Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Snack Cake

 I confess to holding a certain fondness for peanut butter in any way shape or form.  It has ever been so.  I have been known to eat it from the jar with a spoon.

I especially enjoy it in baked goods. Cakes, cookies, bars, etc.  This recipe which I am sharing with you today had been adapted from the book, Snacking Cakes by Yossi Arefi, and it is a particularly good snacking cake! 

 

 

I really love snack cakes.  Especially now that there is only one of me in my house.  Most snack cakes are of a manageable size, and even so I do give half of them away to friends and family. 

I shared two third of this lovely cake with two separate neighbors with a double thumbs up from each household! No complaints were forthcoming!

 

And I am not surprised. It is a particularly lovely cake. Nice and moist with a beautiful crumb due to the buttermilk in the cake batter.  

Flavored beautifully with peanut butter and brown sugar. The brown sugar also adds to the moist crumb of this cake.

 

That beautiful salted caramel frosting on the top is its crowning glory.  It is very similar to the old school Penuche frosting.

It is fudgy and rich and if a fabulous match for this sweet and salty cake!  You can sprinkle the top with some sea salt flakes. I was able to bring a large tub of Malden Sea Salt over with me last year, and it was beautiful sprinkled on top of this cake.

 

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE SALTED CARAMEL PEANUT BUTTER SNACK CAKE

Simple store cupboard ingredients put together in a most delicious way.

For the cake:

• soft light brown sugar (you could also use light muscovado brown sugar)
• large eggs (I only use free range)
• smooth peanut butter (I used Kraft, but Skippy would also be great!)
• buttermilk (well shaken)
• canola oil
• vanilla (I use pure vanilla extract)
• salt
• all purpose plain flour
• baking powder
• baking soda

For the frosting:

• butter (unsalted is specified in the recipe, but I used plain salted)
• soft light brown sugar (again you could use light muscovado)
• heavy cream
• water
• salt
• icing sugar (also known as confectioners or powdered)
• flaky salt to finish (optional)

 

I love cakes that use buttermilk in the batter. Buttermilk makes for a lovely moist cake.  Because of the buttermilk you also need to use soda.  The two together give you a beautiful lift.

And that icing on top, well, perfection.  Pure and utter perfection. Rich and fudgy.

 

Yossi does specifically tell you not to use natural peanut butter. She recommends only commercial peanut butters, such as Skippy or Kraft.

Apparently natural peanut butters make the cake too oily. I used Kraft because that is what I have here where I live. I can no longer get Skippy.  I love Skippy peanut butter most of all. 

 

HOW TO MAKE SALTED CARAMEL PEANUT BUTTER SNACK CAKE

Snack cakes are some of the easiest cakes to make. You begin by prepping your pan and preheating the oven.  I buttered the cake tin (an 8 inch square tin) and then lined it with a piece of baking paper.  

I used an 8-inch wide strip,  lining two opposite sides only, leaving two sides bare.  If your pan is well buttered this is okay.  You want to leave an overhang of paper so that you can easily lift the cake out when done. 

 

Its best to have your cake pans ready to go when you are making a batter with buttermilk. Buttermilk reacts almost instantly with baking soda, giving you lift and the heat from the oven also adds to the chemical reaction which takes place.

Its best to have buttermilk batters into the pan and in the oven as quickly as possible so that you can take full advantage of that process, so having your pan ready to go first is ideal.

Using an electric whisk beat the eggs and sugar together until light and foamy.  This helps to melt the sugar somewhat. You then beat in the buttermilk, oil, vanilla and salt.  Beat to emulsify the ingredients completely.

I like to sift my flour, soda and baking powder together so that the soda and BP are evenly mixed into the flour.  This mixture then gets whisked into the wet ingredients until you have a smooth, evenly mixed batter.

Pour the batter into your prepped cake tin and tap it lightly on the counter top a few times to help release any air bubbles that may be trapped.  

You don't want bit holes in your cake.  Once you have done that, pop it into the oven and bake.  The recipe says to bake for 35 to  45 minutes. Mine was done closer to 30 minutes, so do check. You don't want to over bake the cake and dry it out.

 

Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before you lift it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. You can then make the frosting, which is really easy to do.

Combine all of the frosting ingredients, with the exception of the icing sugar, in a sauce pan and allow them to melt and come to a full rolling boil. Boil for three minutes and then remove from the heat.

Let cool for three minutes, stirring once or twice and then stir in the icing sugar until smooth and thickened somewhat.  Spread over top of the cooled cake and sprinkle some flaked sea salt on top, if using. 

This is a really fabulous cake.  Rich and delicious. Moist. Nice and peanut-buttery.

That frosting is delicious and both together are amazing.  Perfect with a hot cuppa or an ice cold glass of milk. You could even serve squares of this cake with a scoop of ice cream on top. Yummy!!

This cake can also be baked in a 9 inch round tin (35 to 45 minutes), or in a loaf tin (50 to 60 minutes.)

Some other peanut butter cakes which I really enjoy are Glazed Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake,  Peanut Butter and Banana Cake,  and Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownie Torte.

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