Swirled chocolate and peanut butter pound cake topped with the fluffiest peanut butter frosting ever is what soul food dessert dreams are made of. Originally published October 2020. Last updated August 2022.
In case you didn't know, the holiday season is a long and winding road of desserts, charcuterie, cocktails, and side dishes around here. So buckle up for my chocolate peanut butter pound cake. It's swirly on the inside and topped with lots of fluffy peanut butter frosting then finished off with a dusting of cocoa powder. Let's get into it!
If you love unique pound cake recipes, check these out, too!
What's a Pound Cake, Though?
Now, let's get into this peanut butter chocolate swirl pound cake. It follows the classic measurements for a pound cake plus peanut butter and chocolate. But Jazzmine, what is a pound cake? Good question. Pound cake is a simple cake made using one pound each of eggs, butter, sugar, and flour. That makes the recipe easy to remember and means you can get creative with the flavor and mix-ins. Hence the delicious pound cakes above. And that's not even the half of it. I have an entire collection of pound cake recipes for you, boo!
What You'll Need for this Recipe
- Brown Sugar
- Butter
- Cocoa Powder
- Eggs
- Flour
- Granulated Sugar
- Milk
- Peanut Butter
- Sea Salt
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- Vanilla Extract
How to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Pound Cake
To make this peanut butter and chocolate pound cake, I mix up a basic pound cake batter then divide it in half. For the chocolate pound cake half, add melted chocolate chips and cocoa powder.
And for the peanut butter pound cake half, mix in your favorite creamy peanut butter. Then scoop the batters into a bundt pan alternating between the chocolate and peanut butter.
Now for the fun part: use a butter knife (or spoon or fork or whatever) to swirl the batters together. I prefer to fill the pan halfway with batter, swirl, then repeat.
Tips for Recipe Success
- Use the right pan. Here is my go-to bundt pan that I have baked countless cakes in for years with not a single issue with sticking, whether or not I prep it!
- Soften the cold ingredients to room temperature. In this recipe, that's the eggs and the butter. If you forget, try this trick to soften butter quickly and this trick to warm up eggs without cooking them. Both work like a charm!
- How can I make sure my bundt cake doesn't stick? In addition to using a non-stick pan, the number one tip to keep a bundt cake from sticking to the pan, is to grease and flour it. Next, bake the cake on the middle rack so that the bottom is less likely to burn and, therefore, stick. This also helps ensure an even bake.
- Fluff or sift the flour well before measuring it out into the cake batter. Flour can get packed easily and you'll very likely wind up with much more flour than you actually need if you just scoop straight from the bag. Here is how to properly measure flour.
- Don't over mix the pound cake batter. This activates the gluten and results in a tough and stodgy cake. Instead, stir and scrape the batter from sides of the bowl until it's just combined and no dry pockets remain.
How to Make Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting
If you're more excited about the homemade peanut butter frosting than anything else, I understand. It's good and very easy to make. The keys to the fluffy texture are temperature and time. Here are my tips for making the fluffiest peanut butter frosting at home.
- Use softened butter. The temperature of the butter actually makes a difference in the amount of air that can get into the frosting. I like to use this tip from Sally's Baking Addition when I need to soften butter quickly without melting it.
- Add the milk in tablespoons. Depending on altitude and the kind of milk you use (I'm partial to almond milk), you may not need exactly five tablespoons, as noted in the recipe card below. So I recommend starting with one and working your way up so that the texture isn't too loose.
- But don't worry if your peanut butter frosting is too loose. You can add more powdered sugar to fix it up.
- Lastly, make sure to let the mixer do its work for about three full minutes. That's the time part of how to make thick, fluffy frosting. I recommend using a whisk attachment on a stand mixer but this can also be achieved with a hand mixer. I don't recommend mixing peanut butter frosting by hand unless you're in need of a lengthy arm workout.
I'd love to see how this cake turns out for you so be sure to tag me @dashofjazzblog if you share your creation on Instagram. And sharing is caring so pin this chocolate peanut butter pound cake recipe on Pinterest. Thanks for reading!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Pound Cake Recipe
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pound Cake
Ingredients
For Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Pound Cake
- 1 pound butter softened to room temperature
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips melted
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ⅓ cup peanut butter
For Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ¼ cup butter softened to room temperature
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 tablespoons milk
- cocoa powder optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan and set aside.
- Cream butter in a mixer or food processor until smooth a slightly lighter shade of yellow. Add eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, milk, and vanilla extract and continue mixing until uniform.
- In another bowl, mix together flour and sea salt. Add wet mixture to flour mixture and stir by hand until batter is uniform and no dry pockets remain.
- Divide batter evenly into two bowls and add melted chocolate and cocoa powder to one bowl. Mix until uniform in color.
- Add peanut butter to the other bowl and mix until uniform in color.
- Fill prepared bundt pan about halfway with batter by adding alternating spoonfuls of chocolate and peanut butter batters. Use a knife to swirls the batters together then repeat process with remaining batter until pan is full.
- Place pan in oven and bake for about an hour or until a toothpick inserted into multiple parts of the cake comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and let it sit in pan for about 10 minutes then carefully invert it onto a plate to finish cooling.
- While cake cools, prepare frosting: beat powdered sugar and butter together using a whisk attachment for about 30 seconds then add peanut butter and vanilla extract. Mixture will be somewhat coarse and crumbly.
- Add in milk one tablespoon at a time until desired texture is reached then continue mixing for about three minutes or until frosting is uniform and fluffy. It should be glossy in appearance and thick enough that it doesn't run or easily drip off whisk when raised.
- Spoon and spread frosting over top of pound cake and allow to fall down the sides. For an additional optional garnish, sift cocoa powder over top of cake.
Notes
- Use the right pan. Here is my go-to bundt pan that I have baked countless cakes in for years with not a single issue with sticking, whether or not I prep it!
- Soften the cold ingredients to room temperature. In this recipe, that's the eggs and the butter. If you forget, try this trick to soften butter quickly and this trick to warm up eggs without cooking them. Both work like a charm!
- How can I make sure my bundt cake doesn't stick? In addition to using a non-stick pan, the number one tip to keep a bundt cake from sticking to the pan, is to grease and flour it. Next, bake the cake on the middle rack so that the bottom is less likely to burn and, therefore, stick. This also helps ensure an even bake.
- Fluff or sift the flour well before measuring it out into the cake batter. Flour can get packed easily and you'll very likely wind up with much more flour than you actually need if you just scoop straight from the bag. Here is how to properly measure flour.
- Don't over mix the pound cake batter. This activates the gluten and results in a tough and stodgy cake. Instead, stir and scrape the batter from sides of the bowl until it's just combined and no dry pockets remain.
Nancy carter says
I can't wait to try this recipe!!!! It is for my furbaby Jethro's Birthday 9-8. Jethro will be 13!!!! He is very sick and we are asking for prayers 🙏 😢 please pray for him. In Jesus's name, Amen
Frankie says
This is such a wonderful recipe! I halved it and it still worked perfectly!