Reese's peanut butter cup meets cake! This chocolate layer cake with peanut butter buttercream is fudgy, decadent and you'll want to eat every last crumb. It's that good.
How This Cake Came To Be
If you could choose just one ingredient that you couldn’t live without, what would it be (…it’s a hard question I know...)?
For me, it would be peanut butter. Not just any peanut butter mind you, but a really good quality one, made just from peanuts – no extra salt, no preservatives and no sugar (just like this one or Pics - my store bought fav). I like to eat it straight from the jar – don’t tell anyone.
Chocolate of course comes in at a (very) close second place. I usually prefer dark chocolate, but really anything goes – milk, bittersweet, white, flavoured…all of it is good in my opinion.
So now that you know this about me, I’m sure you can imagine how obvious it was for me to create something that combined the two together. In this case, it’s in the form of cake.
About this cake
This is a strong, fudgy, ever-so-chocolately cake, filled with layers of creamy, mouth-watering peanut butter buttercream. I just want to type that again: peanut butter buttercream. How can it not taste good when the title alone repeats the word “butter’” twice? Butter, by the way would probably come third on my list.
If Reese’s peanut butter cups were a cake, this cake would be it. So if you’re a fan, it’s time to get baking. Even if you’re not a fan of peanut butter, I can’t possibly imagine how you couldn’t enjoy eating every last spoonful of this buttercream, I’m telling you – it’s good. BUT, if you’re allergic to nuts, or are you can’t bring yourself to eating peanut butter, you can fill this cake with any buttercream you like (like this creamy white chocolate buttercream or these other flavours.
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
Flour: Can be plain, all purpose or gluten free
Cocoa powder: Make sure it's nautral and not Dutch cocoa for this recipe
Baking powder and soda: For lift and rise
Salt: Brings flavour
Espresso powder/instant coffee: This increases the acidity of the cake (which helps it to set faster) and to enhance the chocolate flavour. You can’t taste the coffee at all, but if you’d like to taste it, just add more 🙂
Butter: For flavour and creaminess. Ensure it is at room temperature so that it creams well.
Eggs: Binds everything together
Vanilla Extract: Homemade or store bought
Buttermilk: Brings tanginess and also works with the baking soda to rise the cake
Brown and white sugar: for sweetness and moisture
Peanut butter buttercream Ingredients:
Butter: Softened
Peanut butter: use store bought for best results, not homemade
Vanilla: use best qaulity
Icing sugar: sift before use
Peanuts: optional but yummy for extra crunch!
How To Make This Cake:
- Sift together the dry ingredients. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter until it is creamy using a hand/stand mixer. Add the sugars and beat on low.
- Whisk eggs with extract in a small bowl and gradually add to the butter and sugar mixture, mixing until it is well combined. Be careful not to over-mix.
- Add the dry ingredients and buttermilk to the butter mixture. Mix to combine gently.
- Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour
How To Assemble This Cake
- To assemble, place one layer on a cake plate, cover with buttercream and top with another layer. Repeat this process with the third layer and top with more buttercream and any desired decorations.
To make Peanut Butter Buttercream
- Cream butter with a hand/stand mixer until creamy. Add peanut butter and vanilla and mix until combined. Sift in icing sugar, 1 cup at a time and mix until it is light and fluffy and you have the desired consistency.
Notes
Success Tips For The Best Chocolate Cake
For the perfect texture, you will need to ensure that you do a few things:
- You'll need to use brown sugar (as well as white sugar). It doesn’t need to be soft brown sugar, but does need to be brown to help give a fudgy, caramalised texture and flavour.
- Make sure to cream your butter and sugar extremely well to ensure a light and fluffy cake. Failing to do so will result in a dense cake.
- Be careful not to over mix. Alternating the flour mixture with the buttermilk helps to prevent too much gluten from forming (gluten forms when the proteins in flour meet water).
- You’ll notice that all measurements in the cake recipe use grams without the cup equivalents. This is because the weight measurements do not convert to exact cup measurements. Be sure you have your scales handy!
- Leave the cake to cool for at least 15 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack. Once completely cool, level the cake by cutting the top off and cut into layers.
How To Make This Cake In Advance
If you know you'll be short on time on the day of baking this cake and need to be extra prepared, here are some tips to help.
- Sift all dry ingredients and place in an air tight container, ready for baking day. This can be stored for 6 months!
- Make icing as per recipe. Place in a freezer bag/container and freeze for up to3 months. Bring to room temperature when ready to use and whip up again with a stand mixer.
- When you're ready to bake the cake, tip the prepared sifted ingredients into a bowl and follow the cake recipe as written. Once the cakes are cooled you can either frost and serve the cake or you can freeze the cake by wrapping it in plastic wrap several times to avoid freezer burn and freezing until you are ready to use.
Variations:
- This chocolate cake is made for a 7 inch (18cm) round cake tin. If you don’t have a 7 inch cake tin, this post explains how to adapt recipes for any size (round or square) cake tin that you have at home.
- If you have multiple 7" cake tins, divide the cake batter into three different tins and bake for 30 minutes each. This helps get them baked faster.
- Swap the peanut butter buttercream for any other favourite frosting.
Can this cake be made gluten free?
Yes! Simply substitute the plain flour with gluten free flour using a 1:1 ratio
Related
Chocolate Layer Cake With Peanut Butter Buttercream
Reese’s peanut butter cup meets cake. It’s fudgy, decadent and you’ll want to eat every last crumb!
Ingredients
CAKE INGREDIENTS
- 230 g plain flour
- 53 g natural cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon espresso powder
- 140 g butter
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 250 mls (1 cup) buttermilk
- 185 g light brown sugar
- 185 g granulated sugar
PEANUT BUTTER CREAM
- 230 g butter softened
- 230 g (1 cup) peanut butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 375 g – 500g (3-4 cups) icing sugar
- ¼ peanuts chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175C (350 F) and line one deep 7 inch cake tin.
- In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and coffee. Whisk well to combine and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter until it is creamy using a hand/stand mixer. Gradually add the sugars and beat on low until the mixture is light, fluffy and has an almost mousse-like texture (the time it takes to do this will depend on your mixer).
- Whisk eggs with extract in a small bowl and gradually add to the butter and sugar mixture, mixing until it is well combined. Be careful not to over-mix.
- Add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, alternating between the two and starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix to combine gently.
- Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour, or until it is springy to the touch and a tooth pick (when inserted) comes out clean.
- Leave the cake to cool for at least 15 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack. Once completely cool, level the cake by cutting the top off and cut into layers.
- To assemble, place one layer on a cake plate, cover with buttercream and top with another layer. Repeat this process with the third layer and top with more buttercream and any desired decorations.
To make Peanut Butter Buttercream
- Cream butter with a hand/stand mixer until creamy. Add peanut butter and vanilla and mix until combined. Sift in icing sugar, 1 cup at a time and mix until it is light and fluffy and you have the desired consistency.
