Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bundt Cake with Salted Caramel Glaze

As promised (can you believe I followed through?!), here is what has been soaking up all of my salted caramel sauce.

I took a gamble making this. My pregnancy hasn't produced any odd cravings or caused me to wake my husband up in the middle of the night to go hunting down pickles and ice cream. Quite the contrary, actually. I've had an enormous appetite for EVERYTHING. Everything except chocolate and cake.

What?!?!

No, it's true. Chocolate and cake, together or separate, just haven't held the same appeal to me. Once, at work, someone brought in very expensive gourmet brownies. I listened all morning as people raved about them. I had memories of chocolate brownies making me happy at one point in my life, so I figured maybe these brownies will be the key through the portal back to sanity. I snuck into the lunch room, grabbed one, took a bite, and promptly spit it into the trash. Luckily, no one was around to witness this waste, and I joined in with the chorus praising the brownies (hey - I wanted to fit in, OK).

So when the time came that I needed a way to properly thank my friends who have been the ones to put together ALL of our baby furniture, throw me a baby shower, fix things around the apartment, and basically make life wonderful for me and my husband, I thought of this cake. It wasn't for me, it was for them. So I once again let chocolate back into the apartment.

The amazing thing? I love this cake. Pregnant me loves this cake! However, I think it has less to do with me liking chocolate again as opposed to me still loving peanut butter, caramel, and salt. So, you see, this cake pleases everyone. And hopefully makes a worthy thank-you to people with wicked fast furniture assembly skills.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bundt Cake with Salted Caramel Glaze

Ingredients:

Non-stick cooking spray

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1-1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup milk

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup Salted Caramel Sauce

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray 10-inch fluted tube/bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray; set aside.

2) In bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

3) In large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds. Add sugar, beat until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low to medium speed 1 minute after each addition and scraping bowl frequently. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined.

4) Divide batter into two bowls. Stir melted chocolate into half the batter until well combined. Stir peanut butter into remaining half until well combined.

5) Alternately drop spoonfuls of batter into prepared pan. Use a butter knife to gently swirl the batters together (do not overmix).

6) Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes on wire rack. Remove cake from pan; cool thoroughly on wire rack. Drizzle cake with half of the salted caramel sauce and sprinkle with sea salt.

To serve: cut into individual slices and drizzle with remaining salted caramel sauce.