Reese’s Toast Cake with the Best Peanut Butter Frosting

by Courtney Rich

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You are going to love this fluffy white cake with peanut butter buttercream, chocolate ganache, and peanut butter toast crunch. It’s my Reese’s Toast Cake and I have a feeling I’ll see it on your dinner table this weekend!

What is Reese’s Toast Cake?

As commedian and social media content creator Elyse Myers would say:

“Great question. I’d love to tell you.”

Reese’s Toast Cake is made up of the best white cake recipe from scratch you’ll ever try, plus peanut butter buttercream, chocolate ganache and an insanely delicious and addictive peanut butter toast crunch topping!

All of this deliciousness was inspired by a simple breakfast treat Elyse Myers made one morning on Instagram.

CHECK OUT HER VIDEO HERE.

Simple, yet delicious, right?

One of our IG community friends tagged me in that post, saying: “cake inspo?”

To which I responded, “absolutely!”

And I got to work…

The Best White Cake From Scratch

This white cake recipe is incredibly fluffy and so delicious. You’re going to love using it as the base of so many cakes.

The key to getting this light and fluffy texture? Let’s walk through them:

  • Use room temperature ingredients: you hear me say this with every post, and it’s because this tip is SO IMPORTANT. To help get really tender and fluffy cake layers, you have to use ROOM TEMPERATURE ingredients. Not even the slightest bit cold. Why? Room temperature ingredients better blend together (you should see that the butter, sugar and eggs create a silky and smooth texture once you’re done mixing those ingredients for the given time) AND the dry ingredients better absorb the wet ingredients when they’re room temp (which creates a more even, higher rise in the layers).
  • Start with medium-high speed: When you start making your batter, it’s critical that you are mixing your butter, sugar, and eggs long enough and at a high enough speed. I recommend 6-8 on your Kitchen Aid. You’ll start by mixing the butter and the sugar until the texture is light and fluffy (you should not see any clumps of butter at this point). Then, you’ll start adding your egg whites (or whole eggs, depending on the recipe). Mix well between additions, and THEN, after all the eggs are added, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and continue to mix on medium to high speed for another 3-ish minutes. You’re looking for the texture of the mixture to get silky smooth, and the color should appear lighter than when you started. I even notice the volume increases at this point.

Peanut Butter Buttercream / Frosting

As many of you know, this peanut butter buttercream is what dreams are made of. Good luck not eating half the batch as you make it!

Make sure you have your favorite smooth peanut butter on hand (I like Skippy), some heavy whipping cream, unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt.

You’ll love how easy this peanut butter frosting recipe is to make.

Peanut Butter Toast Crunch

This is where things get special and your life will change. PEANUT BUTTER TOAST CRUNCH!

To make this crumble topping, I adapted Christina Tosi’s technique for making some of her fillings. Once you learn the basics of this, you’ll be able to adapt it for so many cakes and flavors.

How to Make Peanut Butter Toast Crunch
  • Toast white bread – I actually double-toasted mine to get it nice and crunchy, but not burnt.
  • Process the toast in a food processor – you’re creating fine crumbs but also want some larger toasted bread pieces.
  • Combine the toast crumbs with milk powder, brown sugar, and melted butter.
  • Bake the mixture for about 20 minutes – making sure to toss and mix the crumbs halfway through to get an even bake
  • Cover the toasted crumb mixture with Reese’s peanut butter baking chips (you WANT these chips because the flavor is so much better than any other peanut butter chip.
  • Toss with a little more milk powder
  • Let cool

Cake Assembly

As you decorate this simple 9-inch x 13-inch cake, cover it generously with the crunch topping. You’re going to want as much of that in each bite as possible. You’ll then drizzle chocolate ganache over the top, again – generously 🙂

I also sprinkled some Reese’s Pieces over the cake, but that’s totally optional.

