Chocolate Sheet Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

This year the Super Bowl coincidentally landed on the day after my dad's birthday. So when I asked my mom what she and Dad were doing for the game, she decided to invite friends over and asked me to contribute a birthday cake for my dad. I decided to focus on peanut butter and chocolate since Dad loves both flavors. And because I knew I'd be baking his cookies, I decided to look at the cake mix books I have in search of a chocolate or peanut butter cake I could dress up. I quickly found a Chocolate Sheet Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting in the first Cake Mix Doctor book.

Chocolate Sheet Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Chocolate Sheet Cake Ingredients (pgs. 52-54)

• Vegetable oil spray for misting pan (I use Pam for Baking)
• 1 package plain devil's food cake mix
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/3 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Peanut Butter Frosting Ingredients (pg. 427)

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 3 to 4 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  

Directions

1. Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 350F. Lightly mist a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with vegetable oil spray. Set pan aside.
2. Place the cake mix, cocoa powder, buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look thick and combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven.
3. Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the Peanut Butter Frosting: Place the peanut butter and butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine. Add the confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, and the vanilla. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is well combined, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting lightens and is fluffy, 1 minute more. Blend in up to 1 tablespoon milk if the frosting seems too stiff.
5. Frost the top of the cake, spreading the frosting out to the edges with a rubber spatula. (I also frosted the sides as best as I could.) Slice and serve.

Store the cake, covered in aluminum foil or plastic wrap, at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze it, wrapped in foil, for up to 6 months. Thaw the cake overnight on the counter before serving.

Everyone loved it! Even my dad, who was a tad disappointed that I didn't use the family's chocolate frosting recipe. I do wish Lent hadn't started this week so I could've had more than the one piece I limited myself to.