Chocolate and peanut butter cake

My night's still include many wakings to tend to my little one's voracious hunger which, after almost seven months, continues to conquer her desire to stay within her dreams.
But something new and horrifying has begun to plague our darkest hours together; night terrors.

Recently I am awakening to the bloodcurdling screams of a tiny tot, eyes open in fear, body wrenching in distress. Despite being beside her she is unable to be soothed by my touch or my face as she remains trapped in between the sleep and wakeful states. Luckily most end within seconds after which she awakes as if nothing has happened and settles in for a quick drink. Unfortunately there are some that even the brightest of lights can't seem to penetrate and I have to simply hold her to my chest and wait for her to find her own way through the confusion.

After a call to my own mother, I discovered that both my brother and I used to experience these terrors frequently. Determined to hopefully allow my sweetheart a night filled with only the loveliest dreams I set about eliminating any possible cause I could (lack of sleep, negative people, lights), some I could not, like her current bout of teething (which I believe may be the most likely cause). I also tried many alternative suggestions of prevention such as cleansing our home and using amethyst and rose quartz to bring about peaceful slumber. Last night she only exhaled one brief cry before immediately falling back into dreamland. Hopefully it was also the last.

To those with children, have you had any experience of night terrors? If so, what did you find helped?

Needless to say that after a night filled with these startling occurrences I was a little rattled during the day and found myself needing some soothing of my own. For me, that meant baking something rich and somewhat ludicrous for just two people to consume. With my little Valentine watching from her playgym, practicing to crawl (which she also hilariously does in her sleep) I beat and folded, spooned and baked, frosted and licked this beast of a cake into existence. After which I felt much better.

ease: 4/5.
prep time: 26mins to cook cake and make peanut butter frosting.
cooking time: 45mins to cool cakes to frost with frosting and ganache.
total: 1hour & 11mins.


taste: 3.5/5. Holy heck that's a whole lotta sugar!

All together this packs a saccharine punch that almost gave me a tummy ache (that being said I did cut my regular size slab slice, so for this I would suggest a petit slice).

Let's start with the chocolate cake - delicious, moist, sticky and always seconds away from falling to pieces. Luckily I took Deb's suggestion of sticking it in the fridge before assembling, and I still had a tiny bit break off. That aside it was a delicious cake.

The peanut butter frosting - mmm yummy! Fluffy, buttery, sweet and full of peanuty goodness. Loved it.

The ganache set perfectly mid drip (cake was cold when I poured it on) and looked fab. I used a 70% dark chocolate which was too dark for this cake, I really think that peanut butter goes best with milk chocolate, the dark was too bitter, and I preferred the cake without it.

The cake was lovely, just too sugary for my liking.

would I make it again: Yes, after the requests from other family members to make it again I will definitely give it another shot, perhaps with a milk chocolate ganache this time and a touch less sugar overall.

recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/chocolate-peanut-butter-cake/