Ok, I will come right out and say it. This is without a doubt, hands down, the best cake I have ever made. This chocolate peanut butter protein cake totally nails all the right notes. With all this extra time on my hands at home currently, I’ve been trying to up my cake decorating game. I think it is safe to say I am improving!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Cake for the win
As you guys have seen, I make brownies all the time. All. The. Time. Brownies are, and will always be my favorite dessert. However, this time I decided to step out of my comfort zone a bit, while still keeping my favorite flavor combination: chocolate and peanut butter.
Bottom Layer: vanilla sugar wafers
So, this is arguably the least healthy part of this whole cake. They aren’t sugar free, low calorie, or anything like that. Of course, you can omit them if you want to, but I think they add a really nice flavor and texture. I found these ones at my local Mexican grocery. In a time like this, I am doing everything I can to support the small, local establishments!
Next layer: chocolate protein cake
For the cake, I used a combination of all-purpose flour, chocolate protein powder, cocoa powder, and sweetener for the dry ingredients. For the wet ingredients, to lighten it up, I used nonfat Greek yogurt as well as light butter, in addition to the eggs. I really like the light butter because it still gives you the amazing flavor and texture of using butter, but about 1/3 the calories of regular butter or oil. Then, of course the Greek yogurt is fat free, packed with protein, and helps keep this cake nice and moist.
Top layer: peanut butter protein frosting
This is probably my favorite part of the whole cake. I could straight up eat this frosting out of a bowl. In fact, I had to make more because I ate a huge portion of it while making, and needed more to frost the cake! Whoops. It was definitely worth it though. I used vanilla protein powder (or this PB cookie protein powder), nonfat Greek yogurt, peanut flour, protein peanut butter, and swerve confectioner’s sweetener.
Finally: bourbon caramel chocolate drizzle
Ok, now this one I wish I could take credit for and say it was homemade. Actually, I used some Starbucks Bourbon Flavored Caramels. I was at the store a few weeks ago and saw them, so of course I made an impulse buy. Boy am I glad I did because they made an amazing sauce for the top of this cake after I melted them down.
If you guys are in the mood for cake, but want something a little lighter than this one, check out my Mixed Berry Protein Angel Food Cake. Or if you are in the mood for chocolate, head over HERE to all my recipes with chocolate (which is a lot of them!). I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did. It is a great way to spend time #socialdistancing at home!
