The Peanut Butter Cake contains peanuts. That is the first line rather than a footnote, because if you are ordering dessert for a room of people it is the single most useful thing to know about this cake, and because we do not claim anything we make is nut free. Everything else about it is a pleasure to describe.
What is in it
Crunchy peanut butter goes into the batter itself, so the crumb carries pieces of peanut rather than just the flavour of them, and the texture changes from bite to bite. Over the top goes a peanut butter ganache, smooth and silky where the cake is rough, which pushes the roasted note further without adding sweetness. It is salt-leaning rather than sugary, which is unusual on a dessert table and part of why it disappears first. There is 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 serves sixteen. Those counts are honest rather than 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, which 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. It takes two minutes and it means no guest has to interrogate the host, which is the outcome everyone wants. 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, the honest approach is to name what is in each cake and let them choose for themselves rather than to promise them anything. 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
The Peanut Butter reads best against something plainer. A Marble Chocolate gives you double chocolate with nothing competing, and a Brazilian Carrot brings a golden, lighter cake with 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 and 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. 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.
Ordering and collection
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. We are open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 3pm 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.
