Two of my colleagues have their birthdays this week, so I’m making a cake for them.  They both like chocolate, and they both like peanut butter.  That makes it easy!

The cake has to be easy, because it’s been crazy busy at work, and I don’t have all night to make a cake and still try to cram in some work and a few hours of sleep.  What can be easier than a cake that doesn’t need to be baked?  A frozen one!

There are a few frozen peanut butter cheesecake recipes on the internet with good ratings.  So I combined them and added a few things I like, and came up with this version.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups rice crispy cereal
• 1 package (8 oz) of cream cheese, softened to room temp
• 2 cans (5 oz each) of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup of creamy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whip cream
• 3 regular size Reese peanut butter cups, or 2 King size ones, chopped
• 2x 9″ pie plates

To make the crust:

Melt butter and chocolate chips on medium low heat.  Stir in the rice crispy to coat.  Press the mixture into the bottom/side of the 2 pie plates.  Let the crust cool.

To make the filling:

• Beat the cream cheese until fluffy with an electric mixture.  It took me about 2 minutes to get to the fluffy stage.
• Gradually beat in the condensed milk and peanut butter until smooth.
• Stir in lemon juice and vanilla extract.
• Gently fold in the whip cream and chopped Reese peanut butter cup.  I mean, feel free to use Skor or Butterfingers, or whatever peanut buttery and chocolatey candies you like.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared pie crusts.

You can buy prepared  fudge sauce in a bottle, and just drizzle that over the pie.  I made my own fudge sauce since I happen to have all the ingredients on hand.  This is what I did:

• Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan, add 1/3 cup of milk, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and whisk until all ingredients are blended.
• Add 1 tablespoon of flour, 2 tablespoon of cocoa powder, 1/2 cup sugar to the above mixture, and whisk constantly over medium heat.  If need be, turn the heat up to medium high so the mixture bubbles, still whisking constantly.  Continue until the sauce thickens and becomes shiny and smooth.  Remove from the heat and let cool to a warm temperature.  Drizzle the sauce over the pie, and freeze the pie for at least 4 hours.

• The last and most important step to ensure your fudge sauce turns out really good: lick the whisk before putting in the dishwasher.  That’s right…go on…lick it.

Ok, so I’ve never claimed to be a cake decorator.  I am a wee bit embarrassed with how the cake looks uneven and sauce drizzle looks messy.  However, the cake received good reviews from my co-workers, and the birthday girls were happy so that’s all that matters!