Reese's loaf cake

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4 and lightly grease and line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin.

Make the cake. Melt the Reese’s cups in medium  heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. When the mixture is melted, lift the bowl off the pan, stir in the cocoa powder and set aside to cool.

In the meantime, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy (about 3min), then beat in the eggs a little at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then fold in the flour until just combined.

Mix one-third of the cake batter with the melted Reese’s mixture. Use a spoon to dollop alternating spoonfuls of plain and Reese’s batter into the prepared tin. Briefly swirl a skewer through the mixture to marble. Tap the tin on the counter, then spread to level.

Bake for 1hr-1hr10min, covering with foil halfway through, until the cake is golden and a clean skewer inserted into the centre comes out with no wet mixture (the chocolate batter is a little stickier when cooked, so there may be a small amount of that on the skewer). Re-cover with foil and leave to cool in tin. The cake will sink a little in the middle as it cools, but that’s ok.

Make the icing. Put the milk chocolate, peanut butter and milk in a pan and heat gently until smooth and melted. Leave to cool for 5min, stir vigorously to make it smooth again, then tip it on to the top of the loaf. Gently spread icing to the edge and allow the icing to flow down the sides a little. Immediately decorate with chopped Reese’s cups and peanuts.  Allow to set for at least 20min, then slice and serve.