This peanut butter cake is the perfect recipe for true peanut butter lovers! Layers of moist and tender cake with the perfect peanut butter flavor and creamy peanut butter frosting – it’s surprisingly not too sweet and loaded with peanut butter.

**This post was updated October 1, 2024 with new photos and recipe tips**

The Best Peanut Butter Cake Recipe

I’ve been working on the perfect peanut butter cake recipe for years – and I can finally say that the recipe is perfected. It’s extremely moist and tender with cake crumb that’s soft and slightly dense, without being heavy. The flavor packs a serious peanut butter punch because the cake is made with peanut butter in the batter and it’s topped with peanut butter frosting.

To ensure that it didn’t end up too sweet, the frosting has just a touch of cream cheese to cut the sweetness and make the frosting extra creamy. Alternatively, you could frost the cake with chocolate frosting – but I love the double dose of peanut butter.

After testing and retesting, I found that peanut butter can really dry out the cake and make it too dense – since peanut butter is very heavy. To ensure that the cake is moist and tender, but still with enough of a peanut butter flavor, there’s 3 important components to this recipe:

1. We’re using oil instead of butter. Since oil is liquid and room temperature (instead of butter, which is solid) it ensures that the cake isn’t too dense. It also adds more moisture. You won’t taste the oil at all, since the peanut butter covers it up.
2. The right ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients – otherwise the cake is too dry. Be sure to measure the flour carefully as too much flour ends with a dry cake.
3. Mix in the dry ingredients and wet ingredients by hand with a wire whisk. Over mixing will make the batter tough.

Making the Cake – Step by Step Photos

To ensure success – I recommend reading through the details and explanation of each step below. If you’ve made this cake multiple times, then feel free to skip straight down below to the recipe.

1. Start by preheating the oven to 350F (180C) and preparing your pans. You’ll line the bottom of your pans with rounds of parchment paper then lightly grease the sides.
   • I do not recommend using the convection setting on your oven for this recipe as I find the cake layers are less likely to have domed tops.
2. To get started, first you’ll whisk together the dry ingredients. I almost always do this first when making a cake because it ensures that the leaveners (baking soda and baking powder) are evenly distributed and helps to remove any lumps.
3. Then in a separate large bowl you’ll beat together the oil, light brown sugar and peanut butter until smooth. This can easily be done by hand too if you want to avoid your electric mixer altogether. If you don’t have light brown sugar you can also substitute with a combination of dark brown sugar and granulated sugar. I’ve included the details in the recipe notes below.

4. Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract. The eggs add tenderness and also help the cake to rise. Be sure to keep whisking until you no longer see pieces of egg.
5. Then whisk the milk into the peanut butter mixture. At this point – the mixture will smooth and thin.

6. Carefully, whisk the flour mixture into the peanut butter mixture. I do this about 1/2 at a time. Whisk until you no longer see lumps of flour, but do not continue whisking as overmixing with cause the cake to become tough and air tunnels to form. Again – do this by hand. If you notice lumps of flour, I recommend sifting the dry ingredients into the batter. 
7. Divide the batter evenly between 2 prepared cake pans, and then they’ll go in the oven to bake.

Pan Sizes and Bake Times: I used two 8-inch round pans with 2 inch sides ( 20-cm round with 5-cm sides). They bake for about 28-34 minutes at 350F. If you only have sandwich tins with low sides (about 1.5 inches) – then use three 8-inch round pans. They’ll need about 22-26 minutes. Alternatively, you could use two 9-inch (23-cm) pans. They’ll need about 22-26 minutes to bake.

For Flat Cake Tops: I use cake strips which are soaked in water and then wrap around the outsides of your sandwich tins. They help prevent the cakes from baking with domed tops. They can be purchased online or at a specialty cake shop. Mine are from Wilton.

Frosting & Assembling the Cake

The frosting for this peanut butter layer cake is a creamy peanut butter frosting with just a hint of cream cheese. There isn’t enough cream cheese for that super tangy flavor. But it’s enough to cut the sweetness. If you want to skip the cream cheese, feel free to substitute with more butter.

To assemble the cake, always wait for the cake layers to cool fully. If the top of your cake layers are domed, gently saw off the rounded top using a serrated knife (again, only do this after they’ve cooled). This ensures that your cake layers site evenly on top of each other.

Place the first layer bottom side up on the plate or cake stand that you plan to serve it on. You’ll frost the top with about 3/4 to 1 cup of frosting. Then place the second cake layer, bottom side up, on top. I do a thin layer of frosting around the edges to seal in any crumbs then pop the cake in the fridge for about 20 minutes for the frosting to firm up and fully “seal” those crumbs in.

Then frost the sides and top with swirls of creamy frosting. This cake stands tall, tastes incredible and makes the perfect birthday cake for anyone who loves peanut butter. I topped mine with chopped peanut butter cups – but Reese’s pieces would be equally delicious.

For more layer cakes, be sure to check  out:

• Classic Birthday Cake – this is a moist yellow cake with creamy chocolate frosting
• Chocolate Layer Cake
• Strawberry Cake
• Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting