If you love chocolate and peanut butter together, you’ll fall in love with this delicious high altitude chocolate peanut butter cake. Starting with my best, always perfect recipe for high altitude chocolate cake, I frosted it with fluffy peanut butter buttercream, flecked with chopped dark chocolate for texture and crunch. The soft, moist chocolate cake and the rich peanut butter frosting make the most incredible peanut butter and chocolate dessert you could imagine!
You might also love these flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, s’mores chocolate chip cookie bars, and double Dutch dark chocolate ice cream.
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Why You’ll Love This Cake
Chocolate + Peanut Butter. These two ingredients are so perfectly complementary, with the rich, bittersweet chocolate, and creamy, salty peanut butter. This chocolate peanut butter cake is like eating the most incredible chocolate peanut butter cup but in a slice of cake!
Staple Pantry Ingredients. There’s nothing complicated about this recipe, and it uses ingredients that most bakers will already have on hand.
Soft, Creamy, Salty and Sweet. I love a good balance of flavors and textures in a cake, and this one has everything I could want.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Cocoa Powder. Use a good-quality, unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder for a rich chocolate flavor and deep, dark color. For an extra dark color, you can replace several tablespoons of the cocoa powder with black cocoa powder.
- Peanut Butter. Use a smooth, creamy peanut butter (not all-natural) to add delicious peanut butter flavor to the frosting.
- Chocolate. Chop a bar of good-quality chocolate to add to your buttercream, and you’ll love the texture and all the pretty flecks of chocolate. You’ll also need the chocolate for the ganache drip, if you choose to decorate your cake this way.
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 8-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray. If making half the recipe, use three 6-inch cake pans.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, milk, sour cream, oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk until combined, about 15 seconds.
- Divide the batter between the pans. Bake on the center oven rack for about 22-28 minutes, until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt, mixing to combine.
- Add the vanilla, and increase the speed to medium (#4-6 on a Kitchen Aid mixer); whip for 4-5 minutes until very light and fluffy, scraping the bowl down occasionally, and only adding the milk if needed for desired consistency. Turn the speed down to “stir” and mix for 2 minutes to eliminate big air bubbles.
- Add the peanut butter and the chopped chocolate, and fold in with a spatula until combined.
Decorating
- Remove the cooled cakes from the pans. Place one cake layer on a cake board, and frost with a layer of buttercream. Repeat stacking and filling the cake layers, then frost all over with a thin “crumb coat” of buttercream. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set the crumb coat, keeping the bowl of remaining buttercream covered. Frost the cake all over with a final layer of buttercream. Chill the cake for a few minutes while you make the chocolate ganache.
- For the ganache, combine the chopped chocolate and the cream in a microwaveable bowl. Warm the mixture for several minutes at 50% power, stirring frequently, until smooth and melted.
- Use a spoon to drip some of the ganache around the edges of the cake, then dip a few nutter butter cookies in the extra ganache.
- Decorate the cake with the cookies and salted peanuts.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
Frequently Asked Questions
You should use a good-quality, unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder. I always keep Drost and Rodelle on hand, and they both make wonderful chocolate cakes with a rich, dark chocolate flavor. King Arthur Baking Double Dutch Dark Cocoa is also excellent.
The espresso powder is optional.
I don’t recommend it. Natural peanut butter just isn’t as stable as creamy peanut butter that contains other oils to stabilize the texture. Natural peanut butter might ruin the texture and consistency of your buttercream.
You can replace the peanut butter with any creamy nut butter, chocolate hazelnut spread or even Biscoff cookie butter.
You Might Also Like
Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!
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High Altitude Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- 8-inch cake pans (x3)
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened, Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tbsp instant espresso powder or instant coffee, optional
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup full-fat sour cream
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder, optional
- ⅛ – ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2-4 tbsp milk, ONLY if needed for desired consistency
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter, NOT all-natural
- 3 oz good-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
Ganache
- 2 oz good-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 2 oz heavy whipping cream
- salted peanuts
- nutter butter cookies
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 8-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray. If making half the recipe, use three 6-inch cake pans.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, milk, sour cream, oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk until combined, about 15 seconds.
- Divide the batter between the pans. Bake on the center oven rack for about 22-28 minutes, until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt, mixing to combine.
- Add the vanilla, and increase the speed to medium (#4-6 on a Kitchen Aid mixer); whip for 4-5 minutes until very light and fluffy, scraping the bowl down occasionally, and only adding the milk if needed for desired consistency. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 2 minutes to eliminate big air bubbles.
- Add the peanut butter and the chopped chocolate, and fold in with a spatula until combined.
Decorating
- Remove the cooled cakes from the pans. Place one cake layer on a cake board, and frost with a layer of buttercream. Repeat stacking and filling the cake layers, then frost all over with a thin "crumb coat" of buttercream. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set the crumb coat, keeping the bowl of remaining buttercream covered. Frost the cake all over with a final layer of buttercream. Chill the cake for a few minutes while you make the chocolate ganache.
- For the ganache, combine the chopped chocolate and the cream in a microwaveable bowl. Warm the mixture for several minutes at 50% power, stirring frequently, until smooth and melted.
- Use a spoon to drip some of the ganache around the edges of the cake, then dip a few nutter butter cookies in the extra ganache.
- Decorate the cake with the cookies and salted peanuts.
Vintage cakes are the best sometimes! And this one looks like no exception–I adore that chocolate chip pb buttercream, looks fabulous. Seriously, I need to try putting chocolate chips in frosting!
Phenomenal cake! I made it for a friend’s bday. I didn’t use any coffee flavorings. DO buy Dutch Cocoa powder – it makes a difference! I made it with a hand mixer vs a stand mixer. Peanut butter buttercream? AMAZING!!!
Made this for a work celebration and it was amazing! Everyone loved it and said it was the best cake I have ever made! That PB buttercream is fantastic and might be used on a lot of future cakes 🙂 Thank you so much for all your amazing recipes!