I'm personally not a huge fan of peanut butter, but I do love baking with it. For people who love peanut butter, it seems that you can add it to any recipe and it makes it delicious. This cake is the perfect example of that!

This is essentially a double peanut butter cake - peanut butter buttercream and a peanut butter drip.

Cake Layers

These cake layers are a basic vanilla sponge, which is light and fluffy. It has vanilla extract is, so it tastes delicious. I wanted a nice, milder flavour cake so it doesn't take away from the peanut butter flavour.

This sponge recipe is my basic go-to cake recipe. It comes together in one bowl and bakes evenly and flat every time. These layers also stack really well, which makes building layer cakes with them really easy.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

This cake is filled with creamy peanut butter buttercream. It has dollops of peanut butter inside, and it's incredibly flavourful.

The buttercream sandwiches the cake layers together, and covers the whole cake. I am a huge believer in the more buttercream, the better!
Using smooth peanut butter means it mixes it perfectly with the icing sugar and butter, and spreads over the sponge layers smoothly.

I wouldn't advise using natural peanut butter here, because the consistency would affect the buttercream. It wouldn't be as easy to spread, and would be unlikely to hold together at all, so the cake layers may slide around.

Peanut Butter Drip

This cake is finished off with a peanut butter drip. It's just pure peanut butter, melted and dripped over the cake. It adds more peanut butter flavour, and adds a fancy element to the cake.

Peanut Topping

For some added texture, I added some chopped peanuts to the sides and the top of the cake. It adds a lovely crunch to each slice, and even more peanut-y flavour.

If you're a peanut butter fan, check out these peanut butter truffles, these peanut butter bars, and these Snickers cupcakes.

Peanut Butter Layer Cake

Yield: 12 slices 1x

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale

For the cake

320 g butter (room temperature)
320 g caster sugar
6 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
320 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

For the peanut buttercream

250 g butter (room temperature)
650 g icing sugar
200 g smooth peanut butter (not natural)

For the decoration

100 g smooth peanut butter
100 g peanuts (chopped)

Instructions

For the cake

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Grease and line three 6 inch circle cake tins
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter for 2 minutes until smooth
Add the caster sugar and beat until light and fluffy
Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and mix well
Fold in the flour and baking powder until combined
Divide the batter evenly between the cake tins
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown.;Leave the cakes to cool in their tins

For the peanut buttercream

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes
Add the peanut butter and beat in. Slowly mix in the icing sugar, Beat until well combined and fluffy

For the assembly

Remove the cakes from their tins.
Place a cake layer on a cake board. Spread some peanut buttercream over. Stack another cake layer on top. Repeat until all three layers of cake are stacked
Spread a layer of peanut buttercream on top and around the sides of the cake.;Add some crushed peanuts to the bottom of the cake

For the peanut butter drip

Melt the peanut butter in the microwave for 45 seconds
Drizzle the drip around the cake using a spoon, or a piping bag
With the remaining buttercream, fill a piping bag. Pipe around the edge of the top of the cake
If you have any remaining chopped peanuts, sprinkle these on top or in the centre of the cake