How to make the best peanut butter cake ever!
Peanut butter cake sure to please any lover of peanut butter.
It's just the right balance of peanutty sweetness without being gooey or sticky. This delicious peanut butter cake can be made according to the recipe or wheat free/gluten free. My mother-in-law has been making it for over 45 years for my father-in-law's birthday and she passed the recipe along to me. I've now started baking it for my husband, with yummy results.
Since I have a wheat allergy, I figured out a way to modify the recipe to be made for our whole family to enjoy. It tasted amazing, so I've included both versions....just pick which one suits you best!
This cake isn't a pretty one, so don't expect it to be a showpiece. What it lacks in appearance, though, it makes up for in taste.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups sifted cake flour (regular sifted flour can be substituted)
- 1 1/3 Cup sugar
- 3 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 Cup vegetable shortening (common brand name is Crisco)
- 1/3 Cup creamy peanut butter (like JIF or Skippy) OR fresh-ground natural peanut butter with a fairly thick consistency (don't use jarred natural peanut butter that separates. )
- 1 Cup milk - divided
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup eggs
Instructions
- Have all ingredients at room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 round 8-inch cake pans. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Then add 2/3 Cup of the milk. Mix together on the slow-medium setting of your mixer for 2 minutes, scraping the sides frequently. Add the shortening, peanut butter, remaining milk and eggs. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. Pour evenly into the 2 cake pans, then bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool thoroughly before icing the cake with the Peanut Butter Icing. (see recipe further down the page)
Enjoying Peanut Butter Cake - My daughter loves this cake too. It's a dense, heavier cake, so you may want to go smaller on the slices. I personally like to e
Peanut Butter Cake - Wheat Free/Gluten Free Version - Here's how I modified the peanut butter cake recipe to make it work for someone who eats wheat-free/gluten
- 2 Cups plus 1 tablespoon Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix
- 1 1/3 Cup sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 Cup vegetable shortening (common brand name is Crisco)
- 1/3 Cup creamy peanut butter (don't use natural peanut butter that separates. My personal favorite for this recipe is JIF )
- 1 Cup milk - divided
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup eggs
Instructions
- Have all ingredients at room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour (use rice flour or more Pamela's mix) 2 round 8-inch cake pans. Stir together Pamela's mix, sugar and salt. Then add 2/3 Cup of the milk. Mix together on the slow-medium setting of your mixer for 2 minutes, scraping the sides frequently. Add the shortening, peanut butter, remaining milk and eggs. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. Pour evenly into the 2 cake pans, then bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool thoroughly before icing the cake with the Peanut Butter Icing. (see recipe further down the page)
Additional Tip:
If you'd like the cake to have 4 layers, just use a serrated knife to cut each round cake in half lengthwise. The peanut butter icing recipe makes enough to put between 4 layers as long as you don't spread it on too thick. The cake is also great with just two layers, but there's a lot of extra icing....not necessarily a bad thing.
This Peanut Butter Cake Goes Fast! - I sliced one layer in half to make a 3-layer cake for my husband's birthday last year. It got devoured pretty quickly.
The frosting on this one is an example where I didn't spread it quickly enough, and I didn't add enough vegetable oil to keep it smooth. The taste is still fantastic, but the texture wasn't spreadable enough.
Peanut Butter Icing - My Mother-in-Law's Own Recipe - You just have to use this icing for the peanut butter cake; it makes for a truly heavenly peanut butter ex
It can turn out differently each time in terms of consistency, but the taste is still the same. If you have to err on the side of too thick or too runny, always go for a bit too runny. It sets up quickly.
I'm not kidding.
In this photo, the icing was really runny, but it was one of the first times I tried doing the cake. Still tasted fantastic.
Cook Time
Total Time: approx. 40 min
Serves: Ices one four-layer peanut butter cake, or a 2-layer cake with extra icing
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cup tightly packed brown sugar
- 1 1/2 Cup sugar
- 1 Cup milk
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- 1/4 to 1/2 Cup creamy peanut butter (the smooth kind - not natural separated peanut butter. I use JIF.)
