Now that Christmas itself is well and truly over, it's time to turn our culinary attentions towards the New Year, both New Year's eve parties and a few traditional dishes to bring you luck for the New Year itself.

I many traditions, circular foods, particularly if served on New Year's day, represent good luck as the circle is never-ending. So, if you want to offer your guests good luck for the forthcoming year, why not serve them a piece of this delicious cake?

Serves: 10
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bundt Cake: Rich chocolate cake baked as a ring to engender luck for the New Year served with a chocolate and peanut butter topping.

Ingredients:

500g (16 oz) devil's food cake mix
500g (16 oz) sour cream
3 eggs
10 miniature peanut butter cups, foil wrapping removed
75g (1/2 cup) dark chocolate, chopped
125g (1/2 cup) creamy, smooth, peanut butter

Method:

In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, sour cream and eggs until the batter is smooth.

Pour half the resultant batter into a greased and floured ring mould (bundt cake tin). Cut each of the peanut butter cups in half and arrange these evenly over the cake batter.

Top evenly with the remaining cake batter then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 170ºC (350ºF) and bake for about 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake emerges cleanly.

Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then invert onto a cake and gently shake out the cake. Set aside to cool completely.

When the cake has cooled, combine the dark chocolate and peanut butter in a saucepan over low heat. Cook gently, stirring constantly, until the chocolate has melted and blended with the peanut butter.

Take off the heat and drizzle the mixture over the cooled cake.

Note, that if you have a stoneware ring mould you can cook the cake in a microwave by cooking on full power for about 12 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre emerges cleanly (cooking times will vary, dependant on the power of your microwave).

 
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