devil's food cake w/ chunky pb-cream cheese filling topped w/ ganache & salty peanuts

I'm not going to write out a post with these photo's....no one's going to read it.









devil's food cake w/ chunky pb-cream cheese filling topped w/ ganache
print recipe

I used the devil's food cake recipe from here--david lebovitz. Then I made the chunky pb filling (below). Then I used a ganache topping over the cake (below) and topped the cake with salty cocktails peanuts, chopped.

chunky peanut butter-cream cheese filling
8 oz cream cheese, very soft/room temp
½ stick salted butter, at room temp
¾ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
A good pinch of sea salt
a dash of good quality vanilla extract
½ cup smooth peanut butter (not all natural)
handful of salty peanuts, rough chop

In a large bowl use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese and butter together. The slowly add in the confectioners’ sugar—don’t forget to scrape the sides and bottom of bowl during mixing. Continue to beat till nice and fluffy, then add in the salt, vanilla extract, and peanut butter. I prefer to fold the peanut butter in by hand then added in the peanuts in.

ganache (so many ways to make this, here's my way)
12 ounces 70% cacao bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup heavy cream
2 TB unsalted butter

For the ganache, melt the chopped chocolate with the heavy cream in a double-boiler. Make sure to stir occasionally until fully melted. Once melted, take off the heat and add in the butter. Make sure to whisk this up good. The better you whisk the glossier and smoother the ganache. I waited about an hour and a half for it to cool to pour onto cake.
And just so you know, ganache keeps very well in the fridge overnight if covered very well. You must let it come to room temp before using and whisk it, A LOT.

assemble:
Bake the cake using the recipe link above. Let cakes cool in pans. Then once cooled use pb filling and spread on one layer of cake, be sure not to let the filling get too close to the edges. Once done filling, place the other cake on top. Pour on the ganache, then sprinkle with roughly chopped salty peanuts (optional but wonderful) or sprinkle whatever you wish on top.

**Note: I did a double layer of ganache; did one layer, let it cooled/harden then another layer to kick it up another notch.