This Peanut Butter Cake recipe is simply THE BEST EVER! But don’t take our word for it, check out all the rave reviews and then experience this cake for yourself!
BEST Peanut Butter Cake Recipe
Before we get to the peanut butter cake recipe, two things: 1) I need more food props, and 2) to quote my husband, “Every time you use the white table cloth and that plant it looks like something out of a 1970’s cookbook.” It’s sadly true. But it doesn’t change the fact that the cake is downright amazing.
Combine points one and two: No more 70’s food pics. Need. More. Food. Props.
But on to the subject of this recipe post: Peanut butter lovers – this is definitely THE cake for you!
Is it good? Oh, it’s good alright. So good that it comes with a warning label: This peanut butter cake is extremely rich. Like if you eat the whole thing in one sitting you may experience cardiac arrest. And we really don’t want that to happen. So eat in moderation only.
I created this cake by way of request from Elizabeth via the Make a Request! link. She asked me if I would create a peanut butter cake that is “moist, peanuty and delicious,” like the kind she enjoyed from her childhood. I didn’t have any more information than that to go on. Sheet cake or layered? Frosting or glaze? Moist crumb or goopey? So many options. At first I was thinking along the lines of a peanut butter layered cake with a hot honey glaze drizzled over it and left to seep down into the cake, resulting in a super moist, slightly goopey texture. Then maybe even add a layer of peanut butter frosting on top. I may still get around to creating that. In the end I settled for the more traditional version: A peanut butter layer cake with a rich peanut butter frosting. I went for oil instead of butter because oil makes cake nice and moist whereas butter tends to dry it out. Buttermilk also does wonders for creating a soft and moist crumb. So we’ve got both in here!
Note: If you want to cut back on calories (and save yourself some work), bake the cake in a 9X13 cake pan as a sheet cake and make half the amount of frosting to go on top (the “death factor” in this cake lies primarily in the frosting).
Also, for an even more moist, “goopier” version, see notes in recipe box. I haven’t actually tried this, merely conceptualized it in my mind, but I think it will work wonderfully :)
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How to Make Peanut Butter Cake
Alright, let’s go to that cake!
Combine the brown sugar, oil, and peanut butter in a large mixing bowl.
Beat until combined and add the eggs and vanilla extract. Continue to beat until combined.
In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Alternately add the flour and buttermilk, beating just until combined. Do not over-beat or the cake will be dense and dry. It’s okay if there are a few small lumps of flour.
Grease a 9×3 inch round baking pan and pour the batter in. (I used 9×3 – a 9×2 inch pan should be fine, too). I use the hand-forged aluminum pan by Magic Line, made in the USA. Love it!
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out “moist” – not wet with batter, but moist. Be careful not to over-bake or the cake will be dry.
Let the cake sit in the pan for 5 minutes before inverting it onto a wire rack to cool completely. The cut the cake in half.
Now let’s make the frosting:
Place the peanut butter and butter in a large mixing bowl. Cream the two together until smooth.
Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add the heavy cream a little at a time until the frosting becomes a spreadable consistency. Note: This is a fairly stiff frosting. Be sure to keep it at room temperature or will be stiffen even more.
Note: For a chocolate frosting, simply add a couple of tablespoons of good quality cocoa powder.
Spread the bottom half with frosting, frosting down the sides as well.
Place the top layer on top. Ignore the picture. I accidentally put it on wrong and I didn’t want to try and pick it up again. The top cake layer should have been put on upside down so that the top edges don’t slope down.
Spread the frosting on the top layer and down the sides.
This is where you can now become creative with your cake decorating skills. Piping, crumbled up Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, you name it. My 3 year old was eagerly waiting for me to take him and his baby sister to Petco to see the animals, so I kept it simple.
Another variation: Pour some chocolate ganache over it for some ultra decadence!
Oh, I forgot to mention. I faced a serious challenge here. You’ll remember from my Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies With Nutella Marshmallow Cream Cheese Frosting that I absolutely LOVE the combination of peanut butter and Nutella. I probably stood at my kitchen table staring at this jar of Nutella for a good 10 minutes, debating whether or not to add some to the frosting or maybe swirl some into the batter. Or a swirled peanut butter Nutella frosting… Oh, it was so hard deciding what to do! In the end I decided to stick to the classic peanut butter cake. But I mention this because you may decide to add some Nutella – it’s a delicious option.
Enjoy!
Simply the best peanut butter cake ever! Check out all the rave reviews in the comments below and then give it a try to experience it for yourself!
