Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup chopped nuts
• 1/4 cup oil
• 6–8 ounces chocolate chips

Mix the cake mix, brown sugar and peanut butter until well blended. Reserve 2/3 cups for later. Mix in the remaining ingredients. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x13 inch pan. Sprinkle top with the reserved 2/3 cup dry mixture on top and chocolate chips. Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes or until center is done and cake is a light brown.

This is a great cake to take—it packs well and has an awesome taste. Enjoy.

Lisa made this and sent the recipe with her thank you note after the shower last month. It really is good—not too sweet—and I thought of how you sometimes take a cake. Maybe this one with "take the cake." Best of all, you don’t have to ice it. The word "awesome" is Lisa's, not mine. I liked it, but I wasn't awed by it.

Lisa is Lisa Elgarten Hoffstetter. The recipe came in her thank you notes for her wedding shower. Liz and Herman Elgartens' backyard was on the side of our backyard in Randolph, NJ. Marti, Carol and I each took our turn babysitting Lisa and her older brothers, Mike and Ken.

Lisa Hofstetter, Carol Lambusta, Fred Hofstetter