Peanut Butter Cheesecake Stuffed With Chocolate Frosted Cake Doughnuts

A few years ago I attended a wedding which happened to have one of the most incredible wedding cakes.  The wedding cake had a few tiers, I don't remember how many exactly.  What I do remember, is that the cake was a white wedding cake stuffed with a traditional cheesecake served with strawberries on the side.  I remember wondering what the strawberries were for, until the cake was cut.  Then I remember thinking, "What an amazing idea!  Because, who doesn't love cheesecake?"  So you get to have your wedding cake cheesecake, "and eat it too."  OK, maybe I did have a few too may pre-wedding cake cutting glasses of Chardonnay that day. But the cake was good, I swear!  Plus it eventually led me to this gem of an idea.  They put the cake on the outside, why don't I put it on the inside? 
This cheesecake was super fun to research, make, bake, and eat.  It turned out better than I could have imagined.  It was not super sweet.  If you like super sweet you might want to use more sugar.  I adapted the recipe from the multitude of cheesecakes invented over at "Vanilla Sugar Blog."  I biggest thing I love about her cheesecakes is that she does not use a water bath (much less mess)!  I also got to use my new silicon cheesecake pan.  It worked like a charm! It has a beautiful glass base you can serve right from!  Get it here. This was literally the best cheesecake I have ever baked, and not as over the top as I thought it would be.  Just the perfect flavor and texture with a fun twist!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Stuffed With Chocolate Frosted Cake Doughnuts (This recipe was adapted from the various cheesecake recipes found on "Vanilla Sugar Blog.")

Ingredients:

Crust:

-9 oz. box chocolate wafers (I used Nabisco: Famous Chocolate Wafers)

-1 stick butter (melted)

- ½ tsp. kosher salt

Process wafers in food processor almost to a fine crumb.  Mix with melted butter and salt until completely combined.  Press into the bottom, and maybe ¼ of the way up the sides, of a 9 inch. spring form pan.  I only used ~ ¾ of the crumbs.  You could use more to make your crust thicker or taller up the sides. I like a thinner crust. Bake in an oven preheated to 350° for ~15 min.  Remove from oven and set aside to cool while preparing cake batter.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Batter:

-2 lbs. cream cheese (room temperature)
- ½ sugar
-2 T. heavy whipping cream
-3 large eggs + 2 large egg yolks (I don’t know if it really matters but I put my eggs out when I put out my cream cheese so they were room temperature as well)
- ¾ c. peanut butter (I used Jif Natural, it is not so sweet)
-1 T. vanilla
-6 store bought chocolate frosted cake doughnuts (the brand I used, Franz, is pictured)

Beat together cream cheese and peanut butter until well combined.  Add sugar and combine.  Add eggs one at a time (I don’t know why you have to add them one at a time, but recipes always say to do this.  I suppose I should Google it.).  After eggs have been incorporated add the cream and vanilla, beat until well combined.  But, don’t over mix (This is another thing recipes always say.  I do not know why and probably should Google it.)  To assemble the cake pour  1/3 of the batter over the crust top that with three doughnuts pressing them down into the batter.  Pour another 1/3 of the batter over those doughnuts and top with another three doughnuts.  Pour the remaining batter over the top of everything and spread as evenly as possible.  Bake in an oven preheated to 300° for 90 minutes.  Turn oven off and continue to let the cake sit in the hot oven for another 90 minutes.  Remove from oven and refrigerate cake for at least 4 hours or overnight.  Slice and EAT!