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BEST Peanut Butter Cake
Ingredients
- For the Cake:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup coconut oil , at room temperature or oil of choice (I use coconut oil). Note: Oil yields a moister cake than butter
- 1/3 cup natural unsweetened peanut butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk (can substitute 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice stirred into it. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes then use as recipe directs)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- For the Frosting:
- 1 cup natural unsweetened peanut butter (if using regular peanut butter which has lots of sugar in it, cut back a little on the brown sugar)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 3 cups powdered (confectioner's) sugar (can use less if preferred)
- up to 1/2 cup heavy cream , at room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.In a large mixing bowl, add the peanut butter, oil, and brown sugar. Beat until combined and creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat just until combined.Alternately add the flour and buttermilk to the wet mixture, beating just until combined. Be careful not to over-beat or the cake will be dense and dry. A few small lumps of flour is fine.
- Grease a 9X3 inch round baking pan (I use Magic Line pans). Pour the batter into the pan.Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out moist (not wet with batter but moist. If the toothpick is dry, the cake is over-baked and will be dry). Let the cake sit in the pan for 5 minutes, then invert the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- To Make the Frosting: In the meantime place the peanut butter and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat until smooth and creamy. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, continuing to beat. Add the heavy cream until you reach a spreadable consistency. (Note: This is a fairly stiff frosting.)Cut the cooled cake in half horizontally. Frost the bottom half of the cake and down the sides. Place the top layer of the cake, upside down, on top of the bottom layer. Frost the top layer and down the sides.
Notes
*Variation: Add Nutella to the frosting
*Another variation: Pour some chocolate ganache over it for ultra decadence!
Nutrition
Sandra says
I put strawberry jam in between the layers it was a good fit!
EricV says
This sounds delicious and totally reminds me of my favorite sandwich ever: PEANUT BUTTER – JELLY.
Samantha says
Can you use regular peanut butter, like jiff?
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Samantha, yes you can but I would cut back a little on the additional sugar since the regular peanut butter has sugar in it.
Sandy says
Can you use cake flour?
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Sandy, yes you can. It’s generally recommended to use 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cake flour for every cup of all-purpose flour.
PB Heaven says
Hiya to clarify, is the honey frosting written below enough frosting for a sheet cake or should it be halved? Those instructions are confusing. And I agree with other readers that the frosting tab should be below the cake or at least seperate the paragraphs better, it’s hard to read (luckily I noticed before overdosing the peanut butter). No hate just suprised it’s written badly :) (and where it lost a star). The cake and traditional peanut butter frosting (with less icing sugar for my tastes, why oh why is frosting so cloyingly sweet!) is delicious! I quite happily ate the cake as it is, it’s great to find a cake wih actual peanut butter flavour. Thanks
Rebecca says
I was so paranoid the cake was going to be dry (I’m pretty sure my oven cooks just a smidge hot) I checked them at 25 minutes. They were wet. I ended up going 10 minutes longer checking every 5. I thought the toothpicks looked moist. Once they cooled, I realized the centers beger did cook all the way. I put them back in wrapped in foil for a total of 25 minutes and the middle still was wet. I’m sure its user error I just dont know what I could have done wrong. Any ideas? On the bright side at least the flavor is fantastic 😅
Lucy says
I’ve made this for several years for my son-in-law’s birthday and it’s wonderful! I’d like to make it as cupcakes and I was wondering if you’ve tried that and know the timing?
Anon says
My educated guess/opinion but fairly confident, is that this recipe will make 12 standard cupcakes (or 10-11 muffins). Most cupcakes take 20-25 minutes at 180 celcius/350 farenheit oven. As this batter is slightly thick, I would check at the 25 minute mark, as long as a toothpick, skewer etc. comes out clean in the middle the cakes are done :). If in doubt make a half batch/trial run before making for company. Hope that helps!
Becki Rood Ellerslie Ga says
GIRL,,,,,, THIS cake is HEAVEN on EARTH!!! We have had peanut butter cake before, but after making this NOTHING compares to the amazing peanut butter flavor! Dropped a few mini peanut butter cups on top and a cup of semi sweet mini morsels in the cake and WOW! BLESS you and yours and keep those amazing recipes coming!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
I’m absolutely thrilled that you enjoyed it, Becki, thank you so much! :)
Katie says
I made this for my other half as a birthday cake and it went down Very well! I only made 3/4 of the frosting but still had plenty left over.
Question: has anyone made this recipe into muffins? If so, how long did you bake it for?
