Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake

This Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake is the first of a series of Peanut Butter recipes I am publishing this week.

So I’ll explain.

I went into a Peanut Butter frenzy last week. I baked and cooked everything Peanut Butter under the sun.

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And, of course I had to start with cake.

I present to you, opening Peanut Butter week: the Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake!

Peanut Butter and jelly cake slice, topped with chocolate hearts and raspberries

It’s vanilla cake, filled with raspberry jam, covered in Peanut Butter Cream cheese frosting.

I decorated the cake with my homemade chocolate hearts, filled with peanut butter, and I also used some raspberries to garnish the top.

Peanut Butter and jelly cake slice, topped with chocolate hearts and raspberries

I will have a recipe for the chocolates, coming out this week! I’ll try to remember to link it here after it’s been published.

This cake is rich in flavor, like anything peanut butter will be. The raspberry jam has a bit of a tartness that breaks up the decadence of the peanut butter frosting.

Peanut Butter and jelly cake, topped with chocolate hearts and raspberries

Adding cream cheese to the peanut butter frosting is also one of my best advices, because the tanginess of the cream cheese also helps with the richness of the peanut butter taste. Not that anybody is complaining! It’s just that the flavors go really well together.

Trust me, I am all for rich peanut butter tastes!!

Stay tuned to see what gets published tomorrow! Let’s hope it’s something delicious, right?!

Here are some more recipes that were included in the Peanut Butter week:

Also check out this recipe for my Peanut Butter and Jelly Macarons!

Peanut Butter and jelly cake, topped with chocolate hearts and raspberries

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake

This Peanut Butter and Jelly cake is a vanilla cake, filled with raspberry jam and covered in peanut butter cream cheese frosting.
5 from 17 votes
Prep Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 10 people
Calories 500 kcal

Ingredients
  

Cake
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened 4 oz
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk room temperature
Raspberry Jam
  • 10 oz raspberries frozen or fresh
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1/3 cup water
Peanut butter frosting
  • 8 oz cream cheese softened
  • 4 oz butter softened (1 stick, 1/2 cup)
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 3 cups powdered sugar sifted
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions
 

Cake
  • Grease and flour 4 6” cake pans, or 2 8” cake pans.
  • Pre-heat oven to 350F.
  • Cream butter in the bowl of a stand mixer for 2 minutes, on medium speed. Gradually add sugar and cream for 3 minutes until mixture is fluffy and lighter in color.
  • Add eggs to the mixture, one at a time, mixing on medium speed. Scrape bowl and add vanilla. Mix on medium-low speed until incorporated.
  • Sift flour, baking powder and salt.
  • Add half of the buttermilk to butter/egg/sugar mixture. Mix on low for 30 seconds. Add half of sifted flour mixture. Mix on low for 30-45 seconds until almost entirely incorporated.
  • Add remaining buttermilk and mix on low for 30 seconds. Add remaining flour and mix on low until incorporated.
  • Divide batter evenly between your cake pans.
  • Bake on pre-heated oven for about 20-25 minutes. Smaller cake pans will take less time to bake.
  • Remove cake from the oven when a toothpick comes out clean once inserted in the cake.
  • Let cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes and flip it over in a wire rack to let it cool completely before proceeding with frosting and filling.
Raspberry Jam
  • Mix maple syrup and raspberries in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn heat down once it starts boiling. Stir often while mixture boils, for about 2 minutes.
  • Mix water and cornstarch in a small bowl. Once cornstarch has been dissolved in the water, add mixture to raspberries. With the heat still on low, or medium-low, keep stirring mixture until it thickens, about 5 more minutes.
  • Strain through a sieve, pressing down and stirring jam.
  • Place jam in the fridge to cool down.
Peanut butter frosting
  • Start by creaming 8 oz of cream cheese on medium speed with an electric mixer.
  • Beat the cream cheese with the paddle attachment for about 45 seconds.
  • Add butter and beat for another minute.
  • Add peanut butter and mix on medium speed until combined.
  • With the mixer on the lowest speed, start adding the sifted powdered sugar in one tablespoon at a time.
  • Once all powdered sugar has been added and it’s incorporated, turn mixer to medium and cream for about 30 seconds.
  • Add vanilla extract and mix until combined.
  • If your frosting seems a bit stiff, add a teaspoon of milk at a time until you achieve desired consistency.
  • If frosting seems too soft, add a little bit more powdered sugar.
  • Just be aware that the consistency could be too soft also because your butter or cream cheese have softened too much (because it’s too hot in the room, or they’ve been out for too long, etc). In that case, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, insert it in the fridge for 5-10 minutes until butter or cream cheese have hardened a little bit. Then, proceed to cream frosting for a few more seconds before using.
To assemble
  • I like to brush my cakes with some simple syrup, which is a mixture of equal parts of sugar and water, brought to a boil together and let to cool down. The simple syrup helps to keep the cake moist. I use about 2 or 3 tablespoons of simple syrup per layer.
  • Pipe a circle of peanut butter frosting on top of the bottom cake layer, along the edge. This will help you keep the jam in the filling without it spilling all over the place.
  • Fill the cake with a few tablespoons of jelly. Top with next layer. Brush cake with simple syrup. Proceed with the same procedure.
  • After the cake is filled, it's time to frost it.
  • To frost the cake, spread a small amount of frosting over the whole cake and smooth it over. place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This is called crumb coating and it's necessary to obtain a smoothly frosted cake, without any crumbs in it. 
  • Continue to frost the cake with the remaining peanut butter cream cheese frosting. Decorate the top with fresh raspberries and chocolate cups if you'd like.

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33 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Promise not to laugh if I tell you a secret, I’ve never tried the PB&J combination… Remember you promised :p

    Love the look of this and must get round to trying that flavour combo soon!

  2. 5 stars
    Wow, this Peanut Butter and Jelly cake so cute! I would love to eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Thank you for sharing this great recipe! I am pinning this recipe for later! YUM!

  3. 5 stars
    What a gorgeous cake and looks so amazingly delicious too! You definitely can’t go wrong with P, B and J!

  4. 5 stars
    Planning to make this on Saturday night. This is perfect because I love peanut butter so much. So excited and can’t wait to try.

  5. 5 stars
    I showed this cake to my kids and they were jumping up and down and now they want me to bake this cake for them! 😀 The cake looks stunning and the combination of flavors sounds amazing too!

  6. This recipe sounds amazing! My daughter really wants it with a chocolate cake instead, but still with raspberry jam & peanut butter icing. Have you tried this before? If so, any recommendations?

  7. I would really love to try this cake however my husband doesn’t like raspberry. He does like pb&j with grape or strawberry. How would I use grape jam in place of the raspberry?

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