Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cake

Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cake is a good old Southern potluck staple that’s reached cult status. The hot peanutty frosting gets poured right onto the warm cake, and the whole thing gets showered with roasted peanuts. Just divine.

This old fashioned peanut butter cake is a winner!

In case you’ve ever wondered, the ratio of attempted recipes to those that actually make it onto the blog is about 3 to 1. That’s to say that for every winner there are a few losers. Today’s lucky winner is an amazing peanut butter cake that has been taunting me from a magazine clipping on my refrigerator door for months. I finally tackled it and now I’m a happy girl.

I can’t imagine there are too many of you out there who wouldn’t enjoy this old fashioned sheet cake. I loved everything about it. Starting with the cake itself, peanut butter does something wonderful to the texture. It’s not too sweet, just the way I like it, and very pillowy and moist.

gather your ingredients:

• all purpose flour
• granulated sugar
• peanut butter ~ I love Jiff for its flavor and texture
• butter
• eggs
• vegetable oil
• buttermilk ~ the buttermilk in the cake and in the frosting gives this cake its Southern charm.
• confectioner’s sugar
• baking soda, salt
• vanilla extract
• crushed peanuts

The hot peanut butter frosting is like peanutty caramel, so good!

If you’ve tried my Brown Sugar Peach Cake or my Pumpkin Praline Cake, you might have an inkling about this one. The frosting is cooked in a saucepan, and then literally poured right over the cake. It sets up immediately, almost like fudge or caramel. You have to work quickly, but your reward is that saucepan with a thin layer of peanut frosting clinging to the sides…Let’s just say I stood there scraping it with a spoon for an embarrassingly looooong time.

The batter for this easy cake gets whisked together right in a saucepan.

The batter is thin enough that you can whisk it up in a saucepan, no mixer needed. That makes this amazing cake dangerously easy to throw together.

The older this blog gets, the longer my favorites list gets, but I’m looking you straight in the eye when I say this cake is a goodie. You’ll love it, and it will serve you well if you need an easy dessert to bring anywhere this season. The 9×13 cake can serve up to 24 people, right out of the pan. Try it.

Reader Rave ~

“I never bake but I made this for my son’s birthday and my whole family thinks it may be the best cake they ever ate. We are die-hard peanut butter fans so perhaps we are biased-but regardless the cake was divine! The frosting is so good, like a peanut butter caramel.
Thanks for a great recipe!!” ~Gerry

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3.51 from 1170 votes

Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cake

A good old fashioned peanut butter sheet cake with a crazy good warm frosting!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Yield 24 servings

Calories 343kcal

Author Sue Moran

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 stick, or 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter Note: I used regular peanut butter for this recipe, 'natural'peanut butter does not work as well.
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs room temperature
• 1/2 cup buttermilk room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

frosting

• 1 stick, or 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 6 Tbsp buttermilk, you might need a touch more if your frosting is too stiff
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups confectioner's sugar sifted

garnish

• 1/2 cup roasted peanuts

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F
• Spray a 9x13 pan.
• Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
• Heat the butter and water in a medium/large saucepan until it comes to a boil. Take off the heat and whisk in the peanut butter and oil until smooth. Let cool for a few minutes, then whisk in the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla until well blended.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and whisk until just combined.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set the cake on a cooling rack while you make the frosting.
• To make the frosting, put the butter, peanut butter, and buttermilk in a saucepan and bring to a full boil. Take off the heat and beat in the vanilla and powdered sugar, adding a cup at a time, until the frosting is smooth. I like to put it back on a gentle heat just to rewarm it, stirring constantly, before pouring over the cake. Note: if your frosting is very stiff and not pourable, add a little bit more buttermilk to thin it out.
• Pour the hot frosting over the warm cake, working quickly because the frosting sets up immediately. Spread evenly over cake.
• Garnish with peanuts.

Cook's notes

• Make it chunky!  Yes, of course, go ahead and use chunky PB for this cake.  I would still use smooth for the frosting, but that's your call.

Nutrition

Calories: 343kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 297mg | Potassium: 103mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 33g | Vitamin A: 373IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 22mg | Iron: 1mg

The nutritional information for recipes on this site is provided as a courtesy and although theviewfromgreatisland.com tries to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.