Peanut Butter Layer Cake

 I made this for my son's birthday cake back in September.  It was AMAZING!!  The cake itself was delish and so was the frosting.  A lot of times, a layer cake turns out dry and only the frosting is enjoyable.  Not this time! The cake alone was moist (lol) and tasty and the frosting was great too.  The author says using oil instead of butter makes a cake more moist, and she must be right, because this cake uses coconut oil and it's wonderful.  (I think you can use any oil).  The recipe uses natural PB, but I didn't have enough, so I used part natural and part.... un-natural. Lol! I have to say the frosting is really, really hard to spread, but so tasty.  The author recommends putting this recipe into a 9x13 and reducing the frosting. It would be way easier to spread that way.  I was going to try it that way before posting, but I never had time because fall is here and there's too many baked goods now anyways.  If I do try it that way I'll update here.

Btw: we ate this cake up so fast that I never even remembered to take a pic of a slice!!!  Lol!!

Peanut Butter Layer Cake
adapted from The Daring Gourmet

For the Cake:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup coconut oil (at room temperature) or oil of choice
⅓ cup smooth, natural, unsweetened peanut butter**
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Frosting:
1 cup smooth, natural, unsweetened peanut butter (I used part natural and part regular)**
½ cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered (confectioner's) sugar
up to ½ cup heavy cream or whole milk 

White or Regular Reese's mini PB cups, chopped, optional, for topping

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease 2, 8 or 9-inch round cake pans.  For better removal, grease, then line with waxed paper, grease again, then flour.  This ensures your cake will come out perfectly.  

2.  In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3.  In a large mixing bowl, add the peanut butter, oil, and brown sugar. Beat until combined and creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat just until combined.

4.  Alternately add the flour and buttermilk to the wet mixture, beating just until combined. Be careful not to over-beat or the cake will be dense and dry. A few small lumps of flour is fine.  Pour the batter into the pan.

5.  Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out moist, with a few crumbs.  (Not wet with batter but moist. If the toothpick is dry, the cake is over-baked and will be dry).

6.  Let the cakes sit in the pan for 5 minutes, then invert the cakes onto a wire rack to cool completely.

7.  In the meantime, to make the frosting, place the peanut butter and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat until smooth and creamy. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, continuing to beat. Add the heavy cream until you reach a spreadable consistency. (Note: This is a fairly stiff frosting and hard to spread, but it's so good!)

8.   Frost the bottom half of the cake and down the sides. Place the top layer of the cake, upside down, on top of the bottom layer. Frost the top layer and down the sides.  Optional: top frosted cake with chopped Reese's peanut butter cups (I used white chocolate ones.)

*For a little less work, you can bake the cake in a 9X13 cake pan as a sheet cake and make half the amount of frosting to go on top.  I haven't tried this yet, but will update when I do.*

--Update- I recently made this recipe and put it into a 9x13 pan and halved the frosting.  It was good but not as good as the layer cake!!  Still a good way to try this recipe, though. --

**I made this again using only regular peanut butter- Jif Natural, which really isn't natural because it contains added sugars and oils.  Anyway- the frosting was WAY easier to spread and it tasted just as good.  I'll probably use regular pb next time, at least in the frosting.**

**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **