Peanut Butter Snack Cake
Peanut butter snack cake will be your new favorite cake recipe. Fair warning! This peanut butter dessert is so easy to make and is full of peanut butter flavor. This moist cake is incredibly addicting. If you are a big fan of peanut butter this easy peanut butter cake is the just for you!
What we love about this snacking cake
Getting my family around the table for dinner is usually not too terribly difficult, it’s the keeping them there longer than five minutes that’s tricky. This single layer cake is worth hanging out at the table a little while longer for! Recently someone asked me what the hardest part about family meal time is. My knee jerk reaction was to say “getting us to the table is the hardest part” but that’s not really true. The hardest part is keeping us there, lingering, and not rushing off to our perspective corners. I’ve found if I tease them with some dessert before dinner, they stick around longer! Of course the longer you sit the more everyone talks. Pour them a glass of milk serve them a piece of moist and delicious peanut butter cake and before you know it, you’ve been at the table for a whopping 30 minutes! I’ve added some more great recipes below for keeping people at the table longer.
What's the most challenging part of meal time for you?
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How to make Peanut Butter Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 cake pan. Prep time is approximately 15 minutes. Bake time is 40 minutes.
Combine flour, sugar, and baking soda together in a large bowl, or in the bowl of your stand mixer. Whisk flour mixture together or if using stand mixer use the paddle attachment.
Measure 1 cup butter and 3/4 cup peanut butter into a separate bowl, pour boiling water over butter and peanut butter. Allow it to melt a minute or so, and then whisk together until smooth. This will look like a runny peanut butter slurry!
Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients (or vise versa) until completely combined. Be sure to scrape down sides of bowl.
Add in sour cream and vanilla. Crack eggs into a separate bowl, this can be the same bowl you mixed butter and peanut butter in. Whisk eggs together. Add them to the cake batter, whisk, scrape down bowl and whisk again until combined well.
Pour cake batter into 9×13 prepared pan. Place into preheated oven (350 degrees f) for 40 minutes or until toothpick poked in the middle comes out clean.
While cake is baking you can get started on the frosting! Measure out milk and add vanilla extract to the milk set aside.
Frosting: With electric mixer or a stand mixer, whip 3/4 cup butter and 3/4 cup peanut butter together, until light and fluffy 3-5 minutes. Gradually add in 1 lb of powdered sugar (approximately 3 3/4 cups) alternating with the milk/vanilla. Continue to whip frosting until light and fluffy.
Frost cake after cake has completely cooled. Serve with a tall glass of milk if you are into that sort of thing or a hot cup of coffee works too! Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
FAQs
- Why do you whisk eggs ahead of time and not just add them one at a time to the other ingredients? 1. I have a couple reasons why I do this. 1. Is that I often use farm fresh eggs, and sometimes these can have a blemish in them that I do not care to have in my baked goods. 2. I like to pick out the chalazae, the white stringy thing that’s attached to the egg yolk. 3. Its easier to pick egg shell out of a small bowl off eggs than a whole batch of cookies or cake batter.
- What type of peanut butter is best for this cake? I have used many types. We use natural peanut butter, however I have used Jiff. I’ve used crunchy and creamy. I have used creamy in the cake and crunchy in the frosting. I have never had the peanut butter effect the quality of this cake.
- Can I make this into a layer cake? I have used this recipe as a layer cake. However, I prefer to bake it as a single layer cake. This is a very dense moist cake, which in my opinion works better in one layer. As a double or triple layer cake it can squash down the bottom layer.
- Cupcakes? Yes!! Yes!! This recipe makes a decadent cupcake. Regular cup cake size you will get 18 cupcakes. Use cupcake papers.
- Does this frosting work for other recipes? This frosting is DANGEROUS. It is so good. Yes I have made this frosting and piped it on chocolate cupcakes also made a chocolate layer cake with this frosting in the middle as a sweet surprise. It also works great on top of sugar cookies, or to make a cookie sandwich. Let’s see how else can we eat this fabulous frosting? On a spoon. On graham crackers. If you like peanut butter this frosting is your jam. LOL see what I did there?
One of my favorite quotes ever:
“I can’t imagine life without a table between us. ” from Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist
This is how I feel about my family everyday. I can’t wait to get them around the table, and when it doesn’t happen the day just doesn’t seem complete. I hope you’re able to get your family around the table this weekend. Make this cake and they are sure to come running!
Happy Baking , Sheila
More great recipes
- Strawberry Cake
- Pudding parfaits
- Turtle Ice Cream Pie
- Easiest dessert you will ever make! Layered Ice Cream Dessert
- Minnys Chocolate Pie
Peanut Butter Snack Cake
Equipment
- 9×13 or half sheet cake pan
Ingredients
- 2 cups Flour
- 2 cups Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 3/4 cup creamy Peanut Butter
- 1 cup boiling Water
- 1 cup Butter
- 1/2 cup Sour Cream
- 2 whole Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Peanut Butter Frosting
- 3/4 cup softened Butter
- 3/4 cup Peanut Butter you can use crunchy or creamy for frosting
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 3 tablespoons Milk more or less to get correct consistency
- 1 pound Powdered Sugar 3 3/4 cups
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a half sheet cake pan or a 9×13 cake pan.
- Combine flour, sugar, and baking soda in mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl place butter and peanut butter pour 1 cup boiling water over butters, stir until butter is melted and everything has come together to make a runny peanut butter slurry.
- Slowly add peanut butter mixture to the dry ingredients (or vise verse) mix until combined. Add in sour cream and vanilla continue to mix.
- Whisk eggs together and add to batter combine until batter is smooth. Scrape bowl and mix on medium speed for a few second longer. Pour cake batter into prepared cake pan.
- Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when poked in center.
Peanut Butter Frosting
- Measure out milk and add vanilla to the milk.
- Whip butter and peanut butter together until smooth and fluffy
- Gradually add in powdered sugar alternating with wet ingredients (vanilla and milk). Whip until frosting is fluffy and smooth.
I love recipes like this. A quick little cake you can bake up when you have a house full, which I happen to have right now! Looks wonderful.
Well I hope you are able to try it out on them!
My family will say the problem is me. “It takes you FOREVER to eat!” has been hear more than I care to admit. When I had teenagers the rule was nobody could leave while someone was still eating. It was always me. The other rule was no dessert until everyone was ready for dessert. I have a lot to answer for, I know. I still eat slowly.
Maybe if I had this cake to look at during dinner I’d be faster.