Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Do you like cakes that are moist, dense and rich? Do you like peanut butter? Does the idea of a peanut butter frosting sound like a good reason to be alive to you?

If you answered yes, yes, yes, yes and yes, then keep reading.

If you don’t like moist, dense, rich cakes with peanut butter and peanut butter frosting, then stop reading. This recipe so isn’t for you. (Try the Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake instead- it’s fluffier, and quite clearly chocolatey-ier.)

This is a classic pound cake baked into a Bundt cake pan (which is always so much fun, isn’t it, since the icing can drip off the edges and all). Yes, it does call for the PB2 powdered peanut butter (which you probably don’t have on hand, do you?), which is really worth getting. It’s fat-free and is basically just PB in a powdered form (obviously)… but if you don’t have it, try my suggestion below in the Tips section. Since this recipe isn’t exactly Weight Watchers approved, any fat-free ingredient is a plus. (Or a minus, technically?)

[Side note/bonus: see the massive pool of frosting on the parchment paper under the cake in the picture? You know that didn’t go to waste.]

Adapted from the PB2 recipe…

1 1/2 cups butter, softened to room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese (one block, at room temperature)
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups PB2 powder (dried peanut butter)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla

PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING:
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons PB2 powder
2 tablespoons milk
1. Preheat oven to 300° and grease a Bundt or tube pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed for 2 – 3 minutes. Add sugar and beat until light in color and fluffy (about 2 – 3 more minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, beating until blended after each addition.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, PB2 and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in vanilla.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until cake tester tests clean. Cool on rack for 10 to 15 minutes and then remove from pan, allowing to finish cooling on a wire rack.
5. FROSTING: mix all ingredients well until smooth and the consistency of honey. (Add more or less sugar or milk to achieve preferred consistency.) Pour over cooled cake and allow to set before cutting.
Tips:
- Use a regular Bundt or tube pan… and if you do plan on using a silicone pan (nooooo), be sure to grease it well. See why I have thrown all of my silicone pans out.
- The whole powdered peanut butter thing. I know. It’s annoying to not have a key ingredient. So here’s what you can do if you don’t have and are resistant to buying (don’t be resistant to change! do it!): for the cake, replace the powdered PB with real (creamy) peanut butter, and add an extra 2 – 3 tablespoons of flour if the batter seems too runny before pouring into the Bundt pan. For the frosting, beat a tablespoon of heated peanut butter (so it’s a bit runny) into the confectioners’ sugar and milk combo. Add more milk by the 1/2 teaspoon at a time if you need to make the frosting pourable. (Next time I’ll make my frosting thicker, since I don’t like the way it dripped over the side of the cake. See photo. You agree. Actually- I think I just poured the frosting on before the cake cooled down enough— a rookie move.)
- Want to skip the frosting? No problemmo (although it won’t be as much fun.) Dust with powdered sugar, or just eat on its own. No complaints.
- Serve with ice cream if you want an extra layer of taste and dairy and lovely fat in your life. Wow- how good would a nice chocolate ice cream be with this? Oh dear.
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February 23rd, 2013 | More Sweets Please | 1 Comment | Tags: Cakes, Icing, Peanut Butter