Peanut and Chocolate Cake

My Dad's birthday is approaching and from previous posts you likely know he loves peanut flavored anything. So I found another great cake recipe from the Southern Heritage Cakes Cookbook: Harvest Peanut Cake

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

2 cups firmly packed brown sugar

6 eggs (yes, don't eat this one before the annual cholesterol check...)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup chopped peanuts to sprinkle on top after frosting (optional)

Cream peanut butter and butter. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt: add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Pour batter into a greased & floured 13X9X2-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 - 50 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

The cookbook also provides a Peanut Butter Frosting, but I went with Betty Crocker Double Fudge Chocolate Chip icing and it was fabulous - like eating a Peanut Butter Cup. This cake was easy, and turned out pretty well as you can see from the picture before I decorated it. My son was so excited about this that he was pulling the big pan out of the fridge himself as soon as my Dad arrived. He also blew out the candle...

I have two teen books to review by the end of the weekend for one of my freelance sources. Here's the dilemma - both are from series I regularly review and both are horrendous! I knew one was going to be bad when the publishing date kept getting pushed back and they sent me a very late review copy. Yes, not only was it absolutely riddled with errors, but the plot was warmed over from the previous one. I like light fun teen reads as much as any teen, but they at least deserve a plot! I am going to read mysteries the rest of the weekend to recover.

And cookbooks of course, too. A wonderful friend bought me Rufus Estes' Good Things to Eat: The First Cookbook by an African-American Chef from a Martin Luther King museum in Atlanta. It is from 1911, and for the first time in my life I'm tempted to get a deep fat fryer to try some apple fritters. I can just see setting myself and the kitchen on fire if I tried it in a pan.