Thanks
Anonymous says
Hello! I want to use this recipe, but only need one round layer (it will be 2 chocolate layers, 1 peanutbutter layer). Should I half this recipe, will the layer be too big with the full recipe?
Anonymous says
I did half the recipe and it was the perfect amount for 1 6 inch cake but I think you’ll be fine to just do the whole recipe if you are making 1 8-9 inch cake layer
Yvonne says
Can you use cake flour instaed of regular
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Yvonne, yes, that should be fine. When substituting cake for AP flour you usually use 2 additional tablespoons of cake flour for every cup that’s called for. So in this case you’ll use 3 additional tablespoons of cake flour. Happy baking!
Eric Estes says
Hi, I’ve made the cake 3 times already, and am using the same frosting that was left over, because it was enough for about 4 bunt cakes. I hardly ever use regular cake pans. The problem I had with this 3rd cake was using almond flower, instead of the regular flour. This 3rd cake sunk/dropped, especially towards the middle, and it was quite oily as you can imagine. I forgot about the oil in the almond flour (which is not in regular white flour), plus the coconut and peanut butter oil. I probably shouldn’t have put the coconut oil. How can I modify this recipe with the almond (or similar) flour, without it falling toward the middle, and being too oily?
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Eric, I haven’t made this with almond flour and without experimenting with it I can’t really offer any insights. Perhaps some of our readers have tried it and can chime in.
Anon says
I know for certain that almond flour soaks up less liquid than gluten flour 1:1 by weight (volumes are a different quantity so not accurate enough to use), and most recipes use double the weight of almond flour to gluten flour (which I know is true based on my own experiments at home). So if I was trying to convert all gluten flour to almond flour for this recipe as written, I would use 300g almond flour instead of 150g/ 1 1/2 cups plain flour. I haven’t tested how much 1 cup almond flour weighs (I grew up with scales in the UK) but most recipes use the conversion, 1 cup = 104-112g. If in doubt, use scales, weights are a much more accurate measurement than volume.
As for the oil, I have replaced half the oil with applesauce/yoghurt etc. with no problems for lots of cakes, not this recipe though. However I can’t see why you can’t do the same here, given that the almonds will give you back the missing oil.
As with all experminets, make a smaller batch in case it doesn’t works out (and you haven’t wasted ingredients or in my case have lingering dissapointment everytime I open the freezer). Anyway! That’s my thoughts and ideas on what to do. And I love the sound of your idea, I can’t wait to try it out when my freezer is low on healthy goodies :). Hope that helps!
Estela says
Heey if i want to make the cake less dry and of chocolate what should i put?
Anon says
This cake isn’t dry when I’ve made it twice using the weight measurments, sounds like you’ve added too much flour! I’m assuming you’ve used used cups, and measured wrong. If you put your cups into the flour bag, you’ve measured the flour wrong by adding too much. You should use the ‘scoop and level’ method for better results. Look at the scoop and level method on google for better instructions than mine below proberly haha. Sally’s baking addiction is very useful for understanding baking especially in how to use cups and other things. If you scoop the flour into the cup or even better shake the flour over the cup with a fork (like using a sieve) until the cup is full, and then scrape the edge clean with a knife, you’ll get the right measurement of flour :).
As for the cocoa, replace 21g/ 3 scoop and level tablespoonsof flour with 1/4 cup (spoon and levelled) or 4 scoop and level tablespoons of cocoa powder. Here in the UK we only have regular cocoa powder known as Dutch cocoa in the US and natural cocoa (I’m aware the US has all sorts of variations). Natural cocoa has a subtler/less noticeable chocolate taste than dutched cocoa. As I find chocolate hides any other flavours (and I’m assuming you want to taste the peanut butter as well!), I would use natural cocoa. As this cake doesn’t originally use cocoa and uses both baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, sorry baking soda :), I don’t think you would need to change the raising agents. But if in doubt add a heaped 1/2tsp or rather 5/8tsp if we’re being precise of baking soda to neutralise the natural cocoa’s acidity. Hopefully that helps! :)
Suparna Kapur says
Everybody loved it. It was a perfect cake. Baked muffins and served it with orange marmalade.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Fantastic, Suparna, thank you so much!
Hilda B Johnson says
I made this today and used 2 9 x 1 1/2″ pans. Baked 23 minutes and they turned out great. One using 8oz. Of cream cheese, 1 cup of peanut butter, 3 cups of powdered sugar and a few drips of milk! We’ll eat it tomorrow. I hope it fabulous.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Fantastic, Hilda, thanks so much for the feedback!