This July I swapped my parents my 3 little cupcakes for my “little” brother. Doesn’t seem like a fair trade right? But hey, it was my mom’s idea! While the girls are having a blast with family I’m catching up on work and enjoying a little kiddo free time. It just so happens my brother celebrated his 17th birthday while staying in New York with me, so naturally we needed a cake! He requested a Reese Cup cake and I was pretty happy to accept that challenge. Really, when have I ever turned down a chocolate and peanut butter anything? :)
Here’s what you’re going to need:
Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake
2 Cups Sugar
1-3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
2 Eggs
1 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Boiling Water
Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting
1 Cup Unsalted Butter
1 8oz Package Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 1/4 Cup JIF Smooth Peanut Butter
4 Cups Powdered Sugar
2-3 Tbsp. milk
Topping
Reese Cups To Top
6 Oz. Melting chocolate
6 Oz. Butter
Step 1: Chop up your Reese Cups.
Step 2: Mix together your cake mix and bake into 2 8in pans that have been greased and floured. (Printable recipe at the end of post) Trim the tops of each cake so both cakes are level.
Step 3: Prepare your creamy peanut butter icing. (Printable recipe at the end of post)
Step 4: Secure bottom cake to a cake board or cake stand. I like to pipe a rim of icing around the cake first, using a large round piping tip. This helps to keep the icing from seeping out.
Step 5: Fill the inside with peanut butter icing.
Step 6: Toss in some Reese Cup pieces.
Step 7: Place top cake on top and press down just a little bit. Using a icing spatula smooth out the seam. Cover in peanut butter icing and place in fridge. Keeping the cake in the fridge allows the icing to harden a bit so it won’t melt under the warm chocolate.
Step 9: While cake is chilling melt together your melting chocolate and butter. Make sure to stir often.
Step 10: Remove cake from fridge, pour melted chocolate over. Add reese cup pieces, and quickly place back in the fridge to chill.
It’s that easy…yet incredibly yummy!
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 1-3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 3/4 Cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
- 1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Cup Milk
- 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
- 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
- 1 Cup Boiling Water
- 1 Cup Unsalted Butter
- 1 8oz Package Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 1/4 Cup JIF Smooth Peanut Butter
- 4 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 2-3 Tbsp. milk
- Reese Cup Pieces To Top
- Topping
- Reese Cups To Top
- 6 Oz. Melting chocolate
- 6 Oz. Butter
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, or bowl of an electric mixer, mix together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until fully combined.
- Add in eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla extract. Pour in boiling water and beat for 2 minutes.
- Pour batter into two floured 8in cake pans.
- Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. (until toothpick comes out clean)
- In a large mixing bowl, or bowl of an electric mixer, beat together together unsalted butter and cream cheese. Add in vanilla extract. Once blended, add in peanut butter until fully combined.
- Slowly add in powdered sugar.
- Add in milk 1 TBS at a time until you reach the desired consistency.
- Secure bottom cake to a cake board or cake stand. I like to pipe a rim of icing around the cake first, using a large round piping tip. This helps to keep the icing from seeping out.
- Fill the inside with peanut butter icing. Toss in some Reese Cup pieces.
- Place top cake on top and press down just a little bit. Using a icing spatula smooth out the seam. Cover in peanut butter icing and place in fridge. Keeping the cake in the fridge allows the icing to harden a bit so it won’t melt under the warm chocolate.
- While cake is chilling melt together your melting chocolate and butter. Make sure to stir often.
- Remove cake from fridge, pour melted chocolate over. Add reese cup pieces, and quickly place back in the fridge to chill.
I’ve made a cake like this before…. it’s HEAVENLY. Seriously, great work. I’d love to crawl through my computer screen and eat a giant piece of your cake!!!!
wow that recioe sounds sooo amazing!!! lol thank you so much for sharing it with us. my family loves chocolate and peanut butter. i will have to give this a try for sure.
oops was suppose to say. recipe.
It looks great and the recipe sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing!
What a good big sister you are:) This looks amazing!
Oh … my! That looks delicious!
P.S. Just discovered your blog – it’s so cute! Will probably be spending a lot of time on here :-)
Welcome! Glad you are enjoying the site :)
What is melting chocolate?
Melting chocolate is chocolate specifically made to be melted and used to cover a treat. Once melted properly it is smooth where as chocolate chips for example are thick and clumpy. You can find it in the baking aisle in a bar or in little wafers. Almond Bark and Candy Quick both carry have it in most grocery stores.
looks really yummy :) I think I will make ir for my Feonces birthday this year!
