CHOCOLATE CAKE

1. Preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Butter and flour two 8” round cake pans. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the sugars and oil. Add egg, egg yolk, and extract, and stir to combine.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, stirring just until combined after each addition. Stir in the hot coffee just until combined. Divide batter between cake pans.
4. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let col in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and allow to cool on a wire rack completely. If preparing ahead, once cool, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze overnight.

PEANUT BUTTER CAKE

1. Preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Butter and flour two 8” round cake pans. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the light brown sugar, peanut butter, and oil until combined and creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, stirring until just combined.
3. In a medium bowl, soft together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, stirring until just combined after each addition.
4. Divide the batter between the pans (I like to do this by weight).
5. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks.
6. If preparing ahead, once cool, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze overnight.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and cocoa at low speed until well combined. Gradually add the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, alternately with cream, 1 Tbsp at a time, beating until combined. Add vanilla and salt. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high. Beat until mixture is smooth, about 1 minute. Add more cream if needed (see notes), and beat on high until soft and spreadable. Reduce the mixer to low and beat for 1-2 minutes to remove any air bubbles. Use immediately, or place a piece of plastic wrap over the surface of the buttercream until you use.

PEANUT BUTTER BUTTERCREAM

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and peanut butter at medium speed until smooth. Reduce mixer speed to low. Gradually add powdered sugar and salt, beating until combined. Add cream, beating until a spreadable consistency is reached. Add more cream if needed (see notes), and beat on high until soft and spreadable. Reduce the mixer to low and beat for 1-2 minutes to remove any air bubbles. Use immediately, or or place a piece of plastic wrap over the surface of the buttercream until you use.

ASSEMBLY

1. Secure one of the peanut butter layers of cake to a cake turntable using a little buttercream (I actually frosted mine on a cake stand, on top of a turntable). Add about ¾ cup chocolate buttercream onto the first layer of cake, and smooth using an offset spatula. Top with a chocolate layer, and add about ¾ cup peanut butter buttercream, and smooth down. Repeat the process, adding a peanut butter layer, chocolate buttercream, and finally a chocolate layer (I like to put the top layer upside down to make the top nice and flat, but I forgot this time!).
2. Frost the cake with a crumb coat - to do this I put peanut butter and chocolate buttercream into a piping bag (see notes), and then spun the turntable while I piped the buttercream onto the outside of the cake. Don’t worry if there are some gaps. Smooth using a cake scraper or an offset spatula, scraping off the scraper between passes, and placing the scraped off buttercream into a bowl off to the side.
3. Once you have crumb coated your cake, place it in the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes, while you prepare the buttercream for the outside.
4. Fit three piping bags with french star tips - I use Ateco #866. If you used a bowl to the side to collect the scraped buttercream (I did, and ended up with both peanut butter and chocolate buttercream), mix well to combine, adding more chocolate or peanut butter buttercream if necessary until you have a nice light brown colour. Transfer to a piping bag. Transfer the remaining chocolate and peanut butter buttercreams to the other two piping bags.
5. Remove the cake from the fridge, and pipe blobs of buttercream over the surface of the cake - I just blob them on randomly, switching colours every now and then to keep the pattern nice and mixed up. Repeat until the cake is completely covered in buttercream blobs.
6. Store in the fridge until ready to serve. Once cut, store in an airtight container in the fridge.