- small amount of vegetable oil if necessary
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, boil sugars and milk until they form a soft ball in cold water (235 to 245 degrees Farenheit). ***If you have not made a candy icing before, see the Candy Icing Tips section of this site.
- Add the butter. Cool the mixture for 15 min. When you are ready to ice the cakes, pour the sugar/milk/butter mixture into the bowl of an electric mixer, then add the peanut butter 1/4 Cup at a time, beating at medium-high speed after each addition to blend. You have to just eyeball it to see if it's a good consistency. If you need to thin the icing out a bit, just use a little bit of vegetable oil, added sparingly. Even if you don't add any vegetable oil, the icing may still be thin enough to slowly flow down the sides of the cake. That's ok.
- Ice the cake immediately. The icing sets quickly, so time is of the essence.
Candy Icing Tips
Please read if you have never made candy or candy icing before.
The easiest way to test the temperature of sugar syrup is with a candy thermometer. While not quite as accurate, you can also use a digital meat thermometer secured to the side of your saucepan with a metal clip so that it rests in the sugar mixture and doesn't touch the bottom of the pan.
If you don't have a thermometer, here's a handy how-to guide:
How to Test the Temperature of Sugar Syrup by Elizabeth LaBau, About.com
If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can still make candy from sugar syrups by using the cold-water method. During the cooking stage, remove your pan from the heat and drop a small spoonful of sugar syrup into a bowl of very cold water. Immerse your hand in the cold water, try to form the sugar into a ball, and bring it out of the water. By examining the shape and texture of the resulting candy blob, you can determine the approximate temperature of your sugar. This method takes a little practice, and is not as exact as a candy thermometer, but it will do in a pinch!
A quick word of caution: Please be careful when working with hot sugar, especially if you decide to use the cold-water method of temperature testing. Sugar burns are nasty. Hot sugar is almost impossible to quick rub or rinse off the skin, and thus continues burning long after it comes into contact with your skin. Please don't allow yourself to be sloppy or distracted when working with hot sugar, and avoid dangling hair, jewelry, or clothing over the work area.
photo credit (used via Creative Commons license): http://www.flickr.com/photos/vegan-baking/4107689532/
My husband's 2013 peanut butter birthday cake
Candy Thermometers
More of The Story Behind this Recipe
My mother-in-law Virginia (shown here on her birthday with a shot glass of cake -- at one of my favorite restaurants, Seasons 52) found the peanut butter cake recipe in the recipe book that came with her (now vintage) Dormeyer mixer in the early 1960s and baked it for her husband's birthday. Since he loved peanut butter, she modified a caramel icing recipe to make a peanut butter icing to adorn the cake. The results were delectable, and my father-in-law Sam requested the cake each year for his birthday.
One year while Virginia was making the icing for Sam's birthday peanut butter cake, her son Len (my now husband) called to tell his parents that he was engaged. Virginia, focusing hard on the tricky icing, asked her son if he was joking and asked him why he was trying to ruin her cake. Len is a big prankster, so this wasn't as harsh as it sounds, and years later, we're still laughing at it.
Virginia isn't just a good cook, she's an incredible mother-in-law, and I'm so glad that she's in my life. After losing her husband and surviving breast cancer, she still has a positive attitude and an abiding faith in the Lord. She's an inspiration to me.
KitchenAid Stand Mixers - An awesome tool for creating baked goods and so much more.
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More cake, candy and peanut butter - Also includes wheat-free & gluten-free resources.
- About.com : candy temperature guide
Here's a guide to candy temperature testing with a link to visuals about what each stage will look like if you're not using a candy thermometer. - JIF Peanut Butter
Guide to types of JIF peanut butter and all things JIF, including recipes, Pillsbury Bake-Off info, history and fun tidbits. - Paula Deen's Peanut Butter Cake
With 4 stars out of 5, Paula's Peanut Butter Cake has pretty good but mixed reviews. It's another option. - Pamela's Products
Pamela's Products specializes in wheat-free, gluten-free baked goods. In case you want to have chocolate or vanilla cake that doesn't need to be baked from scratch, these mixes bake up delectable cakes.
