Peanut Butter Birthday Cake

Get ready to celebrate life with this sweet and salty Peanut Butter Birthday Cake! It’s a 4 inch cake recipe featuring 3 mini layers of homemade peanut butter cake decorated with peanut butter frosting.

Today is my birthday, so happy birthday to me! (cue the confetti and horns).

Of course every birthday needs cake, so I opted to bake this Peanut Butter Birthday Cake from scratch with the dreamiest peanut butter frosting you can imagine.

It’s a sweet and salty 4 inch cake recipe that I turned into a nutty mini layer cake for this special occasion.

You don’t even need to have killer decorating skills because all you need to do is stick a peanut butter cup into the top. Voila – instant cake topper.

Peanut butter cake isn’t something you see often. Usually if there’s peanut butter involved, it’s my small chocolate cake recipe with peanut butter frosting or my chocolate peanut butter cake with its peanut butter filling.

With this peanut butter cake recipe, I wanted peanut butter to be the star.

Of course I couldn’t resist adding some chocolate with chopped peanut butter cups.

And because this is a peanut butter birthday cake after all, don’t forget to serve it with some peanut butter ice cream!

Ingredients For Peanut Butter Birthday Cake

Here’s what you need to make your peanut butter layer cake:

• All purpose flour: Standard baking flour using to balance the wet ingredients
• Baking powder: Leavening agent so your cake layers rise
• Salt: Enhances the flavor of the batter so it’s not bland
• Butter: Adds flavor and helps the cake rise from its steam when it melts, trapping carbon dioxide in the batter as it bakes. This creates a tender crumb texture.
• Peanut butter: Made with smooth processed peanut butter as it has the most consistent results. Natural peanut butter varies by brand.
• Sugar: Sweetens the cake and gives it a soft cake texture
• Egg: Provides structure, moisture, and leavening to the cake
• Vanilla: Brings out the peanut butter flavor even more
• Milk: Helps moisten the cake
• Peanut butter chips: An extra burst of peanut butter flavor. You can also use chopped peanut butter cups or semisweet chocolate chips

What pan do I need for a mini layer cake?

This homemade peanut butter cake is baked in three 4 inch springform pans.

If you don’t have 4 inch pans, you can put all of the batter into one 6 inch cake pan.

How To Make Peanut Butter Birthday Cake

Here’s how to make your peanut butter mini layer cake:

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Cream together butter, peanut butter, and sugar.
3. Beat in egg and vanilla.
4. Add flour mixture alternated with the milk then stir in peanut butter chips.
5. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Store unfrosted cake for up to 2 days at room temperature.

Once frosted, cover and store at room temperature for up to 2 days (buttercream only) or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week (buttercream, cream cheese, and ganache).

For best results, let the refrigerated cake sit at room temperature 15-30 minutes before serving.

Frostings For Peanut Butter Cake

As mentioned earlier, I frosted my peanut butter birthday cake with peanut butter buttercream.

However if that’s too sweet for you, you can make tangy peanut butter cream cheese frosting or traditional cream cheese frosting instead.

To make a chocolate peanut butter birthday cake, use chocolate frosting or chocolate cream cheese frosting.

You can also cover the entire cake with chocolate ganache.

If you don’t want traditional frosting at all, you can go with a lighter option such as peanut butter whipped cream, chocolate whipped cream, or cream cheese whipped cream.

More 4 Inch Cake Pan Recipes

Now that you have your 4 inch cake pans, you can make more mini desserts including:

• Mini Guinness Cake
• Mini German Chocolate Cake
• Mini Boston Cream Pie
• 4 Inch Cheesecake
• Mini Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe
• Mini Lemon Meringue Pies

First published May 15, 2017