This triple peanut butter cake features a soft sponge peanut butter cake recipe filled with an easy peanut butter mousse and then covered in a cheaters peanut butter swiss meringue buttercream and the decorated with a chocolate ganache drip and all the peanut butter candies and cookies I could find!
It’s Peanut butter lovers day! And boy do I love Peanut Butter. Choosing to make a cake was an obvious choice. The biggest question was – what filling and frosting??? Do I balance it with some chocolate? or Raspberry? or stick with peanut butter on top of peanut butter with more peanut butter…
Guess which one I picked… Peanut Butter cake, with Peanut butter mousse and Peanut butter swiss meringue…. then I topped it all off with a chocolate ganache drip and all the peanut butter candy and cookies I could find. YUM!!!!
I used 4 sizes of peanut butter cups, reese’s pieces, peanut butter M&M’s, Reeses sticks, nutter butters, peanut butter oreos and skippy PB bites. The next big question is HOW to decorate… Swirls of frosting with pretty cookies between and candy on top of the swirls? Or candy/cookie explosion!!!
Clearly I went the explosion route. But can you blame me? if I had gone the prettier route I wouldn’t have been able to use all the types of candy/cookies I collected.
So let’s talk about the filling. There are lots of ways to make mousse. I typically prefer to do the cooked egg custard mousse route. But I didn’t like how the cooked peanut butter mousse tasted. So instead I went with the cream cheese, whipped cream method which is basically a no bake peanut butter cheesecake, so YAY deliciousness.
Also you’ll need to get an acetate cake collar for this cake – to set the mousse up between the cake layers without it making a HUGE mess. Seriously it seems fancy but it’s super easy and by far the best way to do this so it’s totally worth it.
Kay – the frosting…. This isn’t a classic Swiss meringue – it’s the cheaters version – no cooked sugar – you use pasturized egg whites so they don’t need to be heated. It’s so so so SO much easier and the results are very similar to an authentic Swiss meringue buttercream. It’s a little sweeter than the classic, and not QUITE as buttery – so for me it’s a great option!
Now I love the straight peanut butter version of this but man oh MAN once you add the cocoa it’s DIVINE. I kinda wanted to do more of the chocolate than the three thin stripes – but I felt this looked the best… (I did keep all the extra frosting and made it all cocoa and I’ll be enjoying some extra frosting on my slices, on graham crackers, extra cookies, etc… until it’s gone.
I also recommend practicing scraping the sides of your cake. You don’t want to go into the strips and scrap too much off, or scrape unevenly leaving your cake bottom heavy or worse top heavy! It’s okay to go slow the first time around, the last time around you want to try to do it all in one turn, no pauses or stops, for the smoothest finish.
And now for the cake – this recipe is tweaked from my favorite vanilla cake recipe. I actually tweak this cake all the time – my caramel cake, my graham cracker cake… all based off this one. It’s a lighter spongier cake – so I don’t use this recipe for cake carving.
I also have a more dense peanut butter cake recipe that is better for carving but I felt this one needed to be lighter. And it really is – like I said above the mini peanut butter cups you see here in the slice? MAJOR DRAMA – as I sliced the cake they’d get caught in the knife but since the mousse and cake were so soft it would just push through and my slices weren’t coming out very nicely.
I can’t even tell you how many slices I had to cut off the cake to get a nice looking one. NOT WORTH IT – just leave the candy for the outside and enjoy the cake and mousse inside. Sometimes I hit that TOO over the top mark and have to pull back!
And that’s the loveliness of Peanut butter lovers day! What is YOUR favorite peanut butter recipe? What should I try for my next peanut butter recipe? I’m only mildly obsessed… And of course part of celebrating national food holidays is sharing more amazing recipe!
The Celebrating food bloggers all have new recipes for you today – so click over and check them all out! I’m also sharing some of my favorites from my blog as well as featuring a few of my favorite foodies best peanut butter recipes.
Tools I use in Making this triple peanut butter cake
- Acetate cake collar https://amzn.to/2ET0aHo
- 7 inch round cake pans https://amzn.to/2EIwFYD
- 7 inch parchment circles https://amzn.to/2CHaJKV
- baking strips https://amzn.to/2CEuJO5
- turntable https://amzn.to/1n2yst1
- round tips https://amzn.to/2D3bWgl
- angled spatula https://amzn.to/2D4iuv5
- drip squeeze bottle https://amzn.to/2CFkr04
- Long, Sharp, Strong serrated knife (I like the Cutco Santoku-Style 10″ Slicer) https://amzn.to/1TElX3O
- Bosch Universal Mixer https://amzn.to/210Eyra
BEST Peanut Butter Cake Recipe
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If you love cake recipe you’ll love these other decadent recipes too!
