For my birthday this year I created the absolute most decadent Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake ever and topped it with a luscious peanut butter caramel! So heavenly, makes me wish it were my birthday every day… 

This, people, was my birthday cake this year.

For MONTHS, I dreamed about it, imagined it in my mind, thought of how I would make it, what ingredients I would use and how I would put everything together. I studied many a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake recipe over the web, but none of them quite fit exactly what I had in mind. Sure, they all looked very good, especially for a peanut lover aficionado such as me, but I wanted something more, you know. I wanted to take mine to the next level. I wanted to make it utterly decadent, almost to the point of illegality.

I finally decided to use my Chocolate and Salted Cheesecake as a base for inspiration. Just like it, I wanted this cheesecake to have two distinct layers, except this time, one would be chocolate, and the other one peanut butter. And I wanted both flavors to be discernible, too. I didn’t want the chocolate to overpower the peanut butter, or vice versa. And to kick things up a notch, I had visions of a lusciously thick Peanut Butter Caramel covering the base and top of my cake. I wasn’t quite sure how I was gonna get it done, but I knew I had to have it.

Last but not least, in my fantasy that ideal, epic cheesecake would have to be loaded with mounds of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, would look totally drool-worthy and taste even better than it looked. This birthday cake of mine, I wanted it to be perfect. And let me tell you that it was! The textures, the flavors, the way it looked. I love everything about it. If I was to do it again, I wouldn’t change a single thing.

NOT ONE.

As sad as it may sound, though, circumstances made it so I ended up being all by my lonesome to eat it. No, I don’t mean that I ate the whole thing by myself. I had one slice on my birthday, and another one the next day. Then I shared the love with the people around me, and everyone who was fortunate enough to taste it had nothing but great things to say about it.

Even my son, who doesn’t really have a sweet tooth, had not one but TWO slices. I had managed to find lucky takers for all the slices except one, so I told him to bring that last one to his friend who had loved it so much, he’d raved about it for days. Initially he said: “sure, I’ll bring it to him, he’ll be happy”, but then, as he was about to leave, I reminded him not to forget the cake and he said, much to my surprise: “well, you know what? I decided that I would keep it for myself, after all. I’ll eat it when I get back from school tonight.” My jaw dropped to the floor. My son does not usually eat cake and I was already really surprised that he’d eaten an ENTIRE slice the first time around, but for him to have a second one? I couldn’t believe my ears.

That, people, means that this cake really is something else!

I’ll give it to you, there are many, many steps and this is the kind of cake that you make over the course of 2 days since the cheesecake needs to chill completely before you get to put the finishing touches on it. But all that hard work is really, totally, entirely worth it.

This cake is a real stunner. Total decadence. A peanut butter lover’s paradise.

Bring this cake to a party, pot-luck dinner or family reunion, or make it for your birthday and distribute the love around you, and you will forever be seen as a hero.

If you love cheesecake, chocolate and peanut butter, then you HAVE to make this cake at least once in your lifetime.

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STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS & PICTURES

First, let’s make some Peanut Butter Caramel

Combine the sweetened condensed milk, butter and brown sugar in a saucepan set over low heat.

Cook, stirring very frequently…

…until the mixture becomes thick and “sticky” and has the same color as peanut butter, about 10 minutes

Add the creamy peanut butter…

…followed by the milk and vanilla extract.

Whisk until well combined and the mixture has the consistency of soft, spreadable toffee.

If you find that it’s a little bit too much on the stiff side, add a little bit more milk, one tablespoon at a time, until it has the desired consistency. Remove from heat and reserve.

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Movin’ on to the obligatory Graham Crust

But before we even get to making the crust, we have a few little things that we need to do. First, preheat your oven to 375°F

Next, line the bottom of a 9” springform pan with parchment paper. To do that, remove the ring and cover the bottom with parchment paper. Fold the excess paper back under the plate and, while holding it in place with one hand, put the ring back in its position with the other hand. Bring the excess paper back from under the pan but do not cut it off.

Now, combine the graham cracker crumbs, peanuts, brown sugar, peanut butter, melted butter and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Mix until all the ingredients are well combined.

Press at the bottom and side of the prepared pan, bringing the crust about half way up the side of the pan.

