Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

This Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting takes our favorite flavor pairing and serves it up in cake form. Tender, moist chocolate cake is frosted with rich peanut butter frosting, and then the entire thing is covered in chocolate ganache. Talk about a decadent cake!

Cake is always a great idea, isn’t it? We certainly think so. From simple sheet cakes to fancy, tiered affairs, we’ve made all kinds of cakes. They’re just so good. They’re also pretty darn fun to make. We love to watch all the flavors and ingredients come together as we construct a finished product that we know is going to be so good.

That’s exactly how we feel about our chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. It takes two classic flavors and combines them into the combination that we all know and love, then puts them into the tasty dessert that we all love – cake! This is one of our absolute favorite cake recipes, and we’re excited to share it with all of you today.

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

This cake is just what the name says. It’s chocolate cake frosted with delicious peanut butter frosting, but it’s so much more than that. Three layers of rich, moist chocolate cake are covered in a layer of smooth peanut butter frosting. That alone makes for a delicious cake, but we took it one step further. We covered the entire thing in chocolate ganache and then topped that with swirls of even more peanut butter frosting.

It’s an absolutely decadent cake that will satisfy anyone’s sweet tooth with its rich, sweet flavors. It’s three layers of chocolaty peanut butter Heaven, and you’ll love every bite.

Ingredients

This cake is completely from scratch, so there are several ingredients to it. That being said, the majority of them are kitchen staples like flour, sugar, and baking powder. They’re things that most of you have in your kitchen already. If there are any ingredients you don’t have, they’re readily available at your local grocery store!

For the Chocolate Cake

• All-purpose flour
• Granulated sugar
• Cocoa
• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Milk
• Vegetable oil
• Vanilla
• Eggs
• Hot water

For the Peanut Butter Frosting

• Butter, room temperature
• Peanut Butter
• Powdered sugar
• Milk

For the Chocolate Ganache

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Heavy whipping cream
• Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups

So, as you can see there are several ingredients to this cake, but we’ve broken them down into what they’re used for. When done this way, you can see that each part of this cake only has a few ingredients. It’s not quite as daunting when you realize that important fact.

Making Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

You might think that this is a complicated recipe when you look at the ingredient list, but it’s actually quite simple to make. In fact, it only takes four steps to make the cake itself, which is usually the most labor-intensive part of any cake. We feel confident in saying that this is a from-scratch cake recipe that anyone can make relatively easily.

You’ll find the complete recipe along with amounts and times in the recipe card below, but the overview below, which covers the cake, frosting, ganache, and construction, will give you an excellent idea of how easy this recipe is to make.

For the Chocolate Cake

• Preheat the oven. Spray three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
• Sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.
• Combine milk, vegetable oio, vanilla, and eggs.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, then add the hot water and mix.
• Equally divide cake batter into the three pans and bake.

For the Peanut Butter Frosting

• Cream butter and peanut butter together in a large mixing bowl.
• slowly add powdered sugar a cup at a time until the frosting is formed.

For the Chocolate Ganache

• Add semi-sweet chocolate chips to a small mixing bowl.
• Microwave heavy whipping cream for about a minute.
• Pour the hot heavy whipping cream over the chocolate chips and let sit for about a minute.
• Stir until the chocolate is melted and completely combined.
• Pour into a small, squeezable plastic bottle.

Putting it All Together

• Let cakes completely cool and then frost, adding a layer of frosting betwen each cake and then all around the outside and top.
• Using your squeezable plastic bottle, drizzle the chocolate ganache down the sides of the cake.
• Spread more chocolate ganache over the to of the cake.
• Using a pastry bag and star piping tip, make eight swirls along the outer edge of the top of the cake.
• Decorate with Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups

And there you have it. Chocolat cake with peanut butter frosting. When you break this recipe up into steps, you can see that it’s really not as hard as it might look at first glance. In fact, this is actually a cake that even beginners can make.

Tips

With a cake this pretty and delicious, you want it to come out as perfectly as possible. These tips will help you make the best cake possible with minimal bumps in the road, so be sure to read them over.

Room Temperature Eggs

It’s important to use room temperature eggs when baking. Eggs that are at room temperature combine better with the other ingredients in the batter, and they allow the batter to become more fluffy and light. It’s a small thing, but it can make a big difference.

Room Temperature Butter

For this dessert it is incredibly important that your butter is fully softened to room temperature before you make your peanut butter frosting. When at room temperature, your butter will cream together wonderfully, creating a nice, fluffy base for your frosting. If your butter is not fully softened, you could end up with frosting that has little chunks of butter in it.

Let the Cake Cool

Let your cake cool completely before frosting. We know it can be hard to wait, but if your cake is even a little bit warm, the frosting won’t stick to it. Rather than having a frosted cake, you’ll have a mess of frosting around your cake because the heat will simply make the batter slide right off the cake.

Serving Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

All you need to serve up this cake is a glass of milk or a cup of coffee. We wouldn’t even pair this with ice cream. It’s so sweet already, it would be overkill. Now let’s talk about where to serve it.

This chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting has such classic flavors you can serve it for almost any occasion. It’s perfect for a special dessert. It’s also a great idea for birthday parties, a dessert or potlucks, or a sweet addition to any holiday table. There’s really never a bad time or place to serve this cake!

Storing Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

This cake will keep well in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for up to four days. Do not leave it on the counter. The frosting is made with heavy cream, and dairy should always be refrigerated. For longer storage, you can freeze this cake for up to a couple of months in an air-tight, freezer-safe container.

You Need Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

This chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting is so rich and delicious, you need it in your life. We know, we know. Twist your arm, right? Seriously, though. This chocolate cake is so rich and moist, and the peanut butter frosting is decadently smooth and sweet. When you put them together, you get a dessert that will blow everyone away. Give it a try. You’re going to love it.

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