Peanut Butter Chocolate Eclair Cake

As a teenager, I always loved to cook and make new things for my family.  One of my signature items was a Chocolate Eclair Cake.  I have no idea where I got the recipe, but I made it so man times that I had the ingredients and directions memorized!  I remember that in my cooking class in high school, I chose to make it for my live demonstration presentation because I was so proud that I didn't need to look at the recipe (I was just like a Food Network star!).  Somehow over the years, I had sort of forgotten about this recipe, even though it is so easy, so delicious and perfect for summertime in Arizona!  So when I saw this version with a peanut butter filling pop up on Plain Chicken, I knew that I needed to try it immediately!  Other than the twist with the peanut butter filling, the other change from my original recipe was using just a jar of chocolate frosting as the the topping.  While I was impressed at how easy that made putting this together, it was just too sweet for my tastes.  I think I prefer making the topping from scratch like in my original recipe using bittersweet chocolate and powdered sugar.  Either way, a cool, creamy chocolate peanut butter dessert is always a win in my book!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Eclair Cake

adapted from Plain Chicken

1 box chocolate graham crackers (there will be a few graham crackers left over)

2 (3 1/4-ounce) boxes vanilla instant pudding

1 c. peanut butter
3 1/2 c. milk
1 (8-ounce) container Cool Whip, thawed
1 can chocolate frosting


Spray the bottom of a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with whole graham crackers. In bowl of an electric mixer, mix pudding with milk and peanut butter; beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Fold in whipped topping. Pour half the pudding mixture over graham crackers. Place another layer of whole graham crackers on top of pudding layer. Pour over remaining half of pudding mixture and cover with another layer of graham crackers.


Heat the container of prepared frosting, uncovered in the microwave for 1 minute. Pour over the top of the cake. Refrigerate for at least 12 hours before serving.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bundt Cake

My friend had invited me over to watch the Superbowl, I was looking forward to it, but have to say it felt a little odd not to be hosting the party myself.  I love to plan parties and menus and have people over, but I was a teeny bit relieved to have the day off.  But when I got a frantic text from my friend asking if anyone could bring a dessert, I switched back into party mode and decided to bake a cake!  I got this really cool bundt cake pan last year for Christmas, it is in the shape of a football stadium!!  What better day to bust it out again than for the Superbowl?  It looks even snazzier when I put it on my football field platter and stick little end zone toothpicks in it....I know the powdered sugar makes it a bit difficult to see in the picture...but trust me....the people at the party just couldn't stop talking about how cute it was!  Well, they did eventually stop talking about how cute it was when they started talking about how good it was!  This is a classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter, nothing fancy, but always a crowd pleaser. 

My pan is being forced into retirement for the next 6 months until the football season starts again in August.....it sure is going to be a long 6 months!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bundt Cake

1 (18.25 oz.) package devil’s food cake mix
1 (3.8 oz.) package chocolate instant pudding mix

1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. water
4 large eggs
1 (8 oz.) container sour cream
1 (10 oz.) pkg. peanut butter chips
Garnish: confectioners’ (powdered) sugar

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 10-cup fluted pan.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, and sugar. Add oil, water, and eggs; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir in sour cream and chocolate/peanut butter chips. Spoon into prepared pan.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool completely on a wire rack.

Sift confectioners’ sugar over top of cake.

Lil' Devils

Even though I have been dealing with a terrible cold the past few days (my second cold of the summer..grr) I have been craving chocolate. Each night, as I sat on the couch with my box of tissues I tried to figure out something quick and easy that I could make with ingredients that I had on hand. Unfortunately, every recipe that I wanted to try, I was missing one of the vital ingredients! So Monday and Tuesday both passed without my chocolate craving being addressed. Today, I had to go and drop off some clothes at Goodwill (I did a little late summer cleaning, and donated 75 items!), and since there is a Fry's in the same parking lot, I decided to run in and grab a few things. I was also on a mission to get one of the missing ingredients so that I could finally get my chocolate fix!

I came across this recipe when I was Googling and trying to find something to do with Devil's Food cake mix, and since it combined both chocolate AND peanut butter, I knew that it couldn't be bad! One of the things that drew me to it was that it only had 4 ingredients, so it was really quick to prepare. The filling was a bit tricky because of all the marshmallow cream, so I ended up just patting it down with my hands. I let these cool for awhile before I sampled them, and the were quite yummy, and went perfect with a cold glass of milk. The main problem is that they came out a bit crumbly, making them difficult to eat, so I just dug in with a fork! Hopefully they will set up more the longer that they cool. This also could have been due to operator error and me not combining the crust ingredients well enough, but it didn't make them any less tasty!

Lil' Devils

1 box Devil's Food cake mix
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. peanut butter
1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix cake mix with melted butter. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture and pat the rest into an ungreased 9 x 13 inch pan to form a crust. Combine the peanut butter and marshmallow cream. Spread over the crust. Crumble the remaining cake mixture over the top; gently press down into the peanut butter layer.

Bake for 20 minutes. Before cutting, let cool for at least 30 minutes to let the marshmallows re-set.

Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

Okay, so I just couldn't do it. Once I got myself up and started baking, the baking bug took over! The Chocolate Chip Cookie Pretzel Bars had to bake for 30 minutes, so I figured I would just go ahead and bite the bullet and get these ready to put in the oven when they were ready. Otherwise, I had planned to get up early and make them before work, but for those of you that know me well, you know that I am NOT a morning person!

I have made peanut butter blossoms before, peanut butter cookies topped with a Hershey's kiss, but this were taking things to a whole new level with a mini Reese's peanut butter cup! I found these on Coleen's Recipes, and she referred to them as the "Ultimate" filled peanut butter cookie, they sure did live up to their name! Everyone loved them so much, that they were gone before some of our guests even arrived (sorry, Karen, Kyle, Drew & Liz)! I couldn't believe how incredibly easy these were to make, they look rather tedious, but really the hardest part is just unwrapping all the little Reese's cups!

Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

adapted from Coleen's Recipes

24 mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, frozen
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter flavored Crisco (I didn't have butter, so I used regular, it seemed to work fine)
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the Crisco, peanut butter, sugars, egg and vanilla until it is smooth and creamy. Next, add the dry ingredients and beat just until smooth. Roll the dough into 24 1-inch balls and place in ungreased mini-muffin pan.

Bake for 10 minutes until they puff up and are slightly browned. They will look like this below.


After removing them from the oven, immediately press a FROZEN mini Reese's cup into the center of each cookie, pressing down until the top of the candy is at the same level as the top of the cookie.

Let them cool in the pan for about 2 minutes before you try to remove them. To remove, insert just the tip of a thin knife between the cookie and the pan. Place on a cooling rack to cool completely. The chocolate will melt from the heat, so allow them to fully re-set (you can even pop them in the fridge to speed up the process) before serving.