Bake the crust for 10 minutes and then spoon about 1-1/4 cup of the peanut butter caramel over the warm crust.

Hang on to the rest of that caramel until you need to use it again, which will most probably be tomorrow… Since you will have to reheat it slightly to bring it back to its spreadable consistency, you might as well leave it in the saucepan. Just make sure you put a lid on it.

For now, spread that peanut butter caramel over the crust very delicately with a spatula, all the way to the edge.

Top with a full bag of Reese’s Peanut butter Cups Minis, distribute them evenly and set aside.

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Now for some Cheese Batters

Before you start, bring about 4 cups of water to a boil and reserve. You’ll need to use it in a little while.

Next, combine the cream cheese, sour cream, brown sugar, vanilla extract and salt in the bowl of your food processor

Beat until super smooth and creamy, stopping the motor to scrape the sides once or twice to make sure every last bit gets incorporated.

Add the eggs, all at once, and resume processing until they are fully incorporated.

Then, add the starch and mix well.

Reserve 3½ cups of this cheese mixture in a separate bowl.

Melt the unsweetened chocolate and add this melted chocolate to the cheese mixture that is still in the food processor by pouring it into the feeding tube while the motor is still running.

I like to melt my chocolate in the microwave in 30 seconds increments, mixing well between each burst for 20 to 30 seconds, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. 3 to 4 bursts usually does the trick.

Mix until the chocolate is well incorporated

And then pour the chocolate cheese batter over the reserved crust. Spread evenly all the way to the edge.

At this point, it would be a good idea to place the cake over a piece of aluminum foil and fold that piece of foil over the pan so the exterior is completely covered. This will prevent any water we’ll be pouring under the cake later from seeping into the pan.

Now place your cake in a broiler pan and set aside.

Return the cheese batter that you reserved earlier back to the food processor;

As you can see, I didn’t even bother rinsing my bowl, but I made sure that I scraped it really well. I didn’t want any traces of chocolate to affect the color of my peanut butter cheesecake batter. The very minimal amount that I left behind didn’t do any damage at all…

Add 1 cup of peanut butter to your batter…

…and mix until well combined.

Pour that peanut butter cheese batter over the chocolate layer…

…spread as evenly as you can all the way to the edge.

Place the cake on the middle rack of your oven, decrease the temperature to 350°F and delicately pour some boiling water into the broiler pan underneath it so it goes about 1/4 of the way up the side of the pan.

Bake your cake for 25 minutes and then, decrease the oven temperature to 250°F and continue baking your cake for a further 65 minutes.

Turn off the oven and crack the door open. Leave the cake in the oven, undisturbed, for about 1 hour, or until cool enough to be handled with your bare hands, and then slide it out of the oven.

When the cheesecake is completely cooled, transfer it to the refrigerator and chill for at least 6 hours, or preferably overnight.

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Ah! The finishing touch

Remove the ring from around the cheesecake but leave it on the parchment paper.

Warm the leftover peanut butter caramel slightly over low heat just to bring it back to its spreadable consistency (it does stiffen quite a bit as it cools down).  Add a little bit more milk if necessary.

Put a few tablespoons aside (we’ll use it to drizzle over the cake later) and pour the rest over the chilled cheesecake.

Spread delicately with a spatula, not quite all the way to the edge.

Prepare two piping cones out of parchment paper (you could also use squeeze bottles but they don’t work quite as well).

Melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips and pour the melted chocolate into a parchment paper cone, then squeeze the chocolate over the top of the cake going left to right then up and down.

Mound the halved Reese’s Peanut butter Cups Miniatures, Reese’s Peanut butter Cups Minis and chopped roasted peanuts in the center of the cake and then drizzle more of the melted chocolate over this mound of goodness.

Thin the reserved peanut butter caramel with a few drops of milk to make it squeezable and then pour it into your second parchment paper cone; drizzle all over the cake.

Carefully remove the cake from the parchment paper and place it on a cake plate or pedestal.

Ideally, you want to serve this cake at room temperature, but it’s also delicious served chilled.

Any leftovers will keep for up to 10 days if kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

And finally, I get to dig in… Happy Birthday to me!