Peanut Butter Cup Earthquake Cake (Happy Birthday to ME!)

I just celebrated my 33rd birthday – and as I am sure most of you adults (and moms!) out there can attest to – birthdays aren’t exactly a big deal anymore, but one thing that I do especially enjoy about birthdays is the FOOD! When you’re a kid, it’s all about sheet cake full of sugar and pizza and candy – and I would like to say that as an adult my tastes have evolved and I enjoy a fancy meal in an upscale restaurant for my birthday – but that’s just not me ha. I still love pizza and frosting and candy – but I have evolved a bit past the sheet cake, to this magical creation called the “Earthquake Cake”. It’s full of peanut butter and chocolate-y goodness, and it is a MUST try for those of you who love the PB/chocolate combo as much as I do!

PEANUT BUTTER CUP EARTHQUAKE CAKE
(Recipe Courtesy of Lamberts Lately)

INGREDIENTS
1 Box of yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups peanut butter
2 sticks butter, softened to room temperature
chocolate syrup
¼ cup milk
2 cups powdered sugar
30 chopped peanut butter cups

INSTRUCTIONS
-In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 cup of peanut butter, and 1 stick of butter. Spread mixture in a greased 9×13″ baking dish.
-In a mixer, mix together 1 stick butter, 1 cup peanut butter, and ¼ cup milk. Slowly add in powdered sugar until frosting is mixed well.
-Spoon half of the frosting mixture on top of the cake mix. Add 6-8 large squirts of chocolate syrup.Very gently swirl frosting and syrup into the cake mix. Don’t completely mix. Make sure you get swirls into the edge of the cake pan.
-Gently press in half of the chopped peanut butter cups.
-Bake cake for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees
-Once cooled, Top cake with remaining frosting, more chocolate syrup, and remaining chopped peanut butter cups.

A boxed yellow cake mix gets a healthy dose of peanut butter

Half the frosting is actually used INSIDE the cake – keeps it moist and EXTRA peanut butter-y

A Swirl and some PB cups and this guy is ready for the oven

The name “Earthquake” is no joke – it got so big while baking it erupted over the side of the pan!

The finished product is so rich and dense – and FULL of peanut butter – SO GOOD!

The only thing I really changed about the recipe is that I bought a big bag of the mini “unwrapped” reeses’s cups instead of using chopped ones. Truth be told I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to bother unwrapping a ton of candies and then chopping them – the unwrapped ones worked really well! Half went in the cake, half went on top. Easy.

Ok now, I know what you might be wondering – Did she make her OWN birthday cake??? And the answer is technically no – as my husband purchased my cake of choice – cookie cake with extra frosting (you can pay like $2 extra and they will cover the whole thing in frosting – best add on EVER!), but I knew we were having some people over last weekend and while cookie cake is great – it’s not everyone’s favorite – so I decided to make the Earthquake cake in addition to the cookie cake – because who doesn’t love multiple dessert choices, right?

My husband says I only made the Earthquake cake so that people wouldn’t eat as much cookie cake and I could have more of it to myself – which is actually NOT true – I hadn’t thought of that ahead of time – but he might be onto something there…hmm. Either way – the earthquake cake is the ultimate indulgence for the peanut butter/chocolate lovers in your life – it’s easy to make and delicious to eat!