Happy National Chocolate Cake Day!

This dessert is a great one to make this week in honor of three National Food Holidays:

- 

January 24th - National Peanut Butter Day

January 27th - National Chocolate Cake Day

January 31st - National Hot Chocolate Day 

Pretzel Crusted Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting 

Ingredients:

Pretzel Crust-

2 cups pretzels, finely crushed

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon salt

Chocolate Cake-

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup cocoa powder 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1 cup milk 

1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil 

1 cup hot french vanilla coffee 

Frosting-

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 1/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup heavy cream 

Milk, as needed to thin

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with a non-stick spray. 

In a medium bowl, mix together the pretzels, sugar, butter and salt. Add to the bottom of the pan, press down for even distribution and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and set aside. 

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking soda together. In a large bowl, add the sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk and oil. Beat until creamy, then add the dry flour ingredients and combine, then slowly add in the hot coffee. 

Pour the cake mixture over the pretzel crust and bake for 30-35 minutes, let cool. 

To make the frosting, add all the ingredients together and beat until creamy. Check for consistency, add milk to thin as needed. (Note - I didn’t have milk when I made this recently so I used what I had which was a Silk Chocolate Cashew Milk and it was great. So use whatever milk that you have, whether it’s almond/cashew milk or regular milk.)

When the cake has cooled, frost it then cut into desired servings. Refrigerate any leftovers. 

Note:

If you are short on time, I would recommend making the crust and the frosting home made and using a cake box as a short cut. My favorite chocolate cake in a box is "Devil's Food Cake Mix". It is very moist and delicious, but I would always make the frosting from scratch.