Today is my birthday, my husband's birthday, and our 10th anniversary (yes all on the same day, believe it or not), and the kids wanted to make us a cake.  We chatted about it and decided to try a three-element cake using white cake, brownie cake, and the new Mini Peanut Butter Cups from Trader Joe's. 

The Mini PB Cups are each the size of my pinky tip and are very smooth and tasty.  We usually don't have any sweets or candies in the house so the kids were vibrating with excitement and dancing in place as I took out the container of the Mini PB cups.

The Mini PB cups are great for eating straight out of the box, of course, but you can also treat them like large "chips" and use them in your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe or other baked treat.  The first time I bought them, I found that they got to be too soft and melty in my pantry.  The second time, I stored the container in the fridge and found they kept very well. 

Another trick with them is to soften vanilla ice cream on the counter, stir the cups into the ice cream, and stick it all back in the freezer to harden up.  Ice cream with mini peanut butter cups!

For our cake, we used half a box of the Brownie Truffle Baking Mix (mixed according to instructions, just halved) and half a box of the the Vanilla Baking Mix (also mixed according to instructions, halved).  The first layer to go in was the vanilla, then we scattered in the cups, finally glopping the brownie mix on top.  We used about 1/2 cup of cups, although some of them might have disappeared into little mouths.  We did get two distinct layers in the end as the brownie mix lava-lamped to the bottom while baking, along with the cups.  Make sure you oil and flour your baking pan very well so the cake will release more easily.

The topping was whipped cream (heavy cream with 1 tsp of vanilla added and whipped until it stands in peaks).  I didn't add any sugar since the cake is already so sweet.  The kids declared it a success, and an hour or two later, have finally stopped bouncing off the walls.