Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
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Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake is topped with rich peanut butter icing, chocolate peanut butter cups, and salted peanuts. It's the perfect cake for peanut-butter lovers!
Made-from-Scratch Flavor!
Do you have a favorite candy bar? Mine is anything made with peanuts and chocolate. That's why Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake is my favorite dessert.
It has a whole lotta peanut action going on!
When you take a bite of this cake, you'll notice how dense and moist it is. Next, your taste buds will flip out the minute you taste the topping.
It's truly an explosion of flavor. Plus, everything's made from scratch...which means there are no additives or preservatives, so it's better for you.
Ingredients
See recipe card for exact quantities.
- butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, buttermilk
- all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda
- half & half
- peanut butter
- powdered sugar
- salted peanuts
- chocolate peanut butter cups (Reese's unwrapped) ad
How to Make Peanut Butter Cake
1 - With an electric mixer, blend butter until creamy. Add sugar and mix until blended. Add eggs and mix until just blended. Stir in vanilla.
2 - Mix water and buttermilk together. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda together. Alternate adding dry ingredients and wet ingredients with contents in mixing bowl until well blended.
3 - Pour batter into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish or pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes back clean when inserted in middle of cake. Cool cake while making frosting.
How to Make Peanut Butter Frosting
1 - To make the peanut butter frosting, melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Stir in half & half and bring to a boil. Take off heat and stir in peanut butter until creamy.
2 - Pour into a mixing bowl and add powdered sugar gradually while mixing at medium-low speed. Add vanilla and stir well.
3 - Pour icing over sheet cake. Sprinkle salted peanuts and chopped peanut butter cups (ad) over top of cake.
Storage Ideas
I've found that storing Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake in the refrigerator in an airtight container makes it even more moist than you can imagine. The candy topping hardens, but thaws out nicely when it's time to be served.
Take it out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for about an hour before serving. This comes in handy if you're making this recipe to take to dinner elsewhere. You can make it ahead of time and keep it in the fridge until ready to travel. Now, that's pretty snazzy!
Customize It!
- Leave off the peanuts and use another nut instead like pecans or walnuts.
- Add butterscotch chips to the top of the cake after icing.
- Sprinkle the entire cake with a little bit of sea salt for added flavor.
- Make fudge instead! This 2 Ingredient Peanut Butter Fudge recipe is smooth and creamy.
Tips for Success
- Make sure to mix wet and dry ingredients separately for best results.
- Use a hand or stand mixer to make the icing so there won't be any lumps.
- Take care not to over-stir the batter so the cake will be fluffy.
Recipe Card
Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
*See notes in blog post for detailed tips, photos and instructions.
Ingredients
CHOCOLATE CAKE
- 2 sticks butter softened
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING
- 4 Tbsp. butter
- ¾ cup half & half
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 16 oz. powdered sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
TOPPING
- 1 cup salted peanuts
- 1 cup chocolate peanut butter cups chopped
Instructions
CAKE
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a mixing bowl, blend butter until creamy with an electric mixer. Add sugar and mix until blended.
- Add eggs and mix until just blended. Stir in vanilla.
- Mix water and buttermilk together. (wet ingredients)
- In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda together. (dry ingredients)
- Alternate adding dry ingredients and wet ingredients with contents in mixing bowl until well blended. Beat at low speed.
- Pour batter into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish (ad) or pan that has been greased and floured. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes back clean when inserted in middle of cake.
- Cool cake while making frosting.
PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING
- Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat.
- Stir in half & half and bring to a boil.
- Take off heat and stir in peanut butter until creamy.
- Pour into a mixing bowl and add powdered sugar gradually while mixing at medium-low speed.
- Add vanilla and stir well.
- Pour icing over sheet cake.
TOPPING
- Sprinkle salted peanuts and chopped peanut butter cups over top of cake.
Notes
- Use Reese's Chocolate Peanut Butter cups (ad) that are unwrapped. It's much easier to chop these when you don't have to unwrap them.
Nutrition
Nutrition info is an auto generated estimate.
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Thanks for sharing your goof up with everyone. It helps to know I’m not the only one who can destroy a perfectly good cake. Glad you figured out a way to save it!
Yeah, I definitely mess up from time to time. Cooking is a lifelong learning process, isn't it?
This sounds yummy!!
Thanks! It's definitely rich, but so delicious. 🙂
I can’t wait to make it!!
Cool beans! I can't wait to hear how it turns out. 🙂
This has Jerry’s name all over it! I can’t wait to make it!!
Awesome! Invite me over! 🙂