Julie Clark
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Reese’s Cake
Thick, rich, homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Reese’s Cake with peanut butter frosting and chocolate buttercream. Stuffed with Reese’s peanut butter cups! You may also like our chocolate peanut butter bundt cake.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Reese’s Cake
Calling all chocolate peanut butter lovers! This Chocolate Peanut Butter Reese’s Cake is a gorgeous site…and easy to make! Decorate the top simply with Wilton 1M tip and Reese’s cups. My favorite part? The homemade peanut butter frosting and chocolate buttercream. It’s the perfect frosting combination!
Let’s talk about how to make this easy cake!
Homemade Chocolate Cake
If you’re looking for an amazing homemade chocolate cake that you can use as the base for so many different recipes, this cake recipe is it. It’s easy to make and I’ve never had it fail. It is sometimes hard to get homemade cakes that have the same texture as a cake mix…light, fluffy and moist. But this one has it. If you’re new to making homemade cakes, this is a chocolate cake recipe you should try!
Here are a few hints:
- I love that this cake recipe uses all-purpose flour. No need for cake flour here!
- Be sure to use unsweetened cocoa powder. We’ve used several different kinds with success. Dark chocolate, raw cacao powder and traditional unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Use buttermilk. This is what helps the cake fluff up so nicely. We recommend buying buttermilk from the store, bu tif you don’t have buttermilk, simply add ½ tablespoon of white vinegar to the ½ cup measuring cup, then fill the rest of the measuring cup with milk. After a few minutes, the milk will start to curdle slightly. This will work a substitute for buttermilk.
- The batter will be thin.
Peanut Butter Frosting
This frosting is so easy to make and is delicious. It tastes like the center of a Reese’s cup. Mmm… Beat all of the ingredients together until the frosting is smooth. Natural peanut butter does not work well. We use regular creamy peanut butter. Add the heavy cream 1 tablespoon at a time until the frosting is the consistency you’d like.
Chocolate Buttercream
This chocolate buttercream gets rave reviews every time we serve it on cakes, cupcakes, brownies or cookies. This frosting comes together even more easily than the peanut butter frosting. And just as above, add the heavy cream one tablespoon at a time so the frosting doesn’t get too runny.
This is a great chocolate frosting for piping and holds its shape well!
How to Store Reese’s Cake
This cake is safe stored at room temperature for 24 hours. We recommend refrigerating the cake if you have any left after that.
How to Freeze Cake
If you have leftovers and need to freeze the cake, wrap the cake well with plastic wrap or in an airtight container. To defrost, allow the cake to cool to room temperature completely before unwrapping it.
Other Chocolate Cake Recipes
TOOLS TO MAKE THIS CAKE
- Stand Mixer: A hand mixer will work, but I always find it easier to make frostings with a stand mixer.
- Beater Blade with Scraper: The best invention ever!
- 9” Round Cake Pan: These are my favorite pans!
- Straight Icing Spatula: The long straight spatula makes it easy to smooth frosting.
- Wire Cooling Racks: This will help your cakes cool more quickly.
- Wilton 1M Tip: For piping pretty swirls on cupcakes.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Reese's Cake
Thick, rich, homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Reese's Cake with peanut butter frosting and chocolate buttercream. Stuffed with Reese's peanut butter cups!
Servings 15
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Ingredients
Chocolate Layer Cake:
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup freshly brewed strong hot coffee
Peanut Butter Frosting:
- 1/2 cup butter (softened)
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 3 tablespoon milk or heavy cream
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Chocolate Buttercream:
- 1 cup butter (softened)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
Chocolate Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 round 9-inch cake pans.
- For the cake, put flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and mix well.
- In a stand mixer, mix the buttermilk, oil, eggs, vanilla together. Slowly add in the mix of dry ingredients while the mixer is on low. Add the coffee and make sure everything is combined. The batter will be very thin.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack. While the cakes are cooling, make your frostings.
Peanut Butter Frosting:
- In a bowl, blend together peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter, and milk 3-4 minutes or until light and fluffy.
Chocolate Buttercream:
- In a stand mixer with the beater blade, beat the butter for 1-2 minutes until it is smooth, creamy and nearly white in appearance.
- Add in the salt and vanilla. Mix until incorporated.
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in the powdered sugar and cocoa powder.
- Add the heavy cream, a tablespoon at a time, mixing slowly until it is the consistency that you'd like.
- Beat for 1 minute on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
Assemble The Cake:
- Frost the top of the first cake with the Peanut Butter Frosting. Then layer the other half of the cake on top. Frost the outside of the cake with the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.
- Pipe flowers on top with the leftover Peanut Butter Frosting and/or decorate as desired with chopped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
Video
Notes
The calories shown are based on the cake being cut into 15 pieces, with 1 serving being 1 slice of cake and using all of the frosting on the cake. If you'd like to lower the calories, use less frosting and make a "naked" style cake. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate.
Nutrition
Calories: 706kcal | Carbohydrates: 87g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 39g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Cholesterol: 84mg | Sodium: 651mg | Potassium: 300mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 69g | Vitamin A: 735IU | Calcium: 62mg | Iron: 2.1mg
Yum. My son made this for a baking competition. So good. Best chocolate cake ever. I don’t usually like chocolate cake, but this is so good. It freaked me out a little because it was so thin, but it came out amazing. Ww are making it again for a birthday this week.
Those pictures speak louder than words! !I can see why this is one of your favorite cakes.