BEST Peanut Butter Cake
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This Peanut Butter Cake recipe is simply THE BEST EVER! But don’t take my word for it, check out all the rave reviews and then experience this cake for yourself! The ultimate cake for peanut butter lovers, both the cake and the frosting are positively LOADED with peanut butter flavor!
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 in 2013 by way of request from one of my readers, Elizabeth. 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!
How Do I Make A Peanut Butter Sheet Cake?
If you want to cut back on calories (and save yourself some work), you can 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 :)
Peanut Butter Cake Recipe
Let’s get started!
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).
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.
Then 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. At the time 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 may have seen my Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies and know 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.
This is 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!
And for all of you peanut fans out there, you absolutely MUST try these Boiled Peanuts, a Southern classic!
Enjoy!
For more delicious cake recipes be sure to try my:
- Caramel Pear Walnut Cake
- Old Fashioned Carrot Cake
- French Almond Plum Cake
- German Cheesecake
- Dundee Cake
- Limoncello Cake
- Rhubarb Streusel Cake
- German Apple Cake
- Orange Buttermilk Cake
- Sticky Toffee Pudding
- German Plum Cake
- Cherry Marzipan Streusel Cake
- Chocolate Almond Quinoa Cake
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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
Originally published on The Daring Gourmet April 19, 2013
Hi, I’m Kimberly Killebrew and welcome to Daring Gourmet where you'll find delicious originals, revitalized classics, and simply downright good eats from around the world! Originally from Germany, later raised in England, world-traveled, and now living in the U.S., from my globally-influenced kitchen I invite you to tour the world through your taste buds!
This cake looks amazing! My new hubby loves anything PB. The first year we were dating and I asked him what kind if bday cake he wanted, he asked for PB w PB frosting. I searched and searched for a recipe. I managed to use parts of a few and it turned out pretty good. The next year, notsomuch. It turned out heavy and dry. :(
I am so thrilled to find this one as his bday is 6-19 and I will try again!
I have a question though. You used only one layer and sliced it horizontally. However, in the final product picture, your layers look like normal layer cake thickness. Why are they not super thin? I have 8 or 9″ round pans and my layers would be really thin if I sliced one them into two. What do I need to do differently?
Hi Tara! Excellent, I’m so happy you found my site! The cake rises quite a bit. Thinking back to the last time I made it, each layer is probably about an inch thick after it’s been sliced in half and that was using a 9″ round pan. If you use a 8″ it will obviously be thicker, but you’ll need an 8″ pan that is 3″ high so it doesn’t overflow. I would recommend sticking with the 9″ pan. As you can see from the pics it’s plenty thick using a 9″ inch pan, especially once you’ve added the frosting. Let us know how it turns out!
What are your thoughts on turning this cake into a tres leches cake? I was thinking if I went with a less killer frosting it might work? My boyfriend wants a peanut butter tres leches cake for his birthday but silly enough, there aren’t any recipes already floating around for it :-P
Hi Katie! I love the idea of a tres leches peanut butter cake! I wouldn’t recommend this recipe for it though. Tres leches cake is a sponge cake which is what enables you to soak it in milk without it becoming soggy. I haven’t tried doing that with this peanut butter cake, but my concern would be that it would end up soggy. My recommendation would be to find a good recipe for tres leches cake and add about 1/3 cup peanut butter to the batter (any more than that will likely weigh the delicate sponge cake down too much). Tres leches cake is supposed to just have some delicate sweetened whipped cream for the topping, so I would probably stick with that. If you decide you want a peanut butter frosting instead, I would make one that’s fluffier: Use an electric mixer to beat 1/2 cup softened butter with 1 cup creamy peanut butter. Gradually add 2 cups of confectioner’s (powdered) sugar and if it gets too thick add a tablespoon of milk. Add up to 3 tablespoons of milk as needed until you’ve reached the desired consistency.
Good luck and I hope your boyfriend appreciates your efforts! :)
I REFUSE….to share this cake with anyone! hahaha. I used 1 cup of peanut butter as some readers did, and it turned out amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
For the frosting, if I halve it, will it still turn out well? Thanks again!
Hahaha! Awesome, Liz!! It makes quite a bit of frosting – half is enough for a thin layer, it just depends on how scandalously thick you want it :)
Whoa! All this positive hype on the cake…I am definitely trying this. I am going to try making cake pops and would prefer to make “from scratch” cakes. Do you think this cake would be too oily after I break it apart and add frosting to bind the cake into balls? Thanks!
Hi Liz! Cake pops sound like a great idea! No, it’s not an oily cake at all. Happy baking!
Wonderful! Thanks!
I was very happy to find this recipe and even more excited when I read the comment about the nutella swirl. My friend requested a PB cake with nutella frosting, so I’m going to add that swirl for more! But now I’m thinking about adding nutella to your PB frosting. How much would you recommend? Thanks!
Excellent, Stacey! You can never go wrong with Nutella :) I’d start with 1/4 cup or so of Nutella for the frosting and taste it to see if it needs more (and if the consistency can handle more – since Nutella is thick it should be perfectly fine even if you use more). Yummy, I want a slice right now!!
So after over an hour of looking for a decent peanut butter cake recipe I came across this page. I then spent another hour browsing through this site and already see a ton of things I want to try making sometime. So I want to start of by saying “Thank you!” For all the time and effort you have put into all of this. It truly is incredible.
I do have a couple of questions regarding this recipe if you don’t mind. After reading all of the warnings about how rich this cake is I’m hesitant to put the peanut butter frosting onto the already peanut butter cake. So I was thinking I might sub in some chocolate frosting, French Silk was the first thing that came to mind, but I was wondering if maybe a Buttercream or some other frosting might go better with the cake? Also, I do want the cake to have a strong peanut butter taste, so since I am using a different frosting should I add more peanut butter to the cake or does it stand on its own alright?
Thanks in advance for the help.
-Devon
Welcome, Devon! And thank you very much for your kind words, I really appreciate them. Excellent questions about the cake. If you love peanut butter, you’ll love the peanut butter frosting. That said, a chocolate frosting would go marvelously with this cake – chocolate and peanut butter are a natural match. And yes, the peanut butter flavor in the cake will still stand out. I wouldn’t use plain buttercream simply because its delicate flavor would be lost in the dominant peanut butter flavor. So I would either use the peanut butter frosting (for die-hard peanut butter fans who can’t get enough!) or some kind of chocolate frosting (for a nice, complementing contrast). Happy baking and whichever route you go let us know how it turns out! Best, Kimberly
Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly and for the wonderful advice. I was making it for a friend’s birthday so while I was up for the peanut butter frosting, I’m not sure everyone else would have been. Anyway, I ended up making a really nice and light chocolate mousse for it. Spelled “Happy Birthday” out with some Reese’s Pieces on top and chopped some mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups up to smash on the side of the cake. It turned out wonderfully and the recipe was perfect. I’ll be sure to make it with the peanut butter frosting next time and let you know what I think.
Thanks again,
-Devon
Wonderful and I love the way you decorated it! Thanks so much for your feedback, Devon!
This cake was spectacular! I made it for my own birthday yesterday… I told my husband that was because I just love baking and wanted to do it myself, but it was really because I wanted to lick all the extra frosting! And there was a lot of frosting, which was fine by me. I always make extra so I can eat some. :)
I made it in 2, 9 inch round pans and baked for 20 minutes like you suggested to another commenter, and it turned out perfectly, moist and magnificent! Thank you for this killer recipe.
Wonderful!! I’m so thrilled to hear that, Laura, and a happy belated birthday to you! Best, Kimberly
I like your picture and I love the plant.Don’t change a thing.
DONNA
Thanks, Donna! :) Fortunately it hasn’t made the cake any less popular and the 1970’s Betty Crocker cookbook pic has kind of grown on me :) Best, Kimberly