Dense Chocolate Cake Recipe | Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cake Recipe | Red Velvet Cake Recipe
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To watch me make this peanut butter cake click play in the video in the recipe card!
Triple Peanut Butter Cake
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Cake
- 1 C granulated sugar
- 1 C brown sugar
- 3 1/2 C Cake Flour
- 1 Tbsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 C butter softened
- 4 lrg eggs room temperature
- 2/3 C sour cream
- 3/4 C peanut butter
- 2 Tbsp vanilla
- 1 C whole milk
Peanut Butter Mousse
- 1 C heavy whipping cream
- 2/3 C granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 C peanut butter
Peanut Butter Cheating Swiss meringue Buttercream Frosting
- 1/2 C pasteurized liquid egg whites
- 3 1/2 C powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 2/3 C butter room temperature
- 1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla
- 2/3 C Peanut Butter
- 1/4 C cocoa
Ganache Drip
- 4 oz high quality chocolate don't use chocolate chips
- 4 oz heavy whipping cream
Decorations
- all the peanut butter and chocolate peanut butter cookies and candies you like
Instructions
Peanut Butter Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350
- prepare your pans with non stick spray and parchment circles (I used 4 seven inch pans)
- in mixer or large bowl mix together then sugars, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt
- add the softened butter and beat - it will be sandy
- in a separate bowl mix the eggs, sour cream, vanilla and peanut butter
- add the wet mixture to the dry and beat
- while mixing on low add the milk
- pour the batter into the prepared pans
- bake for 25-30 mins - until it bounces back when pressed and is just starting to pull away from the sides
- let cool before starting the mousse
Peanut Butter Mousse
- Beat the cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form
- in another bowl beat the cream cheese and peanut butter
- add the whipped cream and mix until incorporated
Assembly
- level the tops (and the bottoms for a nice looking slice of cake) of the cooled cakes
- wrap some cake collar acetate evenly around the cake on a cake plate or cardboard circle
- add 1/3rd of the mousse, add another layer of cake and repeat (if your acetate isn't tall enough you may need to add another round, I did)
- refrigerate until the mousse is set, at least 4 hours
Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting
- In a large mixer with whisks or large bowl with a hand mixer beat the egg whites, sugar and salt for 5 mins
- while beating on medium add the butter 1-2 Tbsp at a time
- once all the butter is mixed in add the vanilla and peanut butter and beat on medium high another 10 mins
- take out 3/4th of the frosting and set aside - add 1/4 C cocoa to the remaining 1/4 of the frosting and beat until totally mixed in
Ganache
- bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate
- let sit 5 mins then stir until smooth
- let cool at room temperature while frosting the cake
Frosting
- take the cake out of the fridge and unwrap the acetate
- frost the top of the cake with the peanut butter frosting
- then pipe around the outside of the cake alternating as much or little as you like with the chocolate peanut butter frosting
- scrape around the cake smoothing the sides and creating the stripes
- let the cake chill 10 mins
- using a piping bag or squeeze bottle add the drips around the outside of the cake
- then spread the remaining ganache on the top of the cake (without causing extra drips)
- now decorate with all the peanut butter cookies and candies
Video
Notes
Nutrition
And that’s the loveliness of Peanut butter lovers day! What is YOUR favorite peanut butter recipe? What should I try for my next peanut butter recipe? I’m only mildly obsessed… And of course part of celebrating national food holidays is sharing more amazing recipe! The Celebrating food bloggers all have new recipes for you today – so click over and check them all out! I’m also sharing some of my favorites from my blog as well as featuring a few of my favorite foodies best peanut butter recipes.
15 New recipes from the Celebrating Food Bloggers!
- Triple Peanut Butter cake – HERE
- Peanut Butter Lovers Pancakes – Crumb
- Peanut Butter Butterfinger Cookies – Creations by Kara
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Bars – Pretty Providence
- Peanut Butter Pie – Simply Stacie
- Creamy Peanut Butter – An Italian in my Kitchen
- Homemade Nutter Butter Cookies – The Baker Upstairs
- Easy Peanut Butter Fudge – Savory Experiments
- Peanut Butter chocolate chip blondies – 365 Days of Slow Cooking + Pressure Cooking
- No Bake Peanut Butter Protein Balls – Heather Likes Food
- Easy Peanut Butter Granola – Real Mom Kitchen
- Peanut Butter Doughnuts with Chunky Peanut Butter Glaze – Premeditated Leftovers
- Peanut Butter Cookies – Namely Marly
- Peanut butter twix pie – My Mommy Style
- Instant Pot peanut butter caramel cheesecake – Super Golden Bakes
More of my Peanut Butter Recipes
- Peanut Butter Ice Cream
- Peanut Butter S’mores Cookie cake
- Peanut butter cup cheesecake
- Peanut Butter Fudge
- Peanut butter cookies
- no bake Peanut Butter Bars
- Peanut Butter Cookie Oven S’mores
- Peanut butter chocolate brownies
- Thai Peanut Butter Sauce
A few more of my favorite Peanut Butter recipes from other fabulous foodies!
