Peanut Butter Cake

This is a fun snack cake which does not need any frosting — kind of like pound cake, only lighter in texture. The flavor is very peanut buttery, which is a pleasant surprise!

This easy recipe is something you can put together quickly and always turns out well. The texture is light and smooth, and the cake is very moist.

I have experimented with adding warm spices (like cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice) and also adding dark chocolate chips to this batter, but I may even like the original recipe best:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c creamy peanut butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees while preparing a single 8×8, 9×9, or 7×11 rectangular pan. Cut a sheet of parchment paper to fit the bottom and come up the sides of the pan. Spray the pan liberally with cooking spray, then add the parchment paper, and spray liberally again with cooking spray.

In a medium mixing bowl (or in the bowl of a stand blender), combine the dry ingredients.

Using a 2 cup measure, pour in the buttermilk up to 1/2 cup, followed by the 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup water. Continue by adding the egg and vanilla extract. Mix well.

Add the 1/2 cup peanut butter to the dry ingredients in the mixer, and then pour in the wet ingredients. Mix well to form a smooth batter.

Pour batter into prepared baking dish and bake in the center of the 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Do not peak or open the oven door before the 30 minutes, or the center of the cake will fall.

Remove from the oven when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. The center of the cake will fall just a little if you wait the full 30 minutes before opening the oven door. Don’t worry if the center of your cake drops a bit — you will be serving it upside-down.

In this picture, I had tried using 2 eggs to see if I could solve the problem of the center of the cake falling after removing it from the oven. It worked pretty well, but I think the texture of the cake was better with just the 1 egg.

Cool the cake for about 15 minutes before turning out (bottom-up) onto a cooling rack. Once cooled completely, place the cake on a serving plate (with the bottom remaining up) and dust lightly with powdered sugar.

Impress your friends and ENJOY!