Other Peanut Butter DessertsYou’ll Love

Reese’s Toast Cake

5 from 7 votes
Fluffy white cake with a whipped peanut butter buttercream, peanut butter toast crunch, and chocolate ganache.
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Ingredients
 

FOR THE CAKE

  • 3 cups (345 g) cake flour
  • 1 tbsp. (10 g) baking powder
  • 1 tsp. (6 g) salt
  • 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 3/4 cups (350 g) granulated sugar
  • 6 large egg whites, room temperature
  • 1 tbsp. (13 g) vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (360 g) buttermilk, room temperature

FOR THE PEANUT BUTTER TOAST CRUNCH

  • 4 slices (100 – 110g) white bread
  • 2 tbsp. (25 g) brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup (94 g) milk powder, divided
  • 4 tbsp (56.5 g) unsalted butter, melted
  • 5 ounces Reese's peanut butter baking chips

FOR THE BUTTERCREAM

  • 1 1/2 cups (339 g) unsalted butter, slightly cold
  • 1 cup (250 g) peanut butter
  • 5 cups (626 g) powdered sugar, measured and then sifted
  • 1 tbsp (13 g) vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup (57.75 g) heavy cream
  • 1/2 tsp (3 g) salt

FOR THE GANACHE

  • 1/2 cup (85 g) dark chocolate chips
  • ½ cup (120 g) heavy whipping cream

Instructions
 

FOR THE CAKE

  • Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 9" x 13" cake pan with nonstick spray. Optional, line the bottom with parchment paper and spray again if you want to remove the cake before decorating the top.
  • In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  • In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and the sugar for 3 to 5 minutes on medium-high speed, until the texture is light and fluffy.
  • Scrape down the sides of the bowl and begin to add the egg whites on medium speed, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl between addition. Once all of the egg whites are added, turn the mixer back to medium-high speed and beat for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. The texture should be smooth and the color should look lighter than when you started. Stir in the vanilla.
  • With the mixer on low speed, add ⅓ of the flour mixture, followed by ½ of the buttermilk. Repeat the additions, ⅓ flour mixture, ½ buttermilk and the final ⅓ flour mixture. Only mix until the flour mixture is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix again for another 20 to 30 seconds on low.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it. Let cool in the pans for about 15 minutes and then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely. (Tip: spray your wire cooling racks with nonstick spray).

FOR THE CRUNCH TOPPING

  • Preheat your oven to 275 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
  • Toast the bread until it is golden brown and crispy. Process the toasted bread in a food processor to create fine crumbs and chunks of toast.
  • In a medium bowl, combine the toast crumbs, ½ cup milk powder, and brown sugar. Toss to mix.
  • Pour melted butter over the mixture and toss to coat.
  • Spread the mixture over the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, stirring the mixture half way.
  • Melt the peanut butter chips in the microwave and then pour the melted peanut butter chips over the toast crumb mixture. The crumb mixture should be coated well with the peanut butter chips.
  • Sprinkle in the remaining milk powder over the crumbs and toss to mix. Spread the mixture onto parchment paper to cool completely.

FOR THE BUTTERCREAM

  • In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and peanut butter for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy and pale in color.
  • With the mixer on slow, gradually add the powdered sugar, followed by the heavy cream, vanilla, and pinch of salt.
  • Once all of the ingredients are combined, turn the mixer to medium-high and beat for about 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for a couple minutes more.
  • Before using the buttercream, make sure to beat it by hand with a wooden spoon or large spatula to help push out the air pockets.

For the Ganache

  • Heat the cream and the chocolate chips in the microwave until melted. Stir until smooth. Let cool to room temperature before using on the cake.

ASSEMBLY

  • Spread the peanut butter buttercream across the cake. Sprinkle generously with the peanut butter toast crunch. Drizzle with chocolate ganache
  • Reese's pieces, optional
Cuisine Cake
Course Dessert
Keyword classic white cake, Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter Buttercream, Vanilla CAke
Have you tried this recipe?
I’d love to see it! Follow @cakebycourtney on Instagram, take a photo and tag it with #cakebycourtney.

Courtney Rich

I’m a self-taught baker, obsessed with cake.

I long ago ditched box mixes in pursuit of melt-in-your-mouth, to-die-for flavor combinations, fillings and textures. I believe cake must be decadent, life-changing and worthy of celebration! And I believe anyone should be able to bake that kind of cake – and I’m here to teach you just that!

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Everything you need to know about decorating a cake like a pro!

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Comments

  1. Hi Courtney!
    I usually keep all my egg whites in a bowl in the fridge. Always have a ton on hand since I use yolks for other things hehe
    Just wanted to ask, is there a way to measure the egg whites on a scale to know how to get three egg whites out of that bowl?

    Thank you so much!

    Reply

    1. I’ve used carnation mostly because it’s what my store carries but I’m not picky about the brand. Either type will work.

      Reply