This Chocolate Peanut Butter Snack Cake is from Yossy Arefi's new book: Snacking Cakes and it's the perfect treat to make for the chocolate-peanut butter lovers in your life. Sweet, simple to make, and so indulgent!
If you're craving an extra rich, chocolatey peanut buttery cake and are intrigued by the idea of a thin layer of peanut butter glaze, then this cake was made for you. It's one of the moistest cakes I have ever made and it tastes amazing.
This cake comes from Yossy Arefi's new cookbook: Snacking Cakes, which comes out on October 27, 2020! Her book is full of low-effort easy-to-make snack cakes that require very little time, ingredients, or equipment; aka no stand mixer, no problem!
When I was flipping through her book looking for something to make (and admiring the BEAUTIFUL photography), I came across the recipe for this cake and immediately messaged her asking if I could share it. You see, if you're new here, I kind of have a thing for chocolate and peanut butter... it's a combination after my own heart.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Snack Cake
This cake is ridiculously easy to make and ridiculously delicious. It requires one bowl and is practically as easy as making a box mix!
In addition to that glorious peanut butter glaze, there's peanut butter in the cake itself as well. To amp up the peanut butter flavor, I added in ½ cup of peanut butter chips to the batter; totally optional but highly recommended!
The cake is suuuuper moist and has such an intense peanut butter flavor, and I mean that in the best way possible. You can use any brand of peanut butter in this recipe, just make sure you avoid the natural, unsweetened kind that has the oil on top and needs to be stirred; it'll make this cake extra oily.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Snack Cake Recipe Troubleshooting & FAQ
How do you store this chocolate peanut butter snack cake?
I recommend storing this snack cake in an airtight container at room temperature. It'll stay fresh for 3 days (assuming it lasts that long!).
Help! My cake is dry! What did I do wrong?
This cake is anything but dry! If yours turns out as such, you likely either added too much flour or you overbaked it! It could also be a combination of the two!
Help! My cake sunk in the middle! What did I do wrong?
A little bit of sinking when cooling is natural, but if the cake completely sinks to the point where the edges of the cake are higher than the middle, then something went wrong! It's possible that you underbaked the cake and removed it from the oven before the middle got a chance to finish baking. Adding too much leavener could also cause the cake to rapid rise while baking and then collapse while cooling.
Looking for more chocolate-peanut butter recipes?
Check these out!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Macarons
Peanut Butter Brown Sugar Layer Cake with Chocolate Fudge Buttercream
Copycat Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies
Butterfinger® Cookie Dough Bites
The instructions are for making this as an 8x8" cake, though Yossy also outlines how to make this as a 9" round or in a loaf pan in her book! Grab your copy asap!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Snack Cake
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake:
- 200 g light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 125 g creamy peanut butter
- 120 ml canola oil
- 120 ml whole milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ tsp coarse sea salt
- 45 g unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 128 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 120 ml hot coffee OR 120ml (½ cup) hot water + 1 tsp espresso powder
For the Peanut Butter Glaze:
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- pinch of fine sea salt
- 1-2 tbsp hot water
- 55 g chopped honey roasted peanuts
- flaky sea salt optional
Instructions
To Make the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray an 8×8-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar and eggs until pale and foamy, about 1 minute. Add the peanut butter, oil, milk, vanilla, and salt and whisk until well combined. Sift in the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.
- Add the flour, baking powder, and baking soda and whisk until combined and smooth. Add in the hot coffee/water mixture last and stir until combined and smooth.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and tap the pan firmly on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until the cake is puffed and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool for 15 minutes in the pan. Then remove the cake from the pan and set it on a cooling rack to cool completely before glazing.
To Make the Peanut Butter Glaze:
- In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, peanut butter, vanilla bean paste, salt, and 1 tablespoon of hot water until smooth. If the glaze is thick, add more water 1 teaspoon at a time, until it's smooth and pourable. (It took 2 tablespoons total for me).
- Spoon or pour the glaze over the cooled cake and sprinkle with the chopped peanuts and flaky salt, if using. Allow the glaze to set before slicing into the cake.
Notes
Nutrition
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Thank you so much for sharing!!