Chocolate-Peanut Butter Sheet Cake

Linking up with Kelly's Korner - SUYL - Desserts!

If you like chocolate and peanut butter - this is The. Best. Sheet. Cake. Ever.

I've already made it three times this summer.  Because it is a sheet cake, it is thinner than a typical cake.  My nieces and nephews all call them brownies, but they are nothing like a fudgey, chewey brownie.

The recipe is a cross between the Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake and The Girl Who Ate Everything's Peanut Butter Sheet Cake and my husband's Grandma's Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe.

Picture Courtesy - The Pioneer Woman

Enjoy! (I keep forgetting to take pictures when I make this, so pictures are courtesy of two of my sources for the recipe - The Pioneer Woman and The Girl Who Ate Everything)

Picture Courtesy - The Girl Who Ate Everything

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Sheet Cake

Ingredients:
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup Cocoa

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour

1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:
3/4 cup butter
6 Tbsp milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup cocoa
1 lb powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium pot add the peanut butter, water, cocoa, and butter and bring to a boil.  Allow mixture to boil for 30sec to 1 min.  Remove from heat.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, brown sugar, and flour. Add to the chocolate-peanut butter mixture. (I use my KitchenAide, so I add the chocolate-peanut butter mixture to my sugar/flour combination)
4. Add the salt, baking soda, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla to the bowl and mix well.
5. Stir well and pour into greased or parchment lined cookie sheet pan (jellyroll pan). Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

For the Frosting:
1. In a small pot bring the butter, milk, cocoa, and peanut butter to a boil.  Allow mixture to boil for 30sec to 1 min.
2. Remove pan from the heat and add the powdered sugar and vanilla.
3. Pour frosting over the warm cake.

Ugly Cherry Pie

I inherited some pie cherries from my mother-in-law a couple of days ago that were begging to be made into a pie.  I'm not the most expert pie-maker, but have had pretty decent luck in the past.  I'm beginning to think it was beginners luck!  Making pie crusts is an art, I've decided... one that does not come naturally to me!

Last night I had it all rolled out and was patting myself on the back for how pretty it looked!!  I had used a small cookie cutter to cut four little hearts for venting and decoration and it looked prefect laying there on the counter.  I started transferring it to the waiting pie and just as I had the shell over the top of the pie, it came apart in about five pieces.... argh!!!!!!  It's a lot harder to salvage when it actually lands on the pie and has filling all over the one side.  If it had happened en-route, I probably would have just crumpled it into a ball and started over (even though I know it makes the crust "tougher"...)!  But, that's not really an option with cherry filling all over it... so I salvaged it the best I could.

It's one of the uglier pies that I've made, but I'm amazed at how much baking disguises the imperfections... and simply the fact that it is a pie...  here's to hoping it tastes better than it looks though!

I used the following two recipes for the pie:
Sylvia's Perfect Pie Crust from Pioneer Woman
Cherry Pie IV Recipe from AllRecipes.com (only the pie recipe)