Peanut Butter Corn Cake

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a blender or food processor, combine the milk and corn kernels. Blend until smooth. Pour into a medium saucepan and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal and baking powder and set aside. Crack eggs into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat the eggs on medium speed for 1 minute. With the mixer running, slowly stream the sugar in. When the sugar is completely in, turn the speed to high and beat for 7 minutes. Add the butter and miso paste to the saucepan with the corn milk mixture and gently heat and whisk just until melted. Strain into a medium bowl, discarding the corn pulp. Add the vanilla and oil and whisk to combine. Set aside. Add the flour mixture in three parts to the egg mixture just mixing until almost combined. If you still see flour, finish mixing by hand by folding the batter with a rubber spatula. Remove two large spoonfuls of batter and add it to the warm corn milk-butter mixture and whisk to completely combine. Pour the milk mixture into the rest of the egg mixture with the beaters running on low. Continue beating just 10-15 seconds more until combined. Divide the batter evenly between the three prepared cake pans**. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the tins for 30 minutes, then remove from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 2: Preheat the oven to 300°F. In a medium bowl thoroughly whisk together all of the cookie crumb ingredients except the oil and vanilla. Add vanilla to the oil and whisk. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and blend together with a rubber spatula until crumbles form. Dump this mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Using your fingers and/or a ½ teaspoon measuring spoon make larger crumbs and medium-size crumbs. Bake the crumbs for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Step 3: Make the buttercream according to Serious Eats’ instructions. With the mixer running on medium-low, add the peanut butter by the tablespoon until it is incorporated.

Step 4: Level the bottom two cake layers by cutting off any domed parts with a serrated knife that may have developed when baking. Carefully round off the edges of the top layer of cake with a serrated knife to make the dome, if making a dome cake. Treat the top layer the same as the first two layers if you are making a traditional layer cake. Put a small dollop of the buttercream on a serving plate or board. Place the first layer of cake on top. Spoon or pipe a generous amount of buttercream on top of the layer. Press some of the smaller cookie crumbs into the buttercream layer. I like to press them in until they touch the bottom layer of cake so they aren’t sticking up. Smooth the buttercream over them with an offset spatula. Repeat with remaining layers until you place the last layer on top. Cover the entire cake with a thin layer of the buttercream to create a crumb coat to seal in any crumbs. Freeze for 5-10 minutes to seal this coating. When the crumb coat is set, pipe or dollop more frosting around the outside. Spread evenly with an offset spatula before scraping down the outside edge with a bench scraper. You may need to do this several times to get a smooth look. Garnish as desired.