The cake preferably should be home made (with love) and involve something favourite of the birthday-ee.
When it comes to cake Andrew is quite specific about his loves, it is not to say he wont gladly devour all other kinds of cake in the interest of research of course, but he is firm in his favourites. Cheesecake ranks top of his list followed by chocolate mud cake. If any of his meals, dessert or otherwise, can involve peanut butter then even better!
So when thinking about what this years birthday cake might be I decided why not involve a little bit of everything!
This decadent cake has a layer of peanut butter cheese cake topped with a layer of bittersweet chocolate cheesecake and is baked giving it a dense "mud cake-esque" feel. All of this richness sits atop a crunchy Oreo base because lets face it, who doesn't love an Oreo!
A rich, heavy, decadent myriad of flavours that is not in anyway designed to be consumed if you are even "remotely" dieting! A delicious birthday treat - happy birthday Andrew!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheese (birthday) Cake
by Melissa Cowan
Base
4 cups of crushed Oreo cookies
1/2 cup of butter, melted
Place approximately 3 and 1/4 packets (the small individual silver packets inside the Oreo box) into a food processor and process until they are a fine crumb. Melt 1/2 cup of butter and poor over the crushed cookies and mix well until the crumbs are moist.
Take a loose bottom 23cm round flan tin with deep sides and poor in the cookie mixture. Press it into the base and sides of the tin to form the crust, set aside.
Filling - Peanut Butter
1 x 126g package of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup of crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup of sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 egg, lightly beaten
Preheat your oven to 150°C. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth. Add the peanut butter and sugar and beat for a further 3 minutes on medium speed until fully incorporated and smooth. Fold in the lightly beaten egg and set aside.
Filling - Chocolate
3 cups of good quality semi-sweet cooking chocolate chips
2 x 126g packages of cream cheese, cubed and at room temperature
4 tbs of milk
1 tsp of vanilla extract, (I use pure vanilla bean paste and favour Nielsen-Massey Vanillas, Inc)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
In a saucepan melt the chocolate over a low heat, stirring continuously with a silicon spatula/spoon. Remove from the heat and add the cream cheese, stirring vigorously until thoroughly combined. Stir in the milk and vanilla and then fold in the lightly beaten eggs.
Spread a 1/4 of the chocolate mixture into your prepared cake base so a thin layer just covers the bottom. Carefully spoon in and spread all of the peanut mixture and then top that with the remaining chocolate mixture.
Bake in the oven until the top is set when lightly shaken, this should take between one hour and one hour thirty minutes depending on your oven so start checking the cake at the one hour mark. The outer two inches of the top of the cake will be puffed and dry looking and the centre will look darker and wet.
Serve with double or clotted cream.
Yield: 12-15 slices, you don't need a large serve!
Filling - Chocolate
3 cups of good quality semi-sweet cooking chocolate chips
2 x 126g packages of cream cheese, cubed and at room temperature
4 tbs of milk
1 tsp of vanilla extract, (I use pure vanilla bean paste and favour Nielsen-Massey Vanillas, Inc)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
In a saucepan melt the chocolate over a low heat, stirring continuously with a silicon spatula/spoon. Remove from the heat and add the cream cheese, stirring vigorously until thoroughly combined. Stir in the milk and vanilla and then fold in the lightly beaten eggs.
Spread a 1/4 of the chocolate mixture into your prepared cake base so a thin layer just covers the bottom. Carefully spoon in and spread all of the peanut mixture and then top that with the remaining chocolate mixture.
Bake in the oven until the top is set when lightly shaken, this should take between one hour and one hour thirty minutes depending on your oven so start checking the cake at the one hour mark. The outer two inches of the top of the cake will be puffed and dry looking and the centre will look darker and wet.
Serve with double or clotted cream.
