I have written before about how lucky I am to receive copious of amounts of cookbooks to review in my day job as a journalist. It seems every blogger and his dog has a book these days and some tomes are waaaay better than others. Putting my professional impartiality to one side for a moment I must confess that the books I enjoy reviewing the most are those published by the venerable Australian Women’s Weekly. I have been using their books for decades, as have my mum and nana. Their recipes always work and recently their books have undergone a stylish transformation.
One of their newest titles is Indulgent Cakes – and it does not disappoint. Page after page has incredible looking cakes, in a range of tastes (chocolate and coffee is one chapter, as is ginger and spice, another personal fav).
I adore peanut butter so I was instantly attracted to this number. It makes a really big cake – I had enough batter left over after filling the tin that I managed to make some mini cupcakes.
The AWW team garnished their cake with peanut butter ganache and decorated with peanut butter filled chocolate. I went for a simpler topping of dark chocolate glaze and a sprinkling of salted peanuts. I reduced the amount of sugar.
GATHER:
¼ cup peanut butter
1 ½ cups self-raising flour
½ cup plain flour
¾ cup buttermilk
3 eggs
½ cup dutch-processed cocoa
½ cup boiling water
2/3-cup caster sugar
185g softened, diced butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a deep, 20cm square cake tin.
Stir cocoa and boiling water together in a small heat-proof jug until cocoa dissolves; set aside for 15 minutes to cool.
Cream butter, sugar and extract in bowl of electric mixer until pale. Scrape down sides then beat in eggs, one at a time.
Add cocoa mixture and peanut butter and beat until combined [it will look curdled but it will all work out fine in the end.]
Beat in sifted flours and buttermilk in two batches.
Pour into tin and bake for an hour-ish / until a skewer comes out clean.
Stand for five minutes before removing to wire rake to cool completely.
When cold top with ganache [find recipe here: https://thehungrymum.com/2012/02/13/a-sorta-valentine-day-sweet-aka-mini-chocolate-marsala-cakes-with-choc-ganache/ ] then scatter the top with peanuts.
the hungry mum 
this looks incredible!!
Thanks – it really is delish.
I am green with envy. I absolutely adore cookbooks! I read them like a bedtime story. This cake looks completely indulgent. Thank you for posting the recipe!
I still can’t believe how lucky I am to get so many beautiful cookbooks delivered right to my desk 🙂
This looks super, love chocolate and peanut butter. I still love the AWW cookbooks as well so will have go take a squiz at this one if you think it’s worth a gander. 🙂
It looks really delicious 🙂
thanks – it is delectable 🙂
I love peanut butter too! I have to try this! Thanks for sharing!
Snap! Hope you try it!
This looks amazing! I don’t think I bake with peanut butter nearly as much as I should.
Peanut butter is such a fab thing in baking! I love it 🙂
Reblogged this on Chef Ceaser.
What a job! AWW is every Aussie cook’s backstop that’s for sure. I have used the old cake books until they are falling apart. I must check this new edition out….
Those AWW people are legends! Most of my books are covered in stains & have pages stuck together with bits of food 🙂 Highly recommend this book – you won’t regret buying it.
Peanut butter and chocolate is the best flavor combination ever. I would love to enjoy a slice of this cake with a glass of milk!
Yes, it is amazing, isn’t it? It just works 🙂
That frosting looks mouth watering!! thanks!
Thank you for your sweet words 🙂
My kids went nuts over your pictures and demanded I make this! YUM
Result! Your kids have *excellent* taste 🙂
Yummy! thanks for sharing.
Delicious cake, I really want to lick all that frosting right off the top 😛
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
This cake looks divine! Love PB and chocolate so much- definitely got to try the recipe out! 🙂
I would love to read more about your journalism career. It sounds diverse – and delicious!
I have seen this cookbook and I have been so tempted to buy it! Your cake looks delicious!
Peanut butter and cocoa is a lethal combination! Delicious cake! Thanks for coming and linking up at The Weekend Social. Please be sure to come back next week starting Thursdays at 9PM EST on culinaryflavors.gr! I hope to see you there!
Thanks – is very easy to eat! Love the weekend social, I’ll be back 🙂
nom and nom and nom! Looks fantastic 🙂
Chocolate and peanut butter are great together–this looks like a yummy cake!
It was pretty damn delish! Thanks 🙂
Ooooh, this looks scrumptious! I love peanut butter, and the gooey chocolate frosting looks perfect!
Thanks! PB & choc is all the yum 🙂
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PB & chocolate are a winning combo! I too have a beautiful and very reliable copy of the AWW, they’ve really nailed it with their amazing collections over the years! 🙂
Your job sounds really cool! 🙂 I love AWW cookbooks too, I’ve got a couple of them myself and their recipes always work out great for me- and their photographs are always so pretty! Your cake looks amazing!! I love the chocolate and peanut butter combination!
Chocolat and peanut butter, always a winning combo.
I know – it surely deserves a gold medal for being sooo delicious 🙂
No kidding about how EVERYONE has a cook book nowadays, eh? I love collecting them but in the name of trying to save money, I haven’t bought any in a while. Thank goodness for the internet and food blogs, like yours! I can’t wait to try this beautiful cake. I mean, PB and chocolate is a match made in heaven.
Yes – I think some book publishers will publish just about anything [so many of the recipes don’t appear to have even been tested, if the many fails I’ve experienced are anything to go by]. And with the gazillion of recipes on blogs you can experiment to your heart’s content 🙂
I made this glorious cake a few days ago & loved it so much,…so goooooddddddd! 😃😃😃
Oh yay! Always love hearing that 🙂 Choc & PB is the best. Thanks for the feedback 🙂
🙂 xxx
Chocolate and Peanut Butter in the same sentence is always a winner for me!
yes – life is good when you’re eating PB & choc together 🙂
Chocolate and peanut butter is my favorite combination! I would devour this cake!
Hehehe 🙂 Glad to see I’m not the only one who loves this combo!
This looks delicious and I love chocolate desserts! I had to look up caster sugar. In the US we use granulated sugar and Im not sure where I would find that. I’m guessing that you can grind granulated sugar yourself to a fine consistency.