My partner is a peanut butter fiend and requested a peanut butter cake for his birthday. I chose this one primarily because it had a frosting rather than an icing, it looked fairly simple, and it was different from other ones I'd made him in the past.
Notes:
- I halved the recipe and baked it in two nonstick loaf pans greased with butter to make a small rectangular layer cake, and baked them for about 25 minutes.
- I added vanilla extract to both the cake and the frosting because I love the combination of vanilla and peanut butter and I thought it would be weird without it.
- I used heavy cream instead of milk in the frosting, and I needed probably 3-4 times as much as it called for to get the right consistency.
- I decorated it with chopped mini peanut butter cups on the top. I feel like it would also be pretty with chocolate shavings. My partner bought Reese's Pieces for decoration too, but I didn't use them because I think their texture would be too hard for my liking unless they were chopped kind of small.
Verdict: I only had a small taste of it and thought it turned out well enough, though it was a little oily (especially the frosting) but lots of peanut butter desserts are and I'm not sure how much you can get away from that and still have a strong peanut butter taste. The frosting texture was a little strange and I might add butter or use a different frosting in the future, maybe the other one on this blog because I have loved it every time I've had it. But most importantly, my partner loved it so I would absolutely make it for him again.
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RECIPE: Peanut Butter Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting (Mary Beth Manville, The Southern Plate)