For the cooking temp and time, is it the same for the two 8 inch pans? Your instructions are for cupcakes. Hope i just didn’t read it wrong. Thank you for your time.
Sorry there was an error in the recipe printout! It is correct now. :)
You have listed cook 16 minutes for cupcakes… how long for a cake?
Is it listed in the printable recipe at the end of the post. :)
Did I miss something or is the bake time only listed for cupcakes? What about for the 2 8″?
This was soo soooo good. I was really suspicious of the cake batter… it was so liquidy, but it turned out to be the best chocolate cake i’ve ever had, so light and airy, but very chocolatety!
Awesome!
Made for my daughter’s 17th birthday…looks great…we haven’t tried to yet but it looks and smells heavenly!!!
I was wondering if you keep this cake refrigerated until you eat it or is it okay to leave it out?
Hey there! Due to the cream cheese you will want to keep this in the fridge.
Do you think I could substitute the reese pieces for kit kay pieces? and the peanut butter for nutella? Let me know what you think!
I say it’s definitely worth a try, sounds delish!
what is powdered sugar? same as icing sugar?
Yes ma’am!
I made one almost identical to this yesterday, for Father’s day. The only differences are that I filled it with chocolate mousse with PB Cups, and used a cooled ganache to decorate with – whipped it for the borders, and rosettes, to hot the cups on the top. Also, soaked each tier with a simple syrup, mixed with some of the hot ganache.
Yummy!
I was wondering if it would be possible to do in a sheet cake?? What would the differences be?
Im making this cake for someone and will have to drive to give it to this person. will it melt and is it not a good idea? thanks
With this being a cream cheese based icing, I would definitely be concerned with it melting. To give it it’s best shot I would keep it in the fridge until moments before leaving and move it directly to an air conditioned car. If the drive is long you could always try placing it in the cake cover first and then in a large portable cooler or cooler bag with ice around it, I often do this with cupcakes!
Wonder if somehow this could be modified to do just a
BUNDT cake….???
What do you think ?
I haven’t tried it yet but I certainly think it’s worth a shot! YUM!
Hi,
I was browsing the internet for a reese inspired giant cupcake. Can you recipe be used in a giant cupcake please?
Many thanks Candy
Absolutely!
Can I make this the night before and leave in the refrigerator over night or does it need to be made the same day?
Absolutely!
I’d like to modify the cake portion to be vanilla, could I just omit the Hershey’s Chocolate Powder?
THIS is sooooo powerfully spectacular… it made me create a pinterest account! I LOVE YOU. I am going to spend DAYS perusing your website and clicking every ad because I LOVE YOU!!!
p.s.
I’m not a creepy stalker…
just a little creepy! ;~p
Hahaha I love it! Stalk away! Happy baking!
Did you use the mini reeses?
Either works!
Is the cocoa sweetened or unsweetened? My nephew is asking for a “Reese’s ” cake for his birthday and I would loce to surprise him with this one!!! Thanks for sharing!
Love****
Unsweetened :)
Does this recipe half well?
Absolutely!
I made this cake for my boyfriends birthday and it is amazing. I followed the recipe exactly until the last step. When I read the recipe I thought it was strange that it called for melting 6 oz of butter (which equals a whopping 12 tablespoons of butter) with the chocolate but I tried it anyway and it came out to a greasy,disgusting, liquidity mess. I followed the instructions exactly and stirred it continuously but it just didnt work out. Thank God I had more chocolate on hand so I started this step over but instead of the butter I just added a little heavy cream as the chocolate melted. That worked out much better. This cake is sooo good. Thanks for the great recipe.
Just an FYI. The printable recipe doesn’t include the Topping. I was able to go back and find it in the tutorial but it isn’t in the printable version. Just thought you’d like to know! BTW, this recipe is absolutely delicious!!
Thank you! Fixed now :)
I am making this now and it is overflowing the pans. I used 8 in like the recipe calls for the batter was very liquidy. My oven is a mess.
Just made this for my sons 21st, absolutely beautiful! The cake was so moist, definately a keeper. Thanks for sharing.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the cake!
Do you think the filling would still taste fine without the cream cheese part? So just make a buttercream with the peanut butter?
I haven’t tried that specifically but I think it’s worth a shot!
This is truly one of those recipes that does well!!!!! I love it that you have plenty of icing to easily cover the layers and even have some to spare. Because it’s so fluffy, it has a very light taste. This recipe is definietly a keeper!
Awesome! Glad to hear Debbie!