slow cooker hot fudge peanut butter pudding cake
This seemed very apt for our father’s day dessert this year, since I have heard tales about Geoff’s mom’s pudding cake for pretty much our entire marriage. It’s actually almost a family legend, really… apparently Cheryl made it almost every Sunday for dessert, and nobody could get enough of it. A few years ago, Geoff’s sister put out a family cookbook, and I was excited to see that the pudding cake recipe was included! That is, until I tried it, and it was an utter failure. The pudding layer was as thin as water, the cake layer was a disgusting soggy mess, and I ended up throwing the entire thing into the garbage can. To this day, I’m not sure whether the recipe was written down wrong, or if I am just incapable of baking the famous pudding cake, but I don’t think I’ll ever try that recipe again. Lucky for me, Mel’s Kitchen Cafe has an awesome (easy to make) slow cooker recipe for pudding cake. And the addition of peanut butter meant it was pretty much guaranteed to win Geoff over. The result: he loved it! We all loved it. It’s a little rich (a small serving goes a long way) but delicious and simple and homey. I hope it helped to convince Geoff of just how much I love him!
Slow Cooker Hot Fudge Peanut Butter Pudding Cake
Mel’s Kitchen CafeCake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup smooth or chunky peanut butter
½ cup semisweet chocolate chipsTopping:
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ cups boiling waterVanilla ice cream for serving
Coat a medium round or oval slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center, add the milk, oil, and vanilla, and stir in widening circles, gradually incorporating the dry ingredients, until you have a smooth batter. Stir in the peanut butter. The batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread evenly in the crockpot. To make the topping, in another medium-size bowl, combine the cocoa, and sugar; pour in the boiling water and whisk until smooth. Gently pour over the batter in the cooker; DO NOT STIR. Cover and cook on HIGH until puffed and the top layer is set, 2 to 2 ½ hours. Turn off the cooker and let it stand, covered for 30 minutes before serving.
