Peanut Butter Pound Cake

This month's recipe for the Secret Recipe Club comes from the blog Loving Life written by Kirstin.  What I enjoyed about reading through this blog is the personal aspect Kirstin brings to all of her posts.  Not only are there recipes, but also daily life details of one family from the Pacific Northwest.  I love learning about those who write the blogs and getting to know about their life and what is important to them.

I have shared on my blog a time or two that my husband's favorite dessert flavors are chocolate and peanut butter, in fact I have a chocolate and peanut butter category on my blog just so I can quickly find a recipe whenever he has a craving.  When I found this peanut butter pound cake at Loving Life I knew it was the recipe that I would be making for this month's reveal.

As pound cakes go this one fits the bill.  It is dense, but moist, and very full of flavor.  Alone it reminds me of a peanut butter cookie in cake form, but then the frosting is added leaving the eater with a peanut butter explosion of flavor...oh yes, it was tasty!  I didn't change a lot about the recipe.  I doubled the amount of vanilla, thinned the frosting so that it was more of a glaze, and added a chocolate drizzle on top for hubby.  I did find that it took 1 hour and 20 minutes to finish baking. This may be due to the size of my pan.  I used a large stoneware fluted pan that utilized "most" of my batter.  If you make this, be sure to begin checking your cake for doneness at about 55 minutes.  ENJOY!!

Peanut Butter Pound Cake
Recipe Source: Modified slightly from Loving Life

Cake:

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup peanut butter

5 eggs

2 tablespoons vanilla (original recipe called for 1)

3 cups cake flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cups whipping cream or whole milk

Prepare a large tube pan or bundt pan and preheat the oven to 325 F.  Depending on the size of your pan you may have extra batter left over, use this for cupcakes.

In a large bowl or kitchen aide mixer cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the brown sugar and peanut butter mixing until well combined.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one.  Add in vanilla.

In another bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.  Add about 1/3 of the dry ingredients and then about 1/3 of the milk.  Continue adding the dry ingredients and the milk alternating until they are both added and well combined.

Fill the prepared pan about 3/4 full (remember you may have extra batter left over depending on the size of your pan).  Bake for 60-90 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  

Cool cake for 10 minutes then turn out to finish cooling.  When completely cooled frost with frosting and top with chocolate drizzle or shavings.

Frosting/Glaze: 

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cups peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

3 Tablespoons milk (more or less depending on how thick or thin you want it. I used close to 7 tablespoons to get the consistency I wanted.)

In a kitchen aide bowl or medium bowl with an electric mixer combine the butter and peanut butter until well mixed.  Add in the powdered sugar and milk until the desired consistency is reached.  

**I should have cut the original recipe in half because I ended up with a lot of glaze, but it was tasty and with some additional powdered sugar to thicken it up it tasted great on graham crackers!**

Chocolate Drizzle:

1/2 chocolate chips

1 teaspoon oil

Melt together over a double boiler over low heat until well combined.  Drizzle over frosted cake.