the best old-fashioned Peanut Butter Cake (with coffee buttercream)

This Peanut Butter Cake recipe is in partnership with Bob’s Red Mill, all opinions are our own.

This old-fashioned Peanut Butter Cake brings the best of creamy peanut butter and sweet cake together in an all-time family favorite! This homemade cake recipe comes together quickly and makes a good-sized sheet cake perfect for sharing. Paired with coffee frosting to accentuate the peanut butter flavor in the BEST way!

My son Levi will single-handedly consume a good half of this cake in a single day if I’m not careful. He loves loves this cake!

Not to say that the rest of us don’t think it’s super yummy, as well. He just REALLY loves it. A lot.

Evoking a bit of warmth, comfort, and childlikeness, this peanut butter cake provides the perfect bite of sweet, salty, and smooth all at the same time. Serve it with a glass of milk or coffee just like Grandma would have!

Every cake recipe I make starts with the very best ingredients. You all know, by now, that I’m a huge fan of Bob’s Red Mill and their organic All-Purpose Flour. Truly, great ingredients make great food.

Giant families rarely have time or budgets for pretty and delicate recipes. As the oldest of 10, I grew up thinking sheet cakes were the gold standards. Layer cakes weren’t something that presented themselves very often in my world. Sheet cakes or 9 by 13 cakes made appearances at almost every family event or function because they were budget-friendly and convenient for feeding large groups.

This peanut butter cake bakes up in a sheet cake just like those cakes I grew up with. This cake serves a lot of people, bakes up quickly, is easy to frost, and easy to transport. Plus….gobs of flavor just ooze out of it! For my family, this cake checks all the boxes.

That frosting has coffee in it! Not joking in the least. Espresso and peanut butter pair up brilliantly together to make the most flavorful punch in the mouth without tons of effort.

Trust me on this, a bit of coffee in your frosting (and the cake, too) punches up the peanut butter flavor to a new level.

All those good ingredients like Bob’s Red Mill flour, smooth peanut butter, and espresso combine into one silly stupid cake that gets you recipe requests everytime you make it.

I top it with crushed salted peanuts which adds yummy texture and delicious salted peanut goodness. Frankly, don’t skip the peanut toppings. You will thank me later!

If you come over to my house for the first time, I would pour you up a cup of hot coffee and serve you a piece of this cake. All the comfort, warmth, welcome, and love that I hope you feel in my home comes through in this cake.

When you don’t have buttermilk:

Stir together 1 cup of milk (as high of fat content milk as you have) with 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes to curdle & thicken. Use it as buttermilk in most baking recipes.

Peanut Butter Cake

| 12 servings

Prep Time | 15 minutes mins

Cook Time | 35 minutes mins

Total Time | 40 minutes mins

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the best old-fashioned Peanut Butter cake full of smooth creamy peanut butter flavor and coffee frosting that creates the BEST flavor combo!

Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose flour
• 1 cups white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup hot coffee
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 eggs room temperature
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Coffee Buttercream

• 2 sticks butter, softened unsalted
• 2 cups powdered sugar add up to an additional 1/2 cup until desired consistency is achieved
• 3 tablespoons strong coffee

Check out our Kitchen Reference Guide for help with unfamiliar terms.

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 
• Grease a 1/2 sheet pan or 9 by 13 cake pan.
• Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl.
• Whisk the coffee and butter together in a large bowl.
• Add peanut butter and oil to the coffee and butter, whisk until smooth.
• Add milk, vanilla, and eggs to the coffee mixture. Whisk well.
• Incorporate the dry ingredients a little at a time. Mix well.
• Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes for a sheet cake and 40 minutes for a 9 by 13 pan. Check for doneness with a toothpick or knife entered into the center that comes out clean.
• Frost with coffee buttercream and top with crushed salted peanuts.

Coffee Buttercream

• Beat the butter until light and fluffy. 
• Add the powdered sugar a bit at a time.
• Add the coffee until the desired consistency is achieved.

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Other homemade cakes you’ll love:

Lemon Sponge Cake with Rosemary Buttercream

Old-fashioned Brownie Cake