Peanut Butter Babies

I started this lovely week off with some baby heads!  My mom’s coworker is having a baby girl and what better way to celebrate than with some bright, cheery little girls mixed with spring flowers!

  

Aren’t these baby girls just the sweetest with their little flower headbands?

I found this scrapbook paper over the weekend in my travels and fell in love.  The brightness of the pattern just evokes the feeling of happiness!

For these little girls, I did two types of cake – classic chocolate, and peanut butter!  I have recently tried a few recipes with PB, however this one just knocked it out of the park for me.  Baking with peanut butter will leave you with a very heavy, thick end result.  This cake is NOT fluffy and soft like a vanilla meringue would be… it’s dense, but moist at the same time! And the creaminess of the PB makes the cake roll beautifully and my secret when making cake balls--- mix the cake with half buttercream, and half peanut butter to get even more of a peanut butter taste!

Everyone has their own preference when it comes to PB—Skippy, Jiff, the natural stuff, chunky, creamy… I grew up on Skippy and don’t mind it (yea I know it’s “fake” pb), however I have grown to love fresh ground peanut butter from Big Y or Whole Foods.  I like the chalkier, crunchy consistency with less of a sugar taste! That is what I used for this recipe but really you can use whatever you’d like.  I also cut down on the fat a bit and subbed almond milk for milk, and coconut oil for vegetable oil but if you don’t care about these things, go for the original recipe!

Creamy Peanut Butter Cake

2 Cups All Purpose Flour

2 Cups White Sugar

1 Tsp Baking Powder

½ Cup Milk

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract (I use vanilla paste, find it a Homegoods!)

½ Cup Butter

1 Cup Water

½ Cup Vegetable Oil

½ Cup Peanut Butter

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a baking 9X11inch baking pan. (This cake is thick, don’t use anything smaller than this).

2.       Whisk flour, white sugar and baking soda together in a bowl.

3.       In an electric mixer, beat eggs, milk and vanilla into flour mixture on low until smooth.

4.       In a sauce pan, combine water, butter, vegetable oil and peanut butter and heat over medium heat until mixture is smooth (not boiling!). Should take about 5 minutes.

5.       Stir peanut butter mixture into flour mixture and mix until combined.  Pour into baking pan.

6.       Bake until a toothpick insterted in the middle comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on it!

Pair this cake with a peanut butter or chocolate buttercream and YUM!

Now for a 4 day work week which means I get an extra day to work on all the Easter goodies I have planned! 

Enjoy the sunshine! 

-Elena