PB frosting

My friend, Sabrina, told me about this Peanut Butter cake at the Smitten Kitchen and I knew I had to make it for my husband's birthday. I didn't have time to make a cake from scratch so I cheated and used a box mix*, then topped it with the homemade PB frosting and ganache. It was INCREDIBLE! My mouth is watering just remembering.

The ganache was scary because I'd never made it before. After melting the chocolate a bit (I just used chocolate chips), I added the half and half, but it was all watery and separated looking. After a lot of mixing, and a little reheating (probably should have warmed the half and half before adding it) it came together and looked pretty good.

*I don't have a problem with box mixes, but both my husband and I agreed that in this case it wasn't dense enough. The massive frosting needed a heavier cake, but it was still delicious.

pepparkakor

Pepparkakor

300g margarine
5 dl sugar
1 dl corn syrup
1 Tb ginger
2 Tb cinnamon
1 Tb cloves
(2 tsp cardamum- we never use this)
1 Tb soda
2 dl water
1 1/2 L. flour

=

2 2/3 stick margarine (butter doesn't work as well)
2 c sugar
1/2 c syrup
1 Tbsp ginger
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp cloves
1 Tbsp soda
less than 1 cup water
6 1/3 c flour
Cream together margarine, syrup, sugar. Mix in spices. Add water. (It will look funny until you add the flour.) Add 4 cups of flour and mix. Then add rest of the flour slowly until it comes together (little less than you need cause you'll be adding more when you roll it out).
Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in fridge overnight.
Flour surface and the rolling pin liberally to keep from sticking. Roll out portion of dough very thin (1/6 inch?) and use cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Carefully transfer to cookie sheet. Bake at 425-450 degrees for 4-5 min.

(This is after the flour has been added. I forgot to take pictures when I rolled it out and baked them, here is a picture from years ago of my nieces cutting out the dough so you can get an idea of how thin it should be... THIN.)