and I'm really excited because it's my birthday!

And I get asked all the time by everybody,

Beth, you're the cake baker,

so who bakes your birthday cake?

And the answer, you might find kind of sad,

I make my own birthday cake

most of the time,

but here is the upside,

when you make your own birthday cake,

you get to make exactly what you want.

So I am going to show you today

my ultimate birthday cake.

This one's for all the scorpios,

happy birthday to all of you guys.

Now my ultimate birthday cake is

layers of really dark, moist chocolate cake

layered with smooth, silky layers of

peanut butter cream cheese icing

and I'm gonna throw a surprise layer in there,

a layer of chocolate meringue,

which is going to give this crisp, chewy texture

that nobody is going to expect

right in the center of the cake.

And I'm gonna top it all off

with a decadent layer of velvety chocolate ganache.

And then I'm gonna garnish it with some peanuts

and some chopped candies,

some more meringues and whatever I can find

laying around.

You can follow along with my recipe down below.

Let's get started.

I'm going to combine all of my dry ingredients together.

Three cups of all purpose flour,

one and three quarter teaspoons baking soda,

a half a teaspoon of salt,

one teaspoon of baking powder,

one cup of dark cocoa powder,

and then stir all of the dry stuff together

until it's nice and well combined.

I love this cake recipe because

all the dry things are in this bowl,

and everything else goes straight into the mixing bowl.

Dump it all in, all at the same time.

Two cups of milk,

two thirds of a cup of vegetable oil,

one and a quarter cups of firmly packed dark brown sugar,

one cup of granulated sugar,

four eggs,

one tablespoon of instant coffee granules

to bump up the chocolate flavor

and one and a half teaspoons of pure vanilla extract.

Just go ahead and give it a good mix,

you want everything to be well combined here, too.

Then stop the mixer and add the dry ingredients to the bowl.

This is a really wet cake batter

there's a lot of liquid in the mix,

so make sure you keep your mixer at low speeds

so nothing comes back up at you

and if you want,

you can drape a kitchen towel over it

so that you don't get a cloud coming back up at you.

After everything is moistened,

kick it up to medium speed

and beat for 30 seconds,

three oh, set a timer.

Don't forget to spray your pans.

And then divide your batter evenly

into your prepared pans.

This cake is going to bake at 350 degrees

for between 45 and 50 minutes.

You'll also need to make your meringues,

a sheet pan with parchment paper.

We're gonna trace on the parchment paper an 8 inch disc

using the bottom of your cake pan for this

is a really easy way to do it.

So just use a pencil

to trace all the way around it

and then flip it over so the pencil mark is down.

Now we're ready to make our meringues.

Into my mixing bowl, I'm going to put

two tablespoons of Wilton meringue powder,

one quarter cup of water,

a pinch of salt,

and then use a whisk attachment to beat it

until it's really foamy.

Into my mixing bowl I'm going to put

two thirds of a cup of granulated sugar,

a half a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract,

and that's what you're looking for,

stiff peaks.

Now we're gonna add our cocoa powder into the mix.

So after you add your cocoa powder,

you want to come back up to stiff peaks

and that way you know you're ready to pipe your meringue.

So I have a piping bag with a tip 1A in it

and I'm going to fill my bag with my very sticky

chocolate meringue.

Pipe a dot at each corner of your pan

to hold your parchment down.

Super handy trick.

Then we're going to trace a disc

following the outline of the eight inch pan

and so this will bake into basically,

kind of cake layer for us

and we'll be able to put it right

on top of our cake layers.

Just like that.

Then re-fill your bag.

The rest of the mix we're just going to pipe

into cute little kisses of different sizes

and we're gonna use those to decorate the top of our cake.

So you bake these at 250, they take 45 to 50 minutes

so put these in the oven while your cake is cooling.

Dump the cream cheese and the peanut butter

into the mixing bowl and beat it until it's smooth and creamy.

Then add your confectioners sugar

about a cup at a time

beating well after each addition.

