Week 2: Peanut Butter & Jelly Cake*

*Caution: this post contains several different types of nuts.

This peanut butter & jelly cake is an “I’ll have just one more piece” kind of cake. This is dangerous stuff, people. So be warned.

My boyfriend, Chris, had a birthday this week. His birthday is 9 days after mine and it’s just shy of 3 weeks after Christmas so we’re kind of partied out over here, but there’s still cake to be made. 51 more cakes, to be exact.

This is Chris. I got special permission from him to post the picture on the left. I figured he’d be pleased if I balanced his portrayal with the glamor shot on the right. Isn’t he cute?

He’s very funny. He likes making me laugh by wearing my shower cap sometimes. He likes to eat, so I knew he’d eat any birthday cake I baked him. He also likes peanut butter and jelly, specifically peanut butter. I’m not saying I’ve ever caught him eating peanut butter out of the jar late at night. But I have seen him do it during daylight hours.

Where was I? Oh yes, cake! Let’s bake this thang. It’s very simple.

Here’s my mise en place. See how few ingredients there are? That’s partly because this is a half recipe. It serves 6 instead of 12, but can easily be doubled for a full-sized cake. Just adjust the baking time accordingly.

Next I prepared my pan, which was a 9x9x2 inch pan. I had such a good experience using parchment rounds on the bottoms of last week’s cake layers, I decided to use it again. I sprayed the pan, inserted the cut parchment and then sprayed the parchment. Perhaps that’s too much spray, but I’m terrified of cakes getting stuck in pans so I’m liberal with the cooking spray.

Next, I combined the water, butter, and peanut butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

Maybe 20 seconds after snapping this picture, I realized I used a whole cup of water when I was supposed to use a half cup. After yelling, “Oh, [sugar]!” I came up with a workaround so I wouldn’t have to use a brand new stick of butter and batch of measured peanut butter. I poured the water out into the sink and added back in the correct amount of water plus a smidge of extra butter and peanut butter, assuming some was melted and poured out with the discarded water. It was very haphazard of me, but it was okay in the end. Just trying to be honest here!

Okay, while the wet stovetop ingredients worked their way up to a boil, I sifted the sugar, flour, and baking soda into a medium bowl.

And here’s what the wet ingredients should look like once they’ve been brought to a boil. Check out my nifty spoon holder.

Next, the wet ingredients were poured over the dry, sifted ingredients. I mixed till combined, then poured in the buttermilk and egg. Buttermilk is becoming one of my favorite cake ingredients. Since the chocolate bacon cake recipe also contained buttermilk and turned out so moist, I think buttermilk really makes a difference.

I mixed it all up and poured the batter into the prepared pan.

Into the oven it went. When doing this at home, be sure to check your oven thermometer. It bakes for 18-22 minutes at 350. Rotate your pans around the 10 minute mark.

Once the cake sprang back when touched in the middle, it was time to cool it on my wire rack for a few minutes.

Once it successfully flipped out of the pan and completely cooled, it needed a trim. I highly suggest trimming your cake tops, ANY cake top, with a serrated knife if for no other reason than to sample the cake. It can be scary serving a whole cake to a crowd, not knowing what it tastes like, so evening out your layers is a great opportunity to make sure the cake tastes good. And these scraps were delish. I ate them before I took this picture, but you can see the crumbly evidence.

Next I prepared the peanut butter cream. It’s very easy to make. Just sift the confectioner’s sugar in a small bowl, add peanut butter, and cream and beat until blended and fluffy.

Next I cut the cake layer in half diagonally since I was making a half “sandwich”. I placed one half on the cake stand, cut side up and smeared on some strawberry preserves. This is an interchangeable ingredient. Use whatever jam, jelly, preserves you like. I used strawberry preserves because I’m really fancy.

This was so easy! It was just like making a sandwich. Next came the peanut butter cream.

And next came the other half, cut side down. I smushed it down so some of the PB&J would ooze out. And, voila!

When Chris saw it, he said, “That’s [fudging] awesome!” It was just the reaction I was going for.