This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone, and not intended to be medical advice.\u00a0 Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.<\/i> <\/em>#GameForBasketball #CollectiveBias<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s the time of year again. It’s March! While Pi Day and St. Patrick’s Day are almost here, what has me most excited is the upcoming basketball season!\u00a0 I’ll be rooting for my favorite team from South Bend, of course, and for lots of good games, some buzzer-beater shots for the win, and an underdog Cinderella team to cheer on.<\/p>\n

$\"Bring$
\nSome people are surprised that I consider this a most wonderful time of the year, given that I’m just 5 feet tall, but we adore the college basketball, especially in March, and enjoy fun basketball-themed food and drinks, including this chocolate peanut butter basketball cake.<\/p>\n

This yummy cake is a slam dunk with even those who don’t love basketball. Here’s the recipe:<\/p>\n

3\/4 cup unsalted butter, softened<\/div>\n
1 3\/4 cups granulated sugar<\/div>\n
1\/2 teaspoon salt<\/div>\n
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour<\/div>\n
3\/4 cup cocoa powder<\/div>\n
2 teaspoons baking powder<\/div>\n
4 large eggs<\/div>\n
2 teaspoons vanilla extract<\/div>\n
1 + 1\/2 cups milk<\/div>\n

\nDirections<\/em><\/div>\n
\n
\n
Preheat the oven to 350\u00b0F. Grease and flour two round cake pans (I used 9-inch pans)<\/li>\n
Cream together the butter, sugar and salt using mixer at medium speed for 4 minutes in large bowl. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down bowl as you go.<\/li>\n
In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, and baking powder.<\/li>\n
Combine milk and vanilla to it.<\/li>\n
On low speed, into large bowl with butter and sugar mixture, alternate beating approximately 1 cup of the flour mixture, then milk, alternating until all has been added and combined.<\/li>\n
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.<\/li>\n
Bake 28-32 minutes (though time can vary by oven), until a toothpick in center comes out clean and the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan.<\/li>\n
Cool cakes on wire racks 5-10 minutes then turn out from the pans and continue cooling.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
While the cake bakes, make the filling.<\/p>\n
Filling:
\n<\/strong>Ingredients
\n<\/em><\/p>\n
1 cup peanut butter
\n1 1\/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
\n2 1\/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
\n8-9 tablespoons whole or low-fat milk<\/p>\n
Directions<\/em><\/div>\n
\n
Combine the first three ingredients in mixer on medium until combined, then add milk slowly and checking consistency as you go. If you like a thicker filling, use less milk.<\/li>\n
Pop the filling in the refrigerator and once the cake is cool, spread an even layer of filling on top of one cake and top with the other.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n
$\"Chocolate$
\nFrost cake with your favorite kind of frosting. I used orange-colored buttercream. (You can also make this with your favorite brand of box chocolate cake mix and icing.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Then the real fun begins – transforming the cake into the basketball! Using your favorite peanut butter chocolate candy, or just chocolate candy, separate out the orange and brown pieces.
\n $\"FullSizeRender$ <\/div>\n
Then use the brown pieces to make the basketball’s laces. Start by laying them in two lines, one each down the middle of the cake horizontally and vertically.<\/div>\n
$\"FullSizeRender$
\nThen add in the additional two laces on the sides.<\/div>\n
$\"FullSizeRender$ <\/div>\n
If you’re pressed for time, you can leave it as is, or keep going by adding in the orange pieces.<\/div>\n
$\"Chocolate$ This year, we’re prepared for anything the college basketball tournament season can throw (or bounce pass) our way. When I was shopping at Walmart, I grabbed what I needed for the cake, and also headed over to the Personal Care aisle and stocked up on some Pfizer products so we have all the possible supplies we may need to get us through the basketball season.<\/div>\n
$\"advil$
\nThis trip, that meant grabbing some Advil Liqui-Gels<\/a>, because nothing’s stronger, longer lasting or better on your tough aches and pains than Advil* (*Among OTC brands). It’s far more enjoyable to watch games when you aren’t contending with aches and pains.<\/div>\n
If I don’t get a good amount of sleep, I have a headache the next day. With games running late into the night and trying to keep up with everything else in life, there isn’t a lot of rest during tournament time. It’s also possible that I turned my ankle last year as the result of excessive celebration, and my husband’s back wasn’t thrilled that he sat in the same position too long. Having Advil on hand means we’re prepared for anything. You can find an Advil coupon here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
$\"Advil\"$
\nGiven that this is chocolate peanut butter cake is a rich dessert and we’ll be indulging in some other fun foods, I also grabbed some Nexium 24HR. Click here for a Nexium coupon, but also be sure to ask a doctor before use if you have a history of stomach problems, such as heartburn.<\/p>\n
You can see how other people are #GameforBasketball here.<\/a> What is your favorite part of March basketball season?<\/p>\n
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: <\/strong>How to make the NCAA Tournament educational for your kids<\/a><\/p>\n
PRIOR POST: <\/strong>How the Scholastic 20 for 20 Family Reading Challenge changed our family<\/a><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone, and not intended to be medical advice.\u00a0 Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. #GameForBasketball #CollectiveBias It’s the time of year again. It’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[29,58,162],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3579"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9897,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579\/revisions\/9897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}