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Our easy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake is a dream come true for peanut butter cup lovers. It's a moist, rich chocolate cake stacked with fluffy peanut butter frosting and smothered in silky chocolate.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake–need I say more?
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake–need I say more?This is the best Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake recipe! It takes everything I love about peanut butter cups and turns it into a show-stopping dessert. The rich, moist chocolate cake layers paired with the fluffy peanut butter frosting are totally irresistible, and the smooth chocolate frosting on top pulls it all together like a bakery-style treat. It’s the kind of cake that always gets rave reviews and recipe requests. It's perfect for birthdays, holidays, or any time you want to impress!
Check out all of my cake recipes, like German Chocolate Cake, Better than Sex Cake, Biscoff Cake, or Flourless Chocolate Cake!
How to make Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake:
Make Cake Batter: Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt). Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla; beat for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water or hot coffee until the thin batter is smooth. Pour into greased and parchment-lined round cake pans.
Bake at 350°F for 30–35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pans, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Slice each cake layer in half horizontally to make four thin layers.
Assemble and Decorate: Spread ⅓ of the peanut butter frosting on top of the first cake layer then repeat with the remaining 3 cake layers. For the chocolate frosting, combine melted butter and cocoa powder then add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat with electric mixers until smooth. Thicken or thin frosting as needed then spread chocolate frosting evenly over the outside of the cake. Optionally, pipe swirls on top of the chocolate and peanut butter cake and garnish with mini Reese’s peanut butter cups, if desired.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake:
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 3/4 cups + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup oil, (vegetable, canola or avocado oil)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water, , or hot coffee
Peanut butter frosting
- 1 batch Peanut Butter Frosting
Chocolate Frosting:
- 1/2 cup butter, (1 stick), melted
- 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 12 mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, for topping on cake, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 8-inch round baking pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
- Dry Ingredients: Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.2 cups granulated sugar, 1 ¾ cups + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour, ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt
- Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Stir in the boiling water (your batter will be very thin–that's OK!). Pour batter into prepared cake pans.2 large eggs, 1 cup buttermilk, ½ cup oil, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 cup boiling water
- Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.
- Torte: Once cakes have cooled, use a sharp serrated knife to cut each cake horizontally in half, so that you end up with four, thin cake rounds.
- Assemble: Place one cake layer on serving plate. Smooth ⅓ of the peanut butter frosting on top of that cake layer. Repeat with the remaining cake layers, adding a layer of peanut butter frosting between each layer of cake.1 batch Peanut Butter Frosting
- Chocolate Frosting: Add melted butter to a large mixing bowl. Stir in cocoa powder. Add powdered sugar, milk and vanilla and beat with electric mixers until smooth. Add additional powdered sugar to thicken frosting or milk to thin it, as needed.½ cup butter, 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 3 cups powdered sugar, ⅓ cup milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Use an offset spatula or butter knife to spread the frosting evenly over the outside of the cake. I piped swirls of extra chocolate and peanut butter frosting on top and topped with a mini Reese's peanut butter cup. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.12 mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I originally shared this recipe March 2016. Updated September 2021 and October 2025.
Made this cake for hubbys birthday and everyone loved it! The cake was so easy to make. I used coffee instead of water and it really made the flavor extra delicious. Everyone said it tasted like a funny bone! It was a huge cake so may halve recipe next time.
Followed recipe exactly and it cooked over and made a huge mess. Top was burned and center gooey. Had high hopes but not a fan.
Hi. would it be ok to sub cake flour for all purpose flour?
This cake was amazing! It was a hit with my family. Not too sweet or heavy. Followed the recipe. Next time I’m going to try the coffee just for fun. Saving this recipe for sure!
I cant seem to get the middle to cook!! its completely liquid!
I’ve read through a few comments and I’m glad it worked for others, but this cake was an ultimate fail for me. A box cake would’ve been better. I’ve never added boiling water to a batter before and after this, I won’t be doing it again. I had the cake cooling outside on my porch (there’s snow on the ground) and over an hour passed and my cake was still just a mess. It refused to come out of the pan in one piece. I tried cooling off only inside, half time inside/half time outside, nothing worked. I have no idea what it was. All I know is I’ve been working with this recipe since four in the morning and now it’s almost 9 A.M. and every second of this has been terrible.
I wonder if you used the metric recipe? When I checked the ratios between flour and sugar and cocoa I realised that the extra 2 tbsp of flour in the American version weren’t added in the metric one so flour should be c.235g not 220g. Not sure what happened with the cocoa translation but should be c.88g not 65g so out by c.38g of dry ingredients, or 10%.
WOW |LOVE THIS RECIPE|||
Lauren,
I seem to have missed where you list the recipe for the peanut butter icing?
The ingredients link to the peanut butter frosting! You can also find it here: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/reeses-peanut-butter-cupcakes/#recipe
There are no instructions for the peanut butter frosting?
Click the link in the recipe card where the ingredients says, “peanut butter frosting”
My name is Astrid and I am 11 years old and made this for my dads birthday. It turned out amazing and was easy to bake. The one thing that worried me is that my batter was soupy, but, somehow it worked! Thank you for the recipe, and I will use it again soon!