This year was Mr H’s 31st birthday, which he really wasn’t happy about. Apparently he’s ‘properly’ in his 30s now that his age  doesn’t end in a zero anymore, or at least that was his logic. So as the day approached it became clear that to cheer him up I’d need to feed him something chocolatey, indulgent, rich and delicious, and to get top wife marks it would need to include some peanut butter too.

We try to make a trip to the States most years and every time we manage to end up in CVS or other similar pharmacy so that we can buy big bags of Reese’s peanut butter cups for his ‘colleagues’. Now I say colleagues in inverted commas as quite often the bags never actually make it into the office, but let’s just hope they’re not reading this, whoops! Anyway back to the cake, so I was thinking about just making a massive peanut butter cup, and then I thought to myself why not go one step further and give it a brownie bottom too!

And boy was it good. So good in fact that I’ve been told that I’ve got the wife of the year award 2016 in the bag already and it’s only September. So good that Mr H forgot that he’s 31 and actually enjoyed his birthday instead. And so good that there was no question of taking the rest into work to share with ‘colleagues’. No, this cake was for our tummies only, and we savoured every bite.

You see this cake is just divine – it’s got a moist, chocolatey black bean brownie base, a creamy, sweet peanut butter filling and the most amazing chocolate fudge on top. It’s seriously decadent and indulgent, AND you only need nine ingredients to make all three layers! Talk about amazing hey! So go on…what are you waiting for?

Ingredients

For the brownie base

• 1 1/3 cups black beans
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2/3 cup dates

For the peanut butter cheesecake layer

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup dates
• 4 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 cup almond milk

For the chocolate fudge

• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup coconut oil

To make the brownie base, simply add all the ingredients into a food processor and whizz for a couple of minutes until smooth, then spoon into a greased baking tin. Bake at 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until a fork comes out clean. Leave to cool and then pop in the freezer while you make the next layer.

For the peanut butter cheesecake layer, combine the ingredients in a food processor until they form a deliciously smooth and creamy mixture. Remove the base from the freezer and spoon the peanut butter mixture on top, then put back in the freezer for at least an hour to allow it time to set.

For the chocolate fudge topping, add the ingredients to a mixing bowl and stir until you have a thick chocolatey mixture (don’t worry if it seems quite liquid as this will set in the fridge). Pour it on top of the peanut butter layer and put the cake back in the freezer for an hour or so to allow it to set.

So there you have it – the worlds best birthday cake (in my opinion) and it’s all totally guilt free! If you fancy going all out with your toppings too, I topped mine with some raw chocolate (just melt 1/2 cup cacao butter then stir in 4 tbsp cacao powder and 4 tbsp maple syrup) as well as some of my Ferrero Rocher, cookie dough balls, almond butter slices (without the chocolate on top) and raw triple chocolate brownies! I’ll warn you though this cake was pretty hard to cut with all those toppings loaded on, but then it was incredibly easy to eat!

Love, Mrs H xx