You want it to be really smooth and creamy.

So our peanut butter cream cheese icing is ready

this is the easiest step of the bunch

and you deserve it 'cause this cake takes a lot of work,

but it's so, so worth it.

Our cakes and our meringues are both totally cool

so now we can assemble our cake.

First off, I need to cut the crowns off

and torte both of my cake layers.

To cut each cake into two thinner layers,

first score the outside of the cake all the way around

about half way up the cake.

That'll give your knife a marking to follow

as you cut all the way through.

Now I need to take my meringue disc

and see if it matches up with the size of my cake layers.

Sometimes meringue will expand a little bit,

so it might be a little bit too large.

If it is, no problem, just trim it down.

I have to trim mine.

And also, the little scraps

it's like sustained energy for cake baking.

Just eat 'em.

Going to want to build your cake

directly on what you want to serve it off of,

so I have my pedestal right here

because an ultimate birthday cake

deserves a great presentation.

Let's build.

Sprinkle with finely chopped honey roasted peanuts

for a little extra peanut flavor.

And I love the crunch as I eat the cake.

Do your first two layers

and then, add your meringue disc

so that it's right in the center of the cake.

Press it down firmly,

we want it to adhere to the icing underneath

but still get past all the nuts

that we just sprinkled around

so you want to press it down.

And if it crumbled a little bit as you cut,

don't worry about it,

you can always add a piece right back on to the icing,

no one will ever know.

And then just continue with your icing

and the rest of your cake layers.

Ice the top of your final layer

and then just crumb coat the sides.

We want the beautiful, dark cake

to show through the icing here.

When your cake is fully crumb coated,

go ahead and clean up the cake pedestal

or your cake serving plate

and then pop it into the refrigerator.

We're gonna let it chill while we make our ganache coating.

For the ganache, you'll need six ounces

of semi sweet chocolate chopped finely

and three quarters of a cup of heavy whipping cream.

After you've microwaved for a minute at 50 percent power,

take it out of the microwave and stir it together.

This might be all the time that you need.

If it's not, pop it back in the microwave

at 50 percent power

for another 30 seconds.

So my cake is chilled

and my ganache has cooled for about 15 minutes

now we can pour it over the top and let it drizzle

all the way down the cake.

Check it out.

Super shiny

and really, really decadent.

I'm gonna do a nice dose of it on the top.

And then just guide it down the sides and over the cake

using a small spatula.

I want it to drip where it's gonna drip.

Oh!

There it is, that's what I'm looking for.

Happy birthday to me.

So now I'm going to add all the delicious garnishes

that we prepared earlier

and I'm gonna start with the meringue.

I'm gonna put a really big one off to the side here

and then I'm gonna add some candy shards,

I kind of cut it angularly,

so you can see the peanut butter inside

of the peanut butter cup

but also so they kind of make angles, triangles

and I just wanna make a really cool,

kind of a chaotic assortment.

Playing with the size and the different colors

of my pieces.

Arrange as you will.

And to top it all off,

a sprinkling of peanuts

all the way around my arrangement,

kind of falling inside a little bit,

like to use the little really dusty pieces here, too.

I think it looks really, really pretty.

And there you go,

my ultimate birthday cake.

Let's cut in.

So this is what I would say

is the ultimate piece of birthday cake.

Check it out.

I've got my delicious, moist chocolate cake layers

and my scrumptious, awesome

peanut butter cream cheese icing

and you can't see it 'cause the color is so similar,

but that surprise layer of meringue is in there too

and it's gonna be nice, chewy and crunchy at the same time.

I'm gonna give it a taste.

Get a little meringue in there too.

You know what?

It tastes like my birthday.

Tastes pretty good.

So, I want to know what your favorite birthday cake is.

Leave me a comment below

and maybe we'll make it.

Please subscribe to the channel and give us a like.

I'm Beth,

thanks for celebrating my birthday with me,

and if it's your birthday, happy birthday to you.

I'll see you next time.