Peanut Butter Cake
on Jan 16, 2019, Updated Nov 01, 2020
My homemade Peanut Butter Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting is an old school recipe that will quickly become a family favorite. You will find the moist cake loaded with peanut butter flavor. Then we top it with the best peanut butter frosting.
Peanut Butter Cake
Peanut butter fans are going to go crazy for this Peanut Butter cake. I am a big fan of everything peanut butter. If you follow along on my blog, you probably have already figured that out. I love my 3 ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies. My No Bake Reese’s Peanut Butter Cheesecake is an over the top peanut butter lovers dream. So peanut butter recipes are my most favorite desserts and I share them often.
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Each year for my birthday, my grandmother would make us each a homemade cake to celebrate our day. My grandmother quickly realized that she never really had to ask me which cake was going to be my choice. Every year, I always requested her homemade peanut butter cake with peanut butter frosting. It really was her best homemade cake. It is perfect for feeding a crowd. We sometimes cut our cakes into smaller finger sized pieces when we are feeding more than just immediate family. You can easily get quite a few smaller pieces from a traditional sized cake pan. I know some make an old fashioned peanut butter sheet cake when serving a crowd. Sheet pan cakes are great but there is something about a thick moist cake topped with a layer of thicker frosting.
This recipe is an old fashioned cake recipe filled with so much flavor. She has been making this same recipe for years. I thought the recipe was very tedious so I never tried to make it myself. I can’t believe I have waited this long to make her homemade peanut butter cake. I have now made this recipe a few times and each and every time, my family has gobbled it up. They now have deemed it their favorite cake.It was not difficult to make and took very little time. Sure a peanut butter cake mix would be a blessing for a quick dessert but homemade desserts are always the best. The question always lingers in my mind as to why manufacturers have yet to make a good peanut butter cake mix. Maybe someday they will excite all of us peanut butter fans with such a product.
How do you make Peanut Butter Cake?
All that is needed to make this recipe is some creamy peanut butter and some basic ingredients you most likely have on hand. Grab some of the store brand peanut butter, it will work best. It is always creamy and has the most oil content. So it is perfect for this cake. Peter Pan or Skippy will work fine too.
Ingredients to Make Peanut Butter Cake with Homemade Peanut Butter Frosting
CAKE
2 cup Flour
2 cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 cup Milk
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Water
1/2 cup Butter
3/4 cup Peanut Butter
FROSTING
1/2 cup softened Butter
1 cup Peanut Butter
3 tbsp Milk
2 cup Powdered Sugar
How to make Homemade Peanut Butter Cake and Peanut Butter Frosting
Preheat oven to 350.
Grease a 9×13 baking dish with butter. Dust with flour to prevent sticking.
Whisk together flour, sugar, and baking soda in a large bowl.
Add milk, eggs, and vanilla to bowl.
Beat mixture at low speed until blended.
Add water, butter, and peanut butter to a saucepan.
Heat over medium heat stirring frequently until blended (about 5 minutes).
Add peanut butter mixture into flour mixture.
Stir until batter is well mixed and pour into prepared dish.
Bake about 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Allow to cool.
Cream together the butter and peanut butter.
Slowly add in the sugar, if it gets too thick then add a little milk to thin.
Continue until all of the sugar is in and the frosting is blended to the right consistency.
Spread frosting over cooled cake.
Tips for Making Peanut Cake
I always heavily butter my baking dish. I also add a dusting of flour. This always keeps the cake from sticking.
Bake for long enough for your center to be baked thoroughly. Ovens and baking time can vary from oven to oven. Just use the toothpick trick. If the toothpick comes out clean, your cake is done.
Be sure to use softened butter for your peanut butter frosting. It will blend much better with the peanut butter and make the texture of your frosting creamier. Add a couple more drops of milk if you would like your frosting thinner.
Toss your cake in the refrigerator, it tastes amazing chilled too.
If storing your cake at room temperature, cover it to keep fresh.
Enjoy with a large glass of milk. Milk with this cake is amazing.
Peanut Butter Cake
Ingredients
CAKE
- 2 cup Flour
- 2 cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 2 Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 cup Water
- 1/2 cup Butter
- 3/4 cup Peanut Butter
FROSTING
- 1/2 cup softened Butter
- 1 cup Peanut Butter
- 3 tbsp Milk
- 2 cup Powdered Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Grease a 9x13 baking dish with butter. Dust with flour to prevent sticking.
- Whisk together flour, sugar, and baking soda in a large bowl.
- Add milk, eggs, and vanilla to bowl.
- Beat mixture at low speed until blended.
- Add water butter and peanut butter to a saucepan.
- Heat over medium heat stirring frequently until blended (about 5 minutes).
- Add peanut butter mixture into flour mixture.
- Stir until batter is well mixed and pour into prepared dish.
