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This Peanut Butter Chocolate Layer Cake recipe is made with layers of moist chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting and chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups! It’s rich, delicious and so fun!
Peanut Butter & Chocolate Layer Cake
While taking some photos yesterday of a cake, I was reminded of something that the hubs regularly tells me and demonstrates through fearful looks my way – I am one photo away from seriously injuring myself. One of the tables, counters or chairs I stand on to get just the right angle will one day not cooperate the way I want and I will fall and either break the camera I’m holding or some part of my body. It’s bound to happen.
I have a three step stool that I use all the time for overhead shots or something that’s at a more dramatic angle than I can achieve just by standing. Yesterday, I was standing on that stool taking photos and teetered and tottered a bit while stepping down from the top stair. Then I was in the kitchen taking some photos and didn’t feel like walking to the other room to grab the step stool so I grabbed a chair. I stood on the seat and started to sit back on the back rest to get the angle I wanted and suddenly realized I was starting to tip backwards. Luckily I realized it before it was too late and caught my balance. I was dangerously close to falling back into the wall and onto the dog bowl stand (with sharp corners).
Who knew food blogging carried such job hazards?! Not to mention the extra calories that come along with it. 😉 I suppose it’s worth it when I share cakes like this one. I’m so in love with it!
How to Make Peanut Butter & Chocolate Layer Cake
The cake starts with moist, delicious layers of chocolate cake. I used my Easy Moist Chocolate Cake from a couple weeks ago in layered cake form. It truly is such a moist cake and so easy! You basically mix the dry ingredients, then wet ingredients, add them together, then add the hot water at the end. One of the quickest cake batters to make and hard to mess up.
Between the layers and covering the outside of the cake is a peanut butter frosting. On top of the frosting between the cake layers are also chopped Reese’s – every peanut butter and chocolate lovers favorite, am I right? They take the peanut butter flavor up a notch and I’m a fan.
After the cake is covered with frosting, ganache is drizzled down the sides and covers the top. The stripe pattern on the sides of the frosting creates a neat ripple effect in the drizzled ganache. Then I added more Reese’s and frosting – for good measure. 🙂 The final cake is not only delicious, it’s SO fun! I was in love with the look of it! If you’d like to recreate the same thing, check out the video just above the recipe to watch what I did.
You might also like:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Buckeye Cupcakes
Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cheesecakes
Reese’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Icebox Cake
Peanut Butter Truffle Chocolate Cake
Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse Cake
Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownie Layer Cake
Watch How To Make It
Peanut Butter Chocolate Layer Cake
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 47 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 Slices
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Peanut Butter Chocolate Layer Cake recipe is made with layers of moist chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting and chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups! It’s rich, delicious and so fun!
Ingredients
Chocolate cake
- 1 3/4 cups (228g) all purpose flour
- 2 cups (414g) sugar
- 3/4 cup (85g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup (240ml) milk
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup (240ml) hot water
Peanut butter frosting
- 2 cups (448g) salted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups (350g) peanut butter
- 9 cups (1035g) powdered sugar
- 6–7 tbsp (90-105ml) water or milk
- 6 reeses, chopped
Chocolate ganache and topping
- 6 oz (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy whipping cream
- 8 reeses, cut in half
- Crumbled reeses
Instructions
For the chocolate cake layers
- Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C) and prepare three 8 inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray and parchment paper in the bottom.
- Add the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt to a large mixer bowl and combine. Set aside.
- Add the milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and eggs to a medium sized bowl and combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat until well combined.
- Slowly add the hot water to the batter and mix on low speed until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is well combined.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
- Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
To make the frosting
- Combine the butter and peanut butter in a large mixer bowl and mix until well combined.
- Add about half of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
- Add 3 tablespoons of water or milk and mix until smooth.
- Add remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
- Add remaining water or milk and mix until smooth, keeping an eye on the consistency of the frosting so it doesn’t get too thin.
To build the cake
- Use a large serrated knife to remove the tops of the cake layers so that they’re flat. See my tips on how to level a cake and how to stack a cake.
- Place the first cake layer on a serving plate or cardboard cake circle and top with about 1 cup of frosting. Smooth frosting into an even layer.
- Add about half of the chopped Reese’s on top of the frosting and press into the frosting. Spread a small amount of frosting on top of the Reese’s so that it’s sticky on top for the next cake layer.
- Add the next cake layer and top with about 1 cup of frosting. Smooth frosting into an even layer.
