar to the ceramic one that their cakes were made in….
That part IS fairly well-known!
But the rabbit-hole i discovered, is about the TOWER at the Nordic Ware factory over in St Louis Park;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peavey%E2%80%93Haglin_Experimental_Concrete_Grain_Elevator
Turns out it’s NOT originally from the Nordicware plant–it’s much, much, older!
And happens to be the world’s oldest cylindrical concrete grain elevator!😳🤯😆
I’ve driven by it for two decades now, and never knew the history of it until this afternoon (it’s literally 2.5 miles from my apartment, so I see it EVERY time I take one road, and I used to work just a couple blocks away from it & drive past every day😉).
Evidently it was built as an experiment in 1900. Some of you might know, we in this area basically happened as a city, because of 1. the Mississippi River allowing shipping, 2. the river’s falls, which allowed grain milling, and 3. the railroads–both bringing in the grains to be milled, and then allowing flour to be sent back out (or shipped down the river).
General Mills**, Pillsbury, and Gold Medal are all from here, and came about because we were “The Mill City.”
**Big G is what the “Washburn, Crosby Company”–previously known as the Minneapolis Milling Company–when it was started in 1856–became…
Everyone nowadays knows “Big G” as a cereal & prepared-goods company, but it got its start, milling flour (and was known for the “A Mill Explosion” on the site of what’s now the Mill City Museum, waaaay back then, too).
It’s kinda ironic, and neat, to think that Peavy’s silo almost 50-ish years later–allowing for better & safer grain storage, then Pillsbury’s baking contest 50-ish years after that were what allowed Nordic Ware to keep producing, then sellling so many bundt pans, that they–in turn–were able to drop the 40K in funds to repair/restore the silo & keep it standing (and YES, with that iconic Nordicware signage on it!😉).
Also, Bundt cakes ARE the BEST cakes!😉😁💖
Agreed
I love Nordic Ware! But I knew nothing of its history.
Merry Christmas, Cousin Matthew ! 🎄 I have a Bundt pan and I love it. My sister makes fun of me, says it’s so ’70’s. Don’t care, gonna make this. 😁
I have bundt pans, too.
Of course you do, you’re a woman with taste!
Bundt cakes are awesome and this looks amazing!!!
Now I need to get a Bundt pan so I can make this.
Serving it with milk though, because that’s the only way to fly with a dessert like this.