- Bake about 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow to cool.
- Cream together the butter and peanut butter.
- Slowly add in the sugar, if it gets too thick then add a little milk to thin.
- Continue until all of the sugar is in and the frosting is blended to the right consistency.
- Spread frosting over cooled cake.
This cake is incredibly moist; probably the moistest cake I’ve ever had. I used a half black cocoa powder and half Dutch processed cocoa for a chocolate buttercream, and then added chopped Reese’s mini PB cups to the top.
The only thing I would say that for me, I used Skippy PB but the cake didn’t have as much PB flavor as I expected. I may do 1 cup of PB next time and 1/4 cup of butter. However, the cake is in the fridge now so the PB flavor may intensify as it ages.
Made them into cupcakes instead of cake, and they taste awesome. No over powered peanut butter flavor
Jen, it looks like you used a white baking dish to make your peanut butter cake. Do you adjust the baking temperature? I have seen a few comments to lower the baking temperature for a glass pan. I always use a glass pan for my cakes, but I don’t usually have to change the baking temperature.
Delicious! An instant hit! The second time I made this, I added sliced bananas and crushed almonds in the middle.
Made this peanut butter cake for my first PB cake ever and it came out fantastic. Very moist and it’s even more delicious with the frosting. I did change up a little of the recipe because I didn’t have enough peanut butter to do both the frosting and the cake. I had in the fridge a tub of Reese’s peanut butter sauce that I needed to have some use for instead of an ice cream topping.
It’s a sauce but when it’s refrigerated the consistency is that of PB.
So I cut my water to 1 1/2 cups instead of 2 cups. Thank you for sharing this recipe and all the reviews as well.
Going to try the PB&J cake as someone else shared in their review.
This recipe is perfect! I’ve had several requests for me to make it for birthday parties. I actually have a cake in the oven now for a party tomorrow. There are never any leftovers.
This cake is AMAZING! It was good the same day but even better the second day. I made 1 change (I know I know, I hate when people modify). Instead of vanilla extract I used Cookie Butter flavored emulsion. I only had a glass pan so I reduced oven temperature by 25 degrees (as I saw suggested earlier) and had no issues with the middle sinking. Will absolutely make this again!
My friend gave me this recipe & she said she stirred it all with a spoon, no mixer, I do the same, it turns out awesome, everyone loves this cake ❤️
This recipe is perfection! Absolutely delicious!
Can you make the cake with a 9×9 round cake pan?
Obsessed, ok? Lol I cut the recipe for this cake in half and it turned out perfect! Just enough! Thank you.
I made this so many times and we all love it!! Recently I’ve been diagnosed with celiac disease I’m wondering if I can use the flower??? Gluten free?? Just wondering if anybody’s tried it
This looks just like my mom’s cake so I am working on this recipe for my sons birthday. Mom has past now but he also swears her cake tasted the best. Had tried recipe before & half of the cake didn’t seem completely baked. Wonder if cupcakes would work? Thank you for giving me this great recp!
I haven’t tried to make this yet. I am definitely going to bake it.
It looks delicious and I’m sure that it is. Thank you for the recipe.
( SANDY)
One of our favorite cakes! The cake is dense and rich and the frosting is heavenly! It freezes well too as there are only two of us and my husband can’t control himself when it comes to this wonderful cake!
Can I add a box of vanilla pudding to the recipe?
This is one of the nicest cakes I’ve ever had! The texture is absolutely perfection, so moist yet still fluffy and it literally melts in your mouth. The frosting takes an already beautiful cake to the next level. The flavour of the cake is gorgeous and so addictive! Thank you so much for this fantastic recipe, i made the cake and frosting exactly as written and they turned out absolutely perfect. It was also so easy to make! I have saved this as a go to family recipe!
This recipe dose not call for salt?? I am wondering if it got left out by mistake?
There’s usually salt in peanut butter, so maybe that is plenty for the balance of the recipe.
I wondered the same thing, I made it as listed the first time. The cake was great, but I missed the salt. I added 1/2tsp salt the next time and it was perfect. Thanks for sharing, I hope this helps.
Came across this recipe tonight and whipped it up with no issues! Myself and my family LOVED it! We all agreed this recipe is a “keeper”!❤️🤤
Was simple/easy to make. I added crushed peanuts after I frosted the cake.. delicious!
Made this as a “last resort” dessert for potlock. By that I mean that it was the only thing I found a recipe for that I had all the ingredients. Took this to work, and it is THE cake that is requested every time we have a dinner.
Moist, rich and delicious. Yum, yum, yum!
Just made this cake for my hubby’s birthday. I baked 33 minutes and it was done. Very moist. My hubby told me not to lose this recipe. Frosting is delicious…creamy and not greasy. Just the right amount of sweetness.