Peanut Butter Cake with Chocolate and Amaretto Ganache

Don’t you sometimes feel like a delicious dessert but are too lazy to spend hours in the kitchen creating one from scratch? Or you need to impress someone with your cooking skills but have no time between work, family, facebook, instagram, twitter, snapchat, tumblr and youtube?

Then have no fear! I have a hack for you! A simple answer to your problems! Buy a cake mix! Now hear me out, I know that many frown upon the use of such a shortcut, but there are ways you can make a deliciously moist cake out of a simple mix.

This is what you have to do to get the best cake possible from any mix:

• Substitute the water for whole milk.
• Use room temperature eggs.
• DO NOT over mix. A few small lumps are ok.
• DO NOT over bake. Make sure you keep an eye on your cake. If you just follow the time in the box you might end up with a dry possibly burned cake. Remember that all ovens are not created equal and yours might cook it faster than what the box anticipates. So check it often!

For this cake you will need a few other ingredients than just the ones the box calls for:

Ingredients:

-Cake Mix (Yellow, Buttery, or White works well)

-Use whole milk instead of water. (Follow box measurement)

-Use peanut oil instead of vegetable oil. (Follow box measurement)

-Add 1/4 cup peanut butter. (Can use chunky, sugar, no sugar, whatever you have at hand)

-However many eggs it asks for at room temperature.

Make cake according to box directions. Just keep an eye on it. Once finished let it cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile let’s make a simple yet fancy ganache (Sounds fancy doesn’t it?) to go over our cake.

Chocolate and Amaretto Ganache–

Ingredients:

-1 package of chocolate chips. Can use bittersweet, semisweet, or dark chocolate.

-3/4 cup heavy cream.

-2 Tbsp Amaretto. (An almond liquor. Oh yeahhhh boozy goodness)

In a small saucepan heat heavy cream to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling, pour it over the chocolate chips. Stir until it becomes a smooth mixture. Then add Amaretto and stir until combined. Now let it sit for a while so that it cools a little. As it cools it will harden which will make it stick to the cake.

Pour over the cake starting at the center and spreading to the edges until you have covered all of the surface area. Decorate cake with strawberries and drizzle them with a little of the ganache.

Now you might say, this still sounds like too much work for me! Well never fear, I have an even shorter shortcut for you! (Though I got to say your level of laziness… I mean time-saving skills has impressed me!)

No time to make a ganache? No problem. Buy a container of pre-made chocolate frosting! Add 2 Tbsp of Amaretto to it. Mix well. And then spread over your cake! That’s it.

So there it is, the easy way to make a pretty, delicious cake that will make you look like a kitchen god/goddess.