Jancey's Cooking Corner: Peanut Butter Cake

Photo courtesy of the Cooking Corner.

Lately I've been experimenting with peanut butter. With a few other ingredients from the pantry it's possible to come up with a variety of inexpensive treats for the family. My first love was a peanut butter pie from an old family recipe. This test was peanut butter cake that is rich and dense, full of peanut butter flavor from the cake to the frosting. It has the consistency more of a quick bread than a cake, so a little goes a long way.

Peanut Butter Cake
2- 1/4 cups flour
2 cups light brown sugar (packed)
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter (1 stick at room temperature)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1-1/4 cups milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 eggs

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease and flour a 13 x 9-inch cake pan.

In a large bowl, mix the first 4 ingredients with an electric mixer; blend at low speed until crumbly.

Add the next 5 ingredients and blend at low speed until everything is wet, then beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.

Cake ready for oven.

Pour into prepared pan and bake, in the middle of your oven, for 35-40 minutes or until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cake cool (in the pan) for 10 minutes, then spread the frosting on the hot cake (recipe follows) and sprinkle one cup of mini-peanut butter and chocolate chips over the frosting.

Peanut Butter Honey Frosting
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 T. honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
4 to 5 T. milk
1/8 cup peanut butter and milk chocolate baking chips

Warm the peanut butter and honey in the microwave just until it gets soft and easy to stir, then add everything else and beat until smooth. Spread over hot cake and sprinkle with one cup of the mini-chips. Cut into small squares.