Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

This is one of my favorite dessert recipes, and I stumbled upon it by accident! I have drawers full of cooking magazines at home that I’ve acquired over the years, and one evening last year I felt like baking something delicious. My husband and I share a car, and that particular night he was out doing something, so the only ingredients I had were the ones in the pantry. I looked through a couple magazines ooing and ahhhing at cake after cookie only to look at the ingredients lists and see I didn’t have this or that. That’s when I found this cake recipe. It uses pretty normal ingredients that I almost always have on hand, so I tried it, and it was a big win.

I’ve made this cake in many different forms: a two layer round cake, cupcakes, and a bundt cake to name a few. Let’s be honest, I was trying to find the perfect cake to frosting ratio. These pictures are of my most recent attempt in the bundt pan, and it might be my favorite!! The amount of icing the recipe makes was perfect to liberally cover all the exposed surfaces of the bundt cake, and it turned out delicious as always.

The original recipe calls for 1 cup of room temperature brewed coffee, but I’m not a huge coffee fan. I used a scant cup of room temperature water instead and it worked perfectly. If you’re a coffee lover, try it with coffee and tell me how it is!!

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Cake
2 eggs

1 cup milk

2/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup baking cocoa

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup brewed coffee, room temp

Frosting

3oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp milk

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients; gradually beat into egg mixture until blended. Stir in coffee (batter will be very thin).

Pour into a greased bundt pan (or 9×13 or two 8in round pans, or cupcake pans). Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack. This cake rises A LOT so make sure there is plenty of room in the pan for that. If making cupcakes, only fill cups half full.

For the frosting, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter in a bowl until smooth. Beat in sugar, vanilla, and milk. I’ve found it helps to add 1 Tbsp of milk in between cups of powdered sugar and wait until the end for the 2nd Tbsp. That way you can make sure the icing isn’t too thin. (I don’t usually add all of the second tbsp of milk). Spread over cake. Sprinkle with miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips if desired. (I’ve never made it this way because I don’t keep chocolate chips on hand, but that sounds delicious and would look really cute too!!) Store in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake | Recipes

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Serving North Carolina & Beyond