Buckeye Peanut Butter-Fudge Cake
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If you like buckeye candies you will fall in love with this combo of peanut butter and rich chocolate cake.
I can’t take full credit for this cake, I adapted it from the King Arthur blog.In all its glory, the original recipe is made from scratch and is 4 layers high!
But I like easy, and adapted the recipe a little.
Just because it’s easy, doesn’t mean this cake won’t knock your socks off!
Grab your aprons, and let’s get started
Table of Contents
Buckeye Peanut Butter-Fudge Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix (+ ingredients listed on box)
Peanut Butter Filling:
- 4 cups (1-lb. box) powdered sugar
- 1 ½ cups peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup milk
Chocolate Ganache (icing)
- 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 6 tablespoons butter
Instructions
Cake
- Mix and bake the cake according to the box in 2 round cake pans. Let cool.
Peanut Butter Filling
- With and electric mixer, beat the powdered sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla until well combined. Gradually add milk. It will taste as good as it sounds!
Chocolate Ganache (icing)
- Place chocolate chips in a medium bowl and set aside.
- In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before the boiling stage. Pour over the chocolate chips.
- Stir until smooth.
Put it all together
- I only made 2 layers, mainly because a 4 layer cake will not fit under my cake saver. But if you’d like, you can slice your 2 layers into 4 layers.
- Top your layer(s) with peanut butter filling.
- Pour warm ganache over the top of the cake, spread with an angled spatula, and encourage it to dribble over the sides!
Notes
Don’t use just any chocolate cake mix, use Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix. This is THE BEST! I promise!
Hi there, I'm Cheryl!
As a wife, mom, and caffeine enthusiast, my journey has taken me from bustling mornings with my family to sharing delicious recipes, home care tips, and heartfelt decorating insights with wonderful readers like you. My love for baking, photography, and tidiness shines through every post I craft. Dive into my world and discover the art of homemaking, one tidy moment at a time. Read more...
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Wow! I voted for this on goodlifeeats.com, yummy! I also reposted to twitter and facebook! Hope you win! I can’t wait to try this recipe.
Oh how yummy that looks! Peanut butter and chocolate, my favorite!
Looks Delicious! Chocolate + Peanut Butter + More Chocolate = Heaven!!!
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you used a box? and you call yourself a cook and deem this recipe worth posting on a website? that’s ridiculous
HAHA……nice one!
you can even search my archives where a pastry chef left a comment stating that box cake mixes are fantastic to bake with because you have perfectly measured dry ingredients at your disposal.
And ridiculous, is a comment like yours.
I hope you have a beautiful life, and I think someone needs a hug.
Just found your website and i have found a ton of wonderful recipes I cant wait to bake. I am a working mom and enjoy the simplicity of your recipes. So, i certainly disagree with What the?’s comment. I do have a question, I came across your recipe for the perfect cupcake recipe that enhances a box cake mix. In that post you said the recipe could be used for a cake, can you use the cupcake recipe for this cake? or any of the other cake recipes on this site like the upside down german chocolate cake? thanks
For the cake/cupcake issue – what I was mainly referring to was the cake part of the recipes are interchangeable for cake or cupcakes. Now if you’d like to replicate something like this buckeye cake into a cupcake sometimes it’s a little tricky but usually you can do it.
With the buckeye cake, you could fill the cupcakes with the peanut butter filling – and if you want to frost the cupcakes with chocolate ganche – it just may not be as pretty on a cupcake, as it is on a cake where it can dribble down the sides. – so in that case, I would maybe choose a chocolate cream cheese frosting that could be piped on.
The upside down German Chocolate cake would be a bit more difficult, and a while back I had an idea on how to make them into cupcakes, but at the moment I don’t remember what I came up with.
So in short, I was referring to the actual “cake” part of the recipes – not the full recipe with filling and frostings and all – but again, many can be done either way as well.
Help me out here……
What is “heavy whipping cream”? And
Where do I find it?
I can’t wait to make this chocolate peanut butter heaven!
Thanks
I absolutely love your blog and i have gotten so many ideas as well as great recipes but just noticed this one! I am thinking about using the peanut butter filling in french vanilla cupcakes with nutella frosting. i am of course going to use a boxed caked, much easier when a toddler loves to help you bake. How would i fill the cupcakes? i have never filled anything.
oh that sounds amazing!! check this post for a tip on how to fill https://tidymom.net/2012/bunny-lemon-filled-cupcakes-with-lemon-buttercream/ and this is another method I use https://tidymom.net/2010/raspberry-filled-vanilla-cupcakes/
Made this for my husband for his birthday in December and it was amazing!! Thank you for the awesome recipes!
this is completely unfair some of us do NOT have access to ‘Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix’. so practically you are advertising for that certain product!
unfair?! how is a recipe unfair?
this post is in NO WAY advertising for a product. The DH Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix is what I use and love for all my chocolate cake/cupcake recipes and I have for years. I first shared this recipe back in 2009 and it’s still the only chocolate cake mix I use today, in 2015.
While I can’t promise the results will be as good, but my goodness you can use any chocolate cake mix or recipe you’d like.
This sounds amazing, but for one thing. In your description you said it was made from scratch, but then when it comes to ingredients, the cake is made from a box mix. That’s not scratch. Just saying.
I state that the original recipe is from scratch and 4 layers – but I like easy – so I shared my adapted version, which uses a box mix and only 2 layers.
I’ll have to come up with something. I live in Germany, and they really have a limited choice when it comes to box mixes. Same with chocolate chips. Can’t find them. Could I substitute cocoa powder for the chips? What kind of measurements would that require?
Would this work if I made it a regular 9×13 cake and did cake, PB and ganache (meaning I would not do 2 layers of cake)? I don’t have any round cake pans and this looks really good, Buckeyes are my husbands favorite candy and would like to make this for him.
i bet that would work. Let me know how it turns out!!
For the people that don’t have access to a box cake mix you can get it just as moist by adding a chocolate pudding, or even vanilla pudding, to your cake ingredients. If you have access to jello brand instant pudding mix, or whatever equivalent in your country. Here it comes in a box and is in powder form. Don’t know if homeade pudding would work as I’ve never tried it. If you don’t have access to chocolate chips then use a semi sweet bakers bar and just shave it. The chips just help it melt faster.