Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake

Aug 26

The Recipe

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake – Peanut butter cake layers with homemade strawberry jam and peanut butter frosting.

For the Love of Peanut Butter

By now, you probably know my deep love for peanut butter. Correction – obsession for peanut butter would be more accurate! I could eat it with just about anything. Once, I even had it on a burger at Lucky 13 in Salt Lake. And it was so good! 

One of my favorite ways to enjoy peanut butter is in a traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich. My go-to method is with smooth Skippy peanut butter, strawberry jam and white bread. Hmmm. (I’m having flashbacks to my childhood just thinking about it). I never get tired of a PB&J sandwich! So, turning it into a cake was the obvious next move for me.

Recipe Testing

A couple years ago, I tried a couple peanut butter cake recipes, but wasn’t impressed with them. The recipes I tested came out dry and didn’t have enough peanut butter flavor. I decided to come up with my own recipe by combining ideas from others and adding a few things of my own. I’m so pleased with how the cake layers came out! 

To make sure the cake layers came out tender, I used cake flour. From the other recipes I tried, I noticed that all-purpose flour with the peanut butter created a cake that was too dense. In my recipe, I also use buttermilk, a generous serving of peanut butter and a teaspoon of cinnamon! Oh man! That cinnamon is a game changer. It’s just a hint but I think makes the cake what it is.

The cake is also moist with the perfect peanut butter flavor.

Filling and Frosting

For the filling, I use my mom’s homemade strawberry jam. There’s nothing else like it, if you ask me. If you don’t have homemade jam on hand, don’t worry. Your favorite store bought jam will work great too.

For my peanut butter frosting, I adapted one I already use and love from Annie Eats. Instead of whipping the cream and folding it in at the end, I just added a little cream at the end and whipped the frosting mixture like I usually do. It’s still creamy and smooth, and just as delicious – it just has a little more stability to it. 

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake

One bite of this cake and I think you’ll agree, it’s definitely a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in cake form! What could be better than that? Look at these layers!

I can’t wait for you to try it out! If you love peanut butter, you’re going to go nuts for this cake!

And here’s a quick look at how to assembly this cake:

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Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake

Prep

Cook

Inactive

Total

Yield One 3-layer, 8-inch cake

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake.

Peanut butter cake layers with strawberry jam and peanut butter frosting.

Ingredients

For the Peanut Butter Cake

  • 3 cups plus 3 tablespoons cake flour
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon coarse salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 4 eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
  • 4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Peanut Butter Frosting

  • 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, measured and then sifted
  • 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly chilled
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
  • Pinch of coarse salt

Seedless strawberry jam

Lightly salted peanuts, optional

Instructions

For the Peanut Butter Cake

  1. Preheat oven to 35o degrees F. Spray three 8-inch or four 6-inch pans with nonstick spray, line the bottoms with parchment paper and spray again. Set aside.  
  2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
  3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and peanut butter until creamy. Add in the sugar and mix on medium for about 3 minutes. 
  4. Decrease the speed to low and add in the vanilla and eggs, one at a time. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
  5. With the mixer on low, add in half of the flour mixture, then stream in the buttermilk and mix until incorporated. Add in the remaining flour and mix until combined. 
  6. Evenly divide the batter between the cake pans and bake for about 23 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes before removing the cakes from their pans.

For the Peanut Butter Frosting

  1. In the bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and peanut butter. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 45 seconds.
  2. Add the powdered  sugar to the bowl and mix in, slowly at first until incorporated, then increasing the mixer speed to high. Blend in the vanilla extract, salt and heavy whipping cream, and continue to whip on high speed until very fluffy, about 4-5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. 
  3. To remove air bubbles from the frosting, use a wooden spoon to stir and push out the air bubbles.

Assembly

  1. Place your first layer on the cake board. Spread about 1/2 cup of peanut butter frosting on the cake and then pipe a border of the peanut butter frosting around the edge to create a wall for the jam. Fill the center with about 1/2 cup strawberry jam and carefully spread it around. Don't add too much jam or the cake will be unstable as you continue to stack and frost.
  2. Place the second layer of cake on top of the first layer and repeat step one.
  3. Place the third layer of cake, bottom side up, on the second layer and spread a thin layer of frosting around the entire cake to create a crumb coat. Freeze the cake for 10 to 15 to set the crumb coat.
  4. After the crumb coat is set, continue to frost the cake with the remaining frosting. 
  5. If you use a cake board on top of the cake like I did in my video above, you'll want to freeze the cake again for another 20 to 30 minutes after you've frosted the sides and before you take the cake board off the top. This will ensure you get sharp edges when you cut it off with a knife. You'll then add frosting to the top of the cake after you've removed the cake board.

Notes

I added an extra half of the recipe and made three, 8-inch cake layers.

Courses Dessert

Cuisine Cake

7 thoughts on “Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake”

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  1. Hi Courtney,

    This looks delicious!! Do you remember about how many cups of batter this will yield? I am planning on trying a different pan size, possibly a 10″, and I know it would drastically change the volume. Thanks!!!

    Reply

  2. Hi Courtney, this cake looks like a dream come true. Could you please clarify the peanut butter frosting ingredients? The link to the recipe you adapted doesn’t work, and the recipe nor instructions does not state how much (one third of how many cups?) of heavy whipping cream is used. Thanks a bunch!

    Reply

  3. So, this recipe as written is for three layers? Also I was wondering how to adapt this for 3 9 inch pans? I am excited to try this for my daughter’s birthday!

    Reply

  4. Hi Courtney! I am so excited to get this cake in my Cake Club box next month! I wondered when you stack your cakes, do you always do the bottom 2 layers right side up and the top layer bottom side up? I am making 2 of your cakes (Vanilla and the PB Dream) for 2 friend’s special occasions this weekend! Thanks!

    Reply

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