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Its my DHs birthday tomorrow and he loves Snickers and anything to do with peanuts, but as he works in a food factory he cant take any product with nuts in it into his work. When I saw this recipe in the BBC Good Food Magazine I knew I just had to save it to make for his birthday.
It was soooo easy to make, just throw all the cake ingredients in a bowl and whip them up with the electric mixer.

Errr, you might have noticed that these are cashew nuts rather than peanuts. Well I picked up the smallest pack of, what I thought were, peanuts but they turned out to be cashews (blush) anyhow I wasnt going back to the shops for more nuts, so they just had to do. The picture above shows them covered in icing sugar waiting to go in the oven to caramelise.

The cakes are sandwiched together with peanut butter and caramel sauce, then you melt 100g of milk chocolate with two tablespoons of milk, let it cool a little and spread on the top. Just the carmelised nuts to go on top and youre done.

I have made this cake a couple of times this month and it has been a big hit. Its a little understated, yet somehow very luxurious. Beautiful fresh summer fruit helps!



Ive made it with peaches, as shown, but I think its even better with blueberries. It would work with apricots, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, pears, plums, or apples. Cranberries? I might toss them with a little sugar first, as I would rhubarb, but they would work too, Im sure. Very versatile! Very yummy!



If you want to use soft whole wheat flour in this, you can. I used approximately half whole wheat flour and half unbleached flour. If you use whole wheat flour, you should add an extra tablespoon of it; level if you use half and rounded if you use all whole wheat.



8 to 10 servings

1 hour 45 minutes - 45 minutes prep time





Make the Streusel & Get Set Up:

2/3 cup flour

1/2 cup Sucanat or dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

6 tablespoons unsalted butter



2 cups diced peaches, blueberries or other fruit



Mix the flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Work in the softened butter until it forms coarse crumbs, and all the mixture looks moistened. I find it easiest to use my fingers to do this.



Line the bottom of an 8" springform pan with parchment paper, and butter the sides. Your fruit should be peeled and chopped, or washed and set to drain, or otherwise appropriately prepared before proceeding further. Preheat the oven to 350°F.



Make the Cake:

1 3/4 cups soft unbleached flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt



1/2 cup unsalted butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 extra-large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract





Measure the flour and add the baking powder and salt. Set aside.



Cream the butter in a medium mixing bowl, and work in the sugar. Beat in (by hand) the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the vanilla extract.



Mix the flour into the butter mixture to form a stiff dough. Spoon the dough into the prepared pan, and scrape out the bowl with a spatula. Spread the dough, using the spatula, evenly over the bottom of the pan right to the sides.



Spread the prepared fruit evenly over the dough. It will seem like there is as much fruit as dough; that is correct. The dough will expand and the fruit will shrink, and all will be well in the cake world. Sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly over the top of the cake.



Bake the cake for 50 to 60 minutes, until it testes done when poked with a toothpick, i.e. said toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before springing it from the pan and serving.









Last year at this time I made Summer Succotash.