This Peanut Butter Sheet Cake is an unbelievably moist, rich, peanut butter cake with creamy peanut butter frosting poured on top. Similar to Texas Sheet Cake, but for the peanut butter lover instead!
Love Peanut Butter? Be sure to try our thick and fudgy Peanut Butter Brownies. Swirls of peanut butter in the batter. Speaking of swirls, our Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars have swirls AND puddles of peanut butter. What’s not to love?
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Peanut Butter Texas Sheet Cake
Almost everyone’s had Texas Sheet Cake before, right? I first tried Chocolate Buttermilk Sheet Cake when I was a kid and fell in love with the fudgy texture covered with melty frosting.
We’re serious peanut butter lovers at this house, so I decided I needed to figure out a version of sheet cake that would deliver that swoon-worthy fudgy moist texture along with serious peanut flavor.
We love our easy Peanut Butter Cake around here but I was in the mood for something more like a traditional Texas Sheet Cake but with peanut butter.
Never be satisfied with just some peanut butter when you could have all the peanut butter. I also put creamy peanut butter into the soft frosting that goes on top of this cake.
My family went nuts over Texas Sheet Cake with Peanut Butter (forgive the pun) and I can’t wait for you to try it.
Ingredient Notes
Sheet Cakes are so easy to make and decorate. If icing with buttercream isn’t your strong suit, you’ll love how fuss free it is to decorate this peanut butter cake.
To make sheet cake, you don’t use a usual cake pan. Instead, you need a sheet pan style cookie sheet. I used a 12×18 inch style baking sheet to make Peanut Butter Sheet Cake.
- Peanut Butter– choose a shelf stable peanut butter like Jif or Skippy for best results!
- Vanilla Extract– use pure vanilla, not imitation!
- All-Purpose Flour- we tried using cake flour on this sheet cake, but it resulted in a too delicate cake. The all-purpose flour held up to the delicious peanut butter frosting.
- Buttermilk– if you don’t have any on hand, use my easy buttermilk substitute!
Easy Instructions
Prep. Preheat oven and line the bottom of a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Cake Batter. Make the cake batter in a saucepan by adding peanut butter, water, and butter. Boil then remove from heat. Add ingredients, pour into pan, and bake.
Peanut Butter Frosting. Add to the cake whle the cake is still warm. It will soak into the cake creating a “gooey” texture on top similar to a texas sheet cake.
No messing with frosting bags or piping! Sheet cake looks as good as it tastes with no fancy cake decorating skills required.
Recipe FAQs
This peanut butter sheet cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 4 days. Keep it in an airtight container or covered in plastic wrap for best taste.
Sheet cakes are great for feeding a large family or crowd, but can also leave a small group with lots of leftovers. Fortunately, they freeze well. Store sheet cake in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Choose a shelf stable peanut butter, like Jif or Skippy for using in this peanut butter cake recipe. It has the perfect texture and sweetness needed.
Tips and Tricks
- Don’t have buttermilk handy? You can make a buttermilk substitute to use in this recipe.
- Unsalted butter is my preference here (and for most cakes and frostings). If you only have salted butter that will work, too, just reduce the amount of salt called for in the recipe.
- Too much peanut butter? Use my favorite chocolate buttercream instead! Or add a little tang with our chocolate sour cream frosting recipe!
- Love sheet cakes? Try our delicious Watergate Sheet Cake next! Or give this delicious vanilla sheet cake recipe a try soon.
- Got extra peanut butter? Bake up a batch of our favorite Jif Peanut Butter Cookies!
More Easy Cake Recipes
Peanut Butter Sheet Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
For the cake
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the frosting
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- 6 Tablespoons buttermilk
- ½ cup peanut butter
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet 12×18-inch (sheet pan size) with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a LARGE saucepan, combine peanut butter, water, and butter for the cake. Bring to a boil, while stirring constantly. Once boiling, remove from heat. Add in sugars, flour, salt and baking soda. Mix until well combined. Add in eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla until blended. Pour into prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
- While the cake is baking, prepare the frosting. In a saucepan, combine butter, buttermilk, and peanut butter. Bring to a boil, while stirring.
- Remove from heat and add in powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Pour over warm cake.
Notes
- Don’t have buttermilk handy? You can make a buttermilk substitute to use in this recipe.
- Unsalted butter is my preference here (and for most cakes and frostings). If you only have salted butter that will work, too, just reduce the amount of salt called for in the recipe.
- Too much peanut butter? Use my favorite chocolate buttercream instead!
- Love sheet cakes? Try our delicious Watergate Sheet Cake next!
- Storage: Store at room temperature in airtight container or covered with plastic wrap for up to four days. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Video
Nutrition
Make this cake this weekend for the peanut butter fans in your life and they’re guaranteed to love you forever. Can’t decide between chocolate sheet cake or peanut butter? Why not make them both!
Frosting was way too thin but I used smuckers so probably my fault
My frosting looks like oil pools on top too
Did you use a regular peanut butter (Jif/Skippy) and not a natural one where the oil separates?
Will this recipe work in a half sheet pan that