These Chocolate Peanut Butter Heart Cakes, made with chocolate sheet cake, are so easy, cute, and delicious – the perfect treat to make for Valentine’s Day!
Today we are celebrating….it is Chez CateyLou’s 3rd birthday!!!! I can’t believe I have had this blog for 3 years! This is where it all started, with lots of help from TheBetterHalf! It is so much fun to look at how much my blog has grown and changed since I began. I have learned so much the past 3 years, met incredible people, and done amazing things – all thanks to my little corner of the internet.
We have a bit of a theme around here when it comes to celebrating blog birthdays…and it involves chocolate and peanut butter. 1st birthday. 2nd birthday. So I had to continue the tradition for the 3rd birthday, with these Chocolate Peanut Butter Heart Cakes. Since the big birthday is so close to Valentine’s Day, I thought why not make something to celebrate both of them!
I’d love to tell you that I have been planning this cute recipe for months, but that would be a lie. These heart cakes actually started out as a simple chocolate sheet cake that I made on Saturday. I was dying for some cake (thank you pregnancy) but didn’t know what to make so I just made a chocolate sheet cake and ate a (giant) slice plain. Which was tasty. But the next day I was like the rest of this sad plain cake this needs some kind of icing. Containing peanut butter, obviously. And then somehow I came up with the idea to make cute little heart cakes out of my sheet cake – thus Chocolate Peanut Butter Heart Cakes were born.
I included a recipe for a great chocolate sheet cake, but if you want to “cheat” and use a boxed mix, go right ahead! I put cheat in quotation marks because I don’t even think that is cheating – boxed cake mix is pretty delicious. Once your cake is baked and cooled, get to work with a heart-shaped cookie cutter and cut out your hearts – any size you want! The chocolate peanut butter icing is kind of a hybrid between an icing and a glaze – it sets up to be slightly hard, and I really love the consistency of it on these cakes. These are such a fun treat to make for Valentine’s Day or really anytime you want to dress up your dessert a little bit. Heart-shaped food is always appropriate in my book.
Thanks for sticking with me and Chez CateyLou for 3 years! Here’s to many more years of chocolate peanut butter celebrations.
These Chocolate Peanut Butter Heart Cakes, made with chocolate sheet cake, are so easy, cute, and delicious - the perfect treat to make for Valentine's Day!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
- 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (6 1/4 ounces)
- 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), plus extra for baking pan
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup peanut butter chips
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 2 T butter
- 2 T peanut butter
- optional: sprinkles, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Generously grease a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with butter.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, and salt.
- Heat chocolate and butter in microwave-safe bowl at 50 percent power for 1 minute. Stir, and continue heating in 20 second increments until fully melted and smooth.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and whisk until combined. Mix together buttermilk and baking soda, then add to the chocolate mixture.
- Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture and whisk until batter is smooth and glossy.
- Pour into prepared pan; bake for 30 - 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cake cool completely.
- When cake is cool, use a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out hearts. Place the cake hearts on a cooling rack placed over a cookie sheet (for easy mess cleanup)
- Add all ingredients to a microwave safe bowl, and heat for 45 seconds at 50% power. Stir mixture, then continue heating and stirring in 20 second increments until the mixture is fully melted and smooth. Use an offset spatula to ice each heart. Decorate with sprinkles as desired. Let the cakes sit for about 30 minutes, until the icing is set.
Notes
Cake recipe from America's Test Kitchen
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Our other Blog Birthday Treats:
Yellow Birthday Cake with Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting
Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting
And some fun Valentine’s Day Treats – red velvet themed!
Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies
1-HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY!
2-I looove how you sort of became inspired to make these after making these sheet cake!
3-choc+pb+hearts=LOVETHEM
Hooray! Happy blog birthday Cate! I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with chocolate and peanut butter – woohoo!
Happy, happy blog birthday! This is just the perfect way to celebrate, chocolate and peanut butter can never go wrong!
Happy Blogiversary! It’s so much fun watching how much our blog babies grow! And soon you get the blessing with the baby!! And when people say it goes together like PB&J I think it should be replaced by Peanut Butter & Chocolate. These are adorable!
These little cakes are so sweet! I love all the sprinkles, too. Happy blogging birthday, and here’s to many more!
Happy birthday, CCL! So glad the internet brought us together so I could join in celebrating this day 🙂 I love these little cute cakes! And also… I feel you on the “i just want some cake,” my friend. That happened to me a few days ago and I settled for a brownie. NOT THE SAME. I think some cake will be happening in my weekend. Baby gets what baby wants, eh?
Wow 3 years already?! Congrats! These cakes look amazing! And how are you feeling? Almost ready?!?! SO excited for you guys!
Happy Blog Birthday Catey!!!! These are so super cute by the way!!
It’s been three years already?? Happy Blogiversary!!! I am so so happy I met you through this and can’t wait to continue following along. Of course, I am here for the chocolate and PB treats for Mr J 🙂
Happy Happy Blog Anniversary! Congrats on 3 years, Cate! So so excited for all your new adventures yet to come! This cake is super adorable – chocolate and peanut butter is the perfect way to celebrate! 🙂