Go Back
+ servings

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pound Cake

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American, Soul Food
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 12 slices
Calories: 804kcal
Classic pound cake with swirls of chocolate and peanut butter inside, topped off with thick, fluffy peanut butter frosting
Print Recipe

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
  • 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.

Nutrition

Calories: 804kcal | Carbohydrates: 84g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 49g | Saturated Fat: 26g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 15g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 174mg | Sodium: 604mg | Potassium: 267mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 48g | Vitamin A: 1184IU | Calcium: 79mg | Iron: 3mg