Chocolate Bundt with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Filling and Peanut Butter Glaze

This is the second bundt I have made in a month.  It's the second peanut butter and chocolate recipe I have posted in a week.  Either my creative juices are running out, or I really like bundt cakes and peanut butter and chocolate.  I prefer to think the later is true.

Have you ever heard of the podcast What You Missed in History Class?  I'll listen to it while I exercise or do repetitious tasks at work.  It's fun and always enlightening.  I mention it because they did an episode recently on peanut butter.

I always thought George Washington Carver invented peanut butter, but he does not have that distinction.   The first person to patent peanut butter was a Canadian named Marcellus Gilmore Edson in 1884.  His application said the mashed peanuts had the consistency of "butter, lard, or ointment." Yum!  It's a good thing he didn't work in the advertising business because he would have died a pauper. 

John Harvey Kellog patented a peanut butter in 1884 as well.  He boiled the peanuts instead of roasting them like peanut butter producers do today.  He served peanut butter to patients at his sanitarium.  

George Bayle started making a roasted peanut butter around 1898.  George Washington Carver is connected with peanut butter because he worked cultivating peanuts and spreading peanut recipes.

The cake recipe came from allrecipes.com. I have used it before, and it's a winner.  It makes a rich cake.  The ingredients are 1 package devil's food cake mix, 1 5.9 ounce package instant chocolate pudding, 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup vegetable oil, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup hot water, and 1 cup peanut butter chips.  It's pretty fattening, but you can see why it's good.  The original recipe uses regular chocolate chips, but I was going with a peanut butter theme here.

I took the cream cheese peanut butter filling ingredients from a peanut butter filled chocolate muffin recipe.  The filling ingredients are 8 ounces cream cheese, 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

The peanut butter glaze ingredients are 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter, 2 tablespoons milk, pinch of salt, and about 3/4 cup powdered sugar.

For the cake, I poured the cake and pudding mix into a big bowl.

I added the sour cream, oil, eggs, and hot water.

I partially stirred before adding the peanut butter chips.  I set the cake batter side while I prepared the filling.

I added the room temperature cream cheese and peanut butter in another bowl.  I partially stirred these ingredients together.  I don't think the order I added the ingredients made any difference.

I added the sugar, egg, and vanilla.  I don't have a picture of this, but I incorporated the filling ingredients thoroughly. 

I added the cake batter to a well greased bundt pan.  I smoothed the top out and made a little divot for the filling circling the pan.

I evenly spread the peanut butter filling in the divot.  I wish I had added half the batter, the filling, and then the remaining batter.  The cake batter was so thick, the filling remained at the top of the cake.  It tasted wonderful but wasn't as visually appealing.  I baked the cake for 65 minutes at 350 degrees.  The cake recipe says to bake it for 55 minutes, but my cake was not finished after 55 minutes.

I made the glaze while the cake cooled. I added the peanut butter, milk, and some powdered sugar.  I was initially light with the powdered sugar.

I stirred and added powdered sugar until a drippy but firm glaze emerged.  

I drizzled the glaze evenly over the cake.  My cake was a little too warm, but it worked.

Who doesn't love peanut butter and chocolate?  The cake was decadent and flavorsome.  

The cake was tender and moist.  It tasted luxurious.  The chocolate flavor was abundant.

The peanut butter filling was smooth and creamy.  It has a distinct peanut butter flavor.  It wasn't too sweet, which was good given the overall sweetness of the cake.  It was a little tart.

The glaze gilded the lily. It was sweet and smooth.  It added another welcome layer of peanut butter to the cake.

This cake was success.  I ate more of it than I should have, a sign of a good dessert.  Every aspect of it was delicious.