I am a peanut butter junkie. No doubt about it. There can be no questions regarding this fact. The most difficult part of being pregnant was having to limit my peanut butter intake… I think I went through an entire jar in just a couple days after I delivered.
That being said, I am always on the look out for a good peanut butter cake recipe. I’ve found that it is hard to get a good PB flavor once it’s spread through out a cake. I’ve always used Jif before. I’m a bit of a peanut butter snob when it comes to that. It’s Jif or nothing for me.
Until I met P.B.Loco’s. My first exposure to this nirvana was through a jar a friend brought back for me from NYC. It was PB mixed with dark chocolate. Pure. Heaven. I ate it out of the jar with a spoon… so did my hubby.
Needless to say the jar did not last long, so, being the internet junkie that I am, I promptly hit the net looking for a website, and naturally, they have one. I browsed around and signed up for their mailing list. When I first went to their site, the chocolate variety was not available so I left empty handed. A few weeks later, however, I got an email from them offering a free jar of their Dreamy Creamy when you I bought 3 other jars and this time they had the chocolate! Woohoo!
So, contrary to my usual snobbery, I’m going to try a cake I’ve made before with Jif (which had the previously mentioned small flavor) with P.B. Loco’s Dreamy Creamy!
Now before I go in to the differences between the cakes, I want to point out that when they are fresh out of the oven they both taste like a giant peanut butter cookie. It’s when they’ve cooled that the Jif looses most of it’s flavor…
The P.B.Loco PB cake was divine. I was, frankly, shocked at how much more PB you could taste. I took this cake to a friend’s cookout on Saturday and stupidly forgot to take a picture before we left the house.
This is all that remained by the time we got home…
Oh, the humanity! Such carnage!
It was a truly scrumptious cake, though, if I do say so myself. I think I’m going to try a PB&J cake to take to work on Monday….
**note** the recipe calls for a box yellow cake mix, but I used the recipe here, instead.
Peanut Butter Silk Cake
Prep: 15 min Bake: 38 min Cool: 1 hr 10 min Chill: 10 min 12 to 16 servings
1 pkg. Betty Crocker SuperMoist yellow cake mix
1 ¼ c. water
½ c creamy peanut butter
1/3 c vegetable oil
3 eggs
¼ c butter or margarine
¼ c packed brown sugar
1 c heavy whipping cream
½ c creamy peanut butter
1 recipe Creamy Chocolate Frosting (see below)
1 c chopped peanuts, if desired
- Heat oven to 350°F. Generously grease bottoms only of 2 round pans, 8 or 9 x 1 ½ inches, with shortening.
- Make cake mix as directed on package, using water, ½ cup peanut butter, the oil and eggs. Pour into pans.
- Bake 30 to 38 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Run knife around side of pans to loosen cakes; remove from pans to wire rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
- Melt butter in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat; stir in brown sugar. Heat to boiling; boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat. Refrigerate 10 minutes.
- Beat whipping cream in chilled medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form; set aside. Beat ½ cup peanut butter and the brown sugar mixture in another medium bowl on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add whipped cream to peanut butter mixture; beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Split each cake layer horizontally to make 2 layers. Fill each layer with about 2/3 cup peanut butter mixture to within ½ inch of edge. Frost side and top of cake with frosting. Press chopped peanuts into frosting on side of cake. Store covered in refrigerator.
Creamy Chocolate Frosting
Prep: 15 min 12 to 16 servings, about 2 cups
3 c powdered sugar
1/3 c butter or margarine, softened
2 tsp vanilla
3 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
3 to 4 tablespoons milk
- Mix powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl with spoon or with electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and chocolate.
- Gradually beat in just enough milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar.
* Generously frosts a 13×9-inch cake, or fills and frosts an 8- or 9-inch two-layer cake.
Recipe from Betty Crocker’s Ultimate Cake Mix Cookbook