Today I'm going to share a family tradition. When I was younger I asked my mom why we didn't have birthday cake at Christmas, since its Baby Jesus' birthday. Its hard to argue with this logic, so Baby Jesus birthday cake was born. I would say that 90% of the time Baby Jesus Birthday Cake is chocolate chip cake. This cake was pretty much a staple at my house growing up.
I volunteered to make Baby Jesus cake this year, because I thought it would make for a good post. I had already posted about chocolate chip cake though, so I decided to try a new cake. I spent a lot of time looking up recipes on other blogs and trying to find something that would be spectacular. I finally decided to make this cake.
I'm slightly afraid of getting cakes out of my bundt pan. See my Firecracker cake for more of my nervousness. As soon as I started making the cake I started stressing about it not coming out of the pan. As it baked I was still worried but I distracted myself with last minute wrapping.
So I took it out of the pan, and guess what the top part of the cake stuck in the pan. My first thought was #epicfail. To redo the cake I would have to go to the store to get more ingredients. I would have to go through the stress again, and honestly I wasn't sure what I would change.
Then I came to the conclusion, that Christmas isn't about a perfect cake even if it is Baby Jesus' birthday cake. Its about the birth of Jesus, and how he came to save us all. Looking at our manger on our mantle I think about the stable, the animals, the shepherds, and the wise man. Mary looks so peaceful and happy. If anyone had the right to not look happy and peaceful it was her, I mean she had to give birth in a stable. Mary did you know.
So you know what I did. I scrapped the top of the cake out of the pan. Mushed it together. Topped it with AMAZING peanut butter glaze. I'm sure I will get some teasing from my family, but that is ok. I'm thankful for the true reason of the season. Merry Christmas!
Ingredients
Chocolate Batter
1½ cups flour
⅓ cup cocoa
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
⅓ cup Vegetable Oil
1 cup water
1 Tbsp white vinegar
½ tsp vanilla
Peanut Butter Batter
1 Egg
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
¾ cup peanut butter
⅓ cup sugar
⅓ cup powdered sugar
Peanut Butter Glaze
2 Tbsp butter, softened
¼ cup of creamy peanut butter
½ cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp milk, divided
1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bundt pan.
Start by making the chocolate batter. Mix together the flour, cocoa, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. Then add the vegetable oil, water, vinegar, and vanilla. Stir until everything is well combined, but do not over stir the batter.
Next make the peanut butter batter. With an electric mixer combine the egg, cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar. When everything is combined add the powdered sugar. Mix in the powdered sugar with the electric mixer.
Add a small amount of the chocolate batter to the bundt pan. Then top with some peanut butter batter. Add more chocolate batter on top of the peanut butter. Then add the rest of the peanut butter batter, and then top with the remaining chocolate batter.
Bake for 40-50 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes, and then remove from the pan.
To make the glaze combine the butter, peanut butter, powdered sugar, and 2 Tbsp of the milk. Mix with an electric mixer. You want the glaze to be really smooth and easily drizzled. Add the remaining Tbsp of milk if needed. If the glaze is still to thick you can microwave for 10 -15 seconds to warm up the consistency. Drizzle all over the cake. Top with miniature chocolate chips.
This recipe was adapted from In the Kitchen with KP.
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