Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Filling

We’re back from Las Vegas, happy to be home but sad that vacation is over. As I write this my husband is on his way to pick up our daughter from her grandparents’ house. I’m excited to see her – this is the longest we’ve ever left her (five whole nights!)  It will be good to get back into our routine and have a few weeks of summer relaxation before she heads back to school.

I love Las Vegas. Before Jordan was born we would go every year, sometimes more than once. We’d stay at one of the big casinos and dance and gamble and drink and stay out late. Since Jordan was born, we’ve only been once, and she was with us, so it wasn’t exactly the same sort of experience.  And neither was this one. Maybe we’re just getting old or parenthood has caught up with us, but staying up all night and waking with a hangover is not how I like vacationing anymore. We chose Vegas for one reason: in summer it’s super cheap. We didn’t stay on the strip; we stayed at the JW Marriott just a few minutes away. And it was wonderful. If you ever go to Las Vegas and want to experience the glitz from afar, stay there. If you go in summer, you can stay for an amazing price. We did go into “town” one day and shopped at the Venetian and at Caesar’s (where I felt claustrophobic from all the people). We saw the Blue Man Group which was a great show. I know they are touring right now; if you have the chance you should go see them. It was very funny and had good music, and there was audience participation. I had no idea what to expect going in and I was very pleased with it.

By now you’re thinking…um, what does this have to do with these cake pictures? The short answer: nothing. But since I had your rapt attention at “Chocolate” and “Peanut Butter” I thought I’d go on and on about my trip. (Insert witch cackle here.)

So back to the matter at hand…Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Filling. This was the cake we served at my husbands’ birthday party. Two moist, super-delicious chocolate cake layers (using my favorite chocolate cake recipe) filled with a peanut butter cream cheese filling and chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Oh yes, I chopped them up and put them right in the center.

This cake is a meal. Serve with a side of milk and vanilla ice cream and you can be done until tomorrow, I promise.  I topped it with vanilla buttercream because I knew the inside would be plenty of heavy and sweet. It really was the perfect combination. (Serving note: the cake was room temperature when we served it at the party and it tasted way better that way than when I ate more the next day from the fridge.)