- Fried Peanut Butter Jelly Bombs – Sweet C’s
- peanut butter cup brownies – Chelsea’s Messy Apron
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Heaven – Recipe Critic
- Flourless Peanut Butter bread – Kirbie’s Cravings
- Buckeye cupcakes – life love and sugar
- The Perfect Steak using Sous Vide - February 2, 2021
- Pistachio cheesecake with coconut macaroon crust - November 19, 2020
- 21 Amazing Chocolate chip cookie recipes - November 19, 2020
Marly
Ashlee! You take amazing to an entirely new level! Wow! This cake is stunning. Too pretty to eat even. 😂
Ashlee
awwww thx! but nothing is too pretty to eat – Mmmmmm love food!
Stacie Vaughan
OH MY WORD!!!! Your cake looks heavenly. It’s gorgeous and almost too pretty to eat. I’d dig right in though LOL.
Kara
Wow girl, you have outdone yourself on this one! It looks GORGEOUS, but most importantly, it looks scrumptious! I just might have to attempt it. 🙂
Ashlee
awww thank you my sweet friend! or you can just come visit me so we chat, eat and hang out!
Isabelle @ Crumb
Holy cow… this cake is totally over the top, in the best possible way.
I’m super-lazy when it comes to cakes, so most of the time I can’t be bothered to do much besides a single layer with a little frosting on top, but I could be convinced to make an exception and tackle this masterpiece. Your video makes it look much easier than I’d have expected!
Ashlee Marie
I’m so glad to hear that, thank you so much!
Melissa
This is seriously the prettiest cake I’ve ever seen! And all that peanut butter is making me drool. 🙂 I love peanut butter!
Ashlee
awww thx Melissa!!! so glad you guys are joining us this year!
Evi
Hi.. Ashlee. I noticed your instruction of making the sponge cake, sour cream are used, but in the ingredients, this is not mentioned. I look forward to your reply. TIA..
Ashlee
Fixed! thanks for letting me know!
Jenn
I’m in the process of making this cake right NOW for our snowy Nor’easter day! One thing… there is sour cream listed in the cake instructions, but none in the ingredients. I assumed it was a typo and thought you meant the milk, but then the milk is added last! Ah! How much sour cream should be in the cake? I simply can’t wait to try the finished product!🤤
Ashlee
GAH I am so sorry I was out of town!!! I didn’t even notice the missing ingredient, I hope your cake still turned out amazing. I used 2/3 C sour cream (or greek yogurt works too)
Jenn
It was still a slam dunk😍 (though I will definitely add it next time!! I’m guessing it will add moisture??) The mousse and buttercream almost didn’t even make it to the cake🤤. Thank you!! I will absolutely be making more of your delicious recipes!
kirti singh
What a wonderful recipe this is. I am completely flattered with it’s alluring look. This would be perfect choice for my mother day celebration. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe.
Ashlee Marie
you are so welcome! I hope you love it as much as we do!
Jackie
Sooooo happy that I found you!! Love your recipes and videos. I have watched many of your videos and love them. I also fell in love with your Bosch mixer so just ordered one (it came this week) to replace my kitchen aid! LOL Anyways, for some reason, I cannot find the link for the video for this peanut butter cake recipe! (I do not see a play button anywhere and have also tried to cut/paste the address where the video should appear, but it still does not show up). I want to make this cake this week as a gift, but it would be so helpful to be able to see how you actually attach all of the peanut butter goodies/goodness to the cake! Would you be able to supply the link for me? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much! 🙂
Ashlee Marie
actually the video I filmed got deleted – I lost all the footage!!! So I have to refilm it. And I’m so glad you are as in love with the bosch as me!!!
Catherine
Where do I buy your book 27 amazing peanut butter recipes?
Ashlee Marie
I don’t have a book, just a blog post https://ashleemarie.com/twenty-nine-top-peanut-butter-dessert-recipes/
Jenicca
Hi! You mentioned you also had a more dense version of a peanut butter cake? Is there somewhere I could find that recipe?
