i came across this recipe on heather baird’s blog and immediately knew that i wanted to attempt this cake. i am not a big fan of cheesecake, but i am a big fan of peanut butter and chocolate together. who isn’t, though? i decided to tackle it for my brother-in-law’s 40th birthday party. i didn’t tell anyone about it because, quite frankly, i figured it would be a disaster. luckily, though, it was far from it. it was a big hit and came out great. nowhere near the perfection that heather of sprinkle bakes made, but not bad for a first attempt. a bit of advice, though: do not attempt this in one day/overnight. it’s just not enough time. make sure you follow heather’s recipe both for technique { and } for time.
two layers of peanut butter cup cheesecake.
between two layers of chocolate cake.
the first batch of caramel i attempted in the microwave. it didn’t go well. if you’re using the caramels that are wrapped you should be fine, but i had caramel bits left-over from the fall { and } wanted to use them up.
the caramel bits ended up melting much better in a saucepan.
caramel { and } roasted salted peanuts on each layer.
frost with ganache.
i wasn’t able to pull off the chocolate curls so i just broke them up { and } stuck them into the cake sides. not nearly as pretty as the curls. better luck next time.
