I prefer a life lived in. Real perfection is necessarily imperfect: it’s polymorphous, in flux, crooked, and warm, cluttered and lopsided. You won’t find it in a catalogue. That contrived, mechanical sort of perfection is impossibly dull. Rather, you’ll find it in spiraling cells, in organisms multiplying, unfurling, evolving, wilting, copulating, decomposing, and dying. Seas and mall courts alike teem with it. Prime numbers self-contain it. It is things as they are. For me perfection is to live in the imperfect now, a now that is populated by mad curls, cast iron, cracked tea cups, whole milk, scars, asymmetry, dirty dishes, anxiety, crow’s feet, four letter words, chicken hearts, finger nail clippings, and, in this particular instance, a homely cake on an upended beer glass cake stand.
This roughly hewn cake was my very first cake, peanut butter layers with a ganache-like dark chocolate frosting and a sprinkling of fleur de sel. Nothing ground breaking here, just peanut butter and chocolate. It was a baby cake, 4″ across, and perfect in its imperfection. I’ve baked flourless chocolate cakes in bain-maries, angel food, and cupcakes before. But never a real cake, which is, as every southerner knows, a layer cake.
This attempt was, as you can see, far from pristine. Some of the icing seeped into the center through what I assume was a crack in one of my layers and not some frosting worm hole in space-time, but as far as outlines and rough drafts go, this was a stalwart little cake. A small slice went a long way, a good thing for a confection of diminutive size. Its size lead me the d.i.y. Pabst Blue Ribbon chalice cake stand because my actual cake stand dwarfed it. So I upended an old PBR glass, stuck a plate on top and declared it a cake stand by the powers invested in me.
I think I’d never made a layer cake before because they seemed to require a reason, an occasion, une fête, and I’d never found any such occasion previously. Birthday cakes growing up were the province of Sugar, my grandmother, and for the majority of my twenties birthdays were celebrated with copious amounts of booze and bad decisions making, not cheerful afternoon cake baking. Thankfully I no longer celebrate the passage of time with death knells and banshee wails, and I baked this tiny cake as a test in my search for the inimitable peanut butter & chocolate cake for Patrick’s birthday this weekend. He made an off-handed comment about peanut butter & chocolate being awesome (probably in the form of calling people who don’t like said combination “awful philistines…”) which I took to heart, leading me on this quest for the perfect peanut butter & chocolate cake.
Being a virgin to layer cake baking, it seemed best to do a few experiments before the final cake, which I plan on being three eight inch layers. The need to test led me to tiny cake making, which was an epiphany in and of itself because there really needn’t be any special occasion for a tiny cake. It’s a Tuesday afternoon sort of cake. We had small slices of it after dinner and with coffee for a few days. It proved to be the perfect size for a household of two with a penchant for sweets in moderate moderation. Tiny layer cakes shall henceforth be a part of my “no special occasion required” baking repertoire.
I was very fortunate to find, on my first attempt, my ideal chocolate frosting. It’s fudgelike, bittersweet, and reminiscent of a good truffle. It would play nice with cayenne pepper. The salt? Critical. That detail takes what would otherwise be a rather rote cake and renders it bright & interesting. My next experiment will involve peanut butter cake batter with peanut butter frosting between the layers and this chocolate frosting on the outside so as to achieve even more peanut butteryness. My hope is that this will be the keen little cro-magnon cake in what will be an evolution of a great many cakes to come.
Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Layer Cake, with fleur de sel
cake adapted from Eat, Live, Run
frosting from The Essence of Chocolate via Desserts For Breakfast
Ingredients:
for the cake
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup buttermilk
for the frosting
5 oz (142 gr) unsweetened chocolate
8 Tbspn butter
1 cup + 1 Tbspn (215 gr) sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 tspn vanilla extract
flaked finishing salt
Cooking Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease two four inch round cake pans or one eight inch round. Set aside. Line bottom with parchment circles if desired.
Add the buttermilk and dry ingredients alternately, beating well after each addition. Pour batter into prepared pan filling it three-quarters full and bake for 25 minutes, or until the sides of the cake begin to pull away from the pan and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Turn over onto a large plate and let cool while you make the frosting.
Stir in the vanilla extract. Let the frosting cool completely, whisking occasionally during cooling. Once completely cool at room temperature, the frosting will be spreadable. {note: I chilled my frosting in the refrigerator, whisking frequently, to speed up the cooling.}
This is beautiful!
I don´t know how I did not stay here since I saw the ice cream! Oh my! Look at this cake! The frosting is so shiny… I am in love! I will suscribe to your posts…I don’t want to miss anything!
Thanks for coming to Sugg-r!
I was so excited that it was shiny. I don’t know why it was so shiny… but I’m glad it was!
Your writing is so beautiful, and I love the idea of living in the imperfect now… I’m still working on that – I definitely live with the idea of perfection in my head, which is a very damaging and harmful idea…
This cake looks amazing, especially the salty/sweet contrast. I love eating cold leftover cake for breakfast and I think this would definitely be the ultimate breakfast indulgence…
ps LOVE the PBR cake stand, haha
Thank you. I’m still working on it too, every day. Yoga helps. I really does take a magnificent amount of energy to remind oneself that perfection isn’t real and that things as they are is lovely, especially oneself & one’s work! But well worth the effort.
Love this cake. I imagine this is what a perfectly iced, layered chocolate cake would look if it were electrocuted. I am going to attempt my second layer cake for a blog event in a couple of weeks. I usually make simple, small, more “rustic” desserts. eeks.
I really want to get at trying another “proper” layer cake. But it’ll be a few weeks before I, ah, pencil one in.
Where did you find the fleur de sel in Chattanooga?
Greenlife. Mia Cucina also has an excellent selection of salts. Fresh Market also might carry it, but I”m not sure.
That’s really creative and looks really delicious! I can’t describe how amazing your cake is. I can’t wait to make this. Thanks for sharing.
I’m on a hiatus from buying anything other than food for our apartment until a hoped-for-move, but one of the first things going on my shopping list when I can buy again are some mini-cake pans for Tuesday cakes. 😉
I find them really handy for satisfying that layer cake craving without having to make a full on cake…great for just the two of us!
I made this yesterday in an 8″ round. I only had 6″ or bigger. It was delicious. My batter was really thick however. Is that the way it is supposed to be? Thank you for such a delicious recipe and I love the idea of small cakes!
It’s been a while since I’ve made this particular cake batter, so I can’t recall if it was very thick or not…but I’d say if the cake turned out well, then you’re good to go!
Hi! I made the cake and it turned out well – really good and subtle flavors! I doubled the recipe for the frosting and it didn’t set up. Is the cream/sugar supposed to reach a certain stage (like soft ball) before letting it cook 6 minutes? I’m not sure what texture the mixture should be before taking it off the stove. I let it cool in the fridge but it stayed runny and yours is fudgy and thick. Suggestions?
You crack me up! Love it!
Did you ever make the peanut butter cake with peanut butter frosting between the layers and chocolate frosting on the outside? If so,please do share. Sounds delightful. I am thoroughly enjoying your blog.