Thank you! 🙂
Ashlee Marie
I don’t have it up but I will try to get to it one of these days haha
Carolyn Mendenhall
I think you might be my spirit animal Ashlee. I’m a very amateur cake decorator, just doing stuff for my family and friends. Years ago I was looking for ideas and I found your website, and I come back often for more ideas. Now today I was looking for crochet patterns, and again, the first pattern that looked good to me was on your website. And, to really cement it, it turns out I was in the MBA program with Bill. I don’t think I ever met you back then, but I’ve been making some of your recipes from the MBA cookbook for years. I just thought I’d say hi.
Ashlee Marie
awww that’s so fun that we have so much in common! And how crazy that you use recipes from that long ago! awesome sauce!
Nicole
I’d like to make this cake for Father’s Day. I want to make it with 3 – 6” pans should I half the recipe for this size? Thanks.
Ashlee Marie
yes cutting it in half should work for that change!
Noemi
Such amazing cale. Where is the video?. I don’t seem to find it
KD
This cake looks sinfully delicious! Also, is it just me or am I the only one who doesn’t see a video?
Priti
woww!!
it’s really good recipes.
keep it gyus!!
Ashlee Marie
thank you – but it’s not plural – just me!
Android Stock Firmware
What a wonderful recipe this is. I am completely flattered with it’s alluring look.
Android Stock Firmware
but it’s not plural – just me
Run, sausage, run For PC
but nothing is too pretty to eat
Dolores
Where do I find the high altitude adjustments?
Ashlee Marie
for high altitude – take out 1 Tbsp for every cup sugar, add 1 Tbsp for every cup flour, cut the rising agent by 1/8 tsp per 1 tsp. raise the oven temp by 25 degrees and cut the baking time 5 mins every 30
Download Xender for Mac
its so amazing i would love to try that at home
Donna
You had me with the peanut butter cups on top. I think l’ll
make this cake for my birthday next month.
Lyanna
Hey Ashlee!I just wanted to know how many cups one recipe makes and if can I use the traditional method as I don’t really like my cakes dense. Thanks!
Ashlee Marie
if you don’t want a dense cake this will be just fine, it’s not a dense cake, it’s traditional. My dense cake is a different recipe.
Lyanna
Also, can I use natural peanut butter? My mum likes to make homemade peanut butter and would probably be less than pleased if I don’t use hers…
Ashlee Marie
I don’t recommend natural peanut butter for this – it is much runnier and would effect everything
Laura
You mention granulated sugar in the mousse. Mine didn’t form peaks. When I used powdered sugar like other recipes it worked. Maybe it’s supposed to say powdered sugar?
Ashlee Marie
I’ve always used granulated sugar, if you want to use powdered sugar make sure to double the amt as 1/2 C granulated sugar is equal to 1 C powdered sugar.
Emily
Hi Ashlee!! Quick Q – can I make the peanut butter mousse ahead of time and refrigerate until the next day?
Ashlee Marie
Yes you can! That is a great way to save time, just make sure you keep it sealed in an airtight container.
Lola
Hi how do I convert the cups to grams because when I tried it online it’s difference measures on each website so how should I measure each cup as grams
Ashlee Marie
At the bottom of my recipe I have a metric converter, if you hit the word ‘metric’ it will automatically adjust all of the ingredients.
GaGaL78
This cake is soooo pretty!!!! My oldest son is getting married this June. Is this a cake that can be made ahead of time and frozen?
Ashlee Marie
I always recommend freezing the layers before you decorate them, I have a post about freezing cakes here, https://ashleemarie.com/freezing-cakes-moist/.
Teri
We’ve done everything but eat this cake so far. That happens today for my son’s birthday. He requested a peanut butter cake and I found your recipe. I got sucked in when I saw how beautiful the cake was. I made mine 3 layers instead of 4 because my Tupperware cake carrier only fit a 3 layer cake. It came out as beautiful as yours and I thank you for the wonderful recipe. Looking forward to tasting this.
Ashlee Marie
I am so glad it worked for you!! I hope it tasted as delicious as it looked:)
Andrew @ YouNetworth
Looks really good. I’d try making it but some of the ingredients (cocoa) aren’t available where I live. I’ll probably have to buy on Amazon.
Ashlee Marie
Yes I always recommend amazon for things like that! I hope it works well for you!
Lee
How do you attach the goodies on the side of the cake without them falling off?
Ashlee Marie
You can attach them with frosting, some of the smaller pieces are just stuck into the cake but the bigger ones are cut and put on with frosting, start at the bottom and work your way up to the top