Save Room For Dessert ™

The Peanut Butter Cake contains peanuts. First line, not a footnote. Ordering dessert for a room of people makes that the single most useful thing to know about this cake, and we do not claim anything we make is nut free. Everything after that is a pleasure to describe.

What is in it

Crunchy peanut butter goes into the batter itself, so the crumb carries pieces of peanut and not only the flavour of them. The texture shifts bite to bite: soft, soft, then a piece of roasted nut that needs chewing. Over the top goes a peanut butter ganache, smooth and silky where the cake is rough, pushing the roasted note further without adding sweetness. The whole thing leans salt instead of sugar. Unusual on a dessert table, and part of why it goes first. No buttercream, and nothing on it that has to be kept cold.

Two sizes, and counting heads

A 20cm loaf is $35 and serves eight. A 25cm bundt is $55 and serves sixteen. Those counts are honest, not optimistic, so work from them. A bundt and a loaf covers twenty-four. Two bundts cover thirty-two. It belongs to the nine tea cakes and loaves we call travel cakes, all made in the same two sizes. They are built to be carried, hold at room temperature and have no fragile finish to protect. That combination is what makes them work for a private event with no kitchen staff and nowhere to plate anything.

Being explicit when you are the host

Write the flavours on a card next to the cakes. Two minutes of work, and no guest has to interrogate the host. Peanuts also appear in the Snickers Mini Cake, in the Snickers petit four, and in the Dulce Lava Cake served in store. If someone at your table avoids nuts, name what is in each cake and let them choose for themselves. Promise them nothing. Our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease.

The rest of the table around it

Peanut Butter reads best against something plainer. A Marble Chocolate gives you double chocolate with nothing competing. A Brazilian Carrot brings a golden, lighter cake under a chocolate brigadeiro drizzle. The Snickers Mini Cake works as the small-format echo of the same idea: a dense flourless chocolate and peanut base with salted caramel and peanut butter ganache, made with no added gluten, sold individually or by the tray from the mini cakes range. A petit four tray holds fifteen pieces and needs seven days. The dessert catering boxes page sets out how the formats combine.

Come and taste it with the person you are hosting with

The clearest way to understand this cake is warm and in a bowl. The Dulce Lava Cake is made to order in about ten minutes from the hot desserts menu: a dulce de leche lava cake with candied peanut crumble, and it contains peanuts too. Break the top with a spoon and the dulce comes out slow and heavy. Come in with whoever you are planning the event alongside, order one and two spoons, and you will both know within a minute whether peanut belongs on your table. Deciding that together over ten minutes beats deciding it alone from a photograph.

Two days, and where to come

Travel cakes need two days' notice, and the checkout date picker only offers dates the kitchen can meet for what is in your cart. Collection is from our patisserie inside The Welder on Welles Street in the central city. We do not deliver or courier anything, events included. Doors open 10am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday. Carry the box from the bottom, keep the car cool and store the cake at room temperature away from sun and heat. The frequently asked questions page covers storage and changes.

Christchurch Cakes, Desserts & Experiences

We've got a great range of sweet treats, and we want you to be part of our community.