- Add remaining half of the chopped Reese’s on top of the frosting and press into the frosting. Spread a small amount of frosting on top of the Reese’s so that it’s sticky on top for the next cake layer.
- Add the final cake layer to the top of the cake.
- Smooth out the frosting on the sides of the cake, creating a thin crumb coat.
- Add about 1 cup of frosting to the top of the cake and smooth into an even layer.
- Frost the cake using my tutorial for a smooth cake. Stop just before using the paper towel, which won’t be necessary with the pattern on the sides of this cake.
- Use an offset spatula to create the stripes around the cake. For guidance, see the video above starting at about 1:40.
- Set the cake aside and make the chocolate ganache (see my tips for making chocolate ganache).
Make the ganache and decorate
- Put the chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl.
- Microwave the heavy whipping cream until it just begins to boil, then pour it over the chocolate chips. Allow it to sit for 2-3 minutes, then whisk until smooth.
- Use a squeeze bottle or a spoon to drizzle the chocolate around the edges of the cake, then fill in the top of the cake and smooth it with an offset spatula. See my tips for making a chocolate drip cake.
- Allow the ganache to firm a bit, about 10 minutes, then top with swirls of the remaining frosting. Use a piping bag fitted with a closed star tip. I used Ateco tip 844, but Wilton 2D or 1M would work as well. Then top with additional Reese’s chopped in half, and Reese’s crumbles.
- Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve. Serve at room temperature. Cake is best for 3-4 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice
- Calories: 1097
- Sugar: 112.1 g
- Sodium: 774 mg
- Fat: 61.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 133.4 g
- Protein: 13.9 g
- Cholesterol: 109.8 mg
Enjoy!
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Lovely tasty cake! I really didn’t want leftover frosting and my family loves peanut butter, so I cut the butter back to 1 ½ c (3 sticks) and used 2 pounds (1 bag) of powdered sugar, keeping the peanut butter amount the same. This gave me the perfect amount of frosting that was still delicately flavored. The cake layers were very moist with wet tops so I didn’t attempt to level them, instead just inverting them right onto the cake from the pans (once completely loosened) which worked great.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I made this cake for a potluck at my church and it was gone in no time! Had several wonderful compliments. Thank you!
Awesome! So glad to hear that!
I have never added water to batter St end, made a very watery dough. And still coming out wet with toothpick after 30 min!
can i make this in a 6×3 pan?
how many layers would the one recipe give me- would i need 4 pans vs 2?
would u change the cooking time or temp?
Yes, you could make it as a 6 inch cake. It would be fairly tall if you used the full recipe. In that case, I would probably use three or four layers. If you want to cut the recipe in half and have it not be as tall, you could make two or three layers.
Hi there. Besides leaving out the cocoa powder would I need to change anything else to make it a white cake
It’s not necessarily that simple of a swap. My vanilla version of this cake can be found as the cake layers in this cake recipe. Note that it doesn’t use baking soda, but instead uses baking powder. I hope that helps!
I love the taste of this cake, but I have made it twice now and my frosting doesn’t stick to my cake. What am I doing wrong?
It sounds like the buttercream is a little too dry, which happens really easily with peanut butter buttercream. You just need to add additional cream/milk/water (whatever you’re using) at the end until it’s the right consistency (here’s a blog post that talks about buttercream consistency). You could also reduce the powdered sugar just a touch. I’m glad you’re enjoying the cake!
This is the best chocolate cake I have ever made!
Can the flour be substituted with gluten free flour?
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I haven’t tried it with gluten free flour, but I imagine it would be fine.
This cake is so easy to make .. Excellent .. LOVE IT!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
The cake was a huge hit with all my guests at a birthday party I hosted. It was flavorful, moist and incredibly beautiful! Made it exactly to the recipe instructions and I gave it a 4 not 5 stars due to the cake being so fragile, it stuck to the pans around the edges and was falling apart as I frosted outside. I saved it by frosting in layers and putting it in fridge in between.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! As for it being fragile, this one is actually less fragile than my original chocolate cake, LOL. I’m not sure how you prepared your cake pan, but the parchment paper in the bottom really helps the cake to release from the pan, as does the baking spray around the sides. Maybe give that a try next time, if you didn’t this time.
To keep anything from sticking to pans mix equal amounts of flour, oil, and shortening. Mix well. I keep mine in the refrigerator because I like the consistency, but you really don’t need to. I’ve been usingvth8s for 45 years, I even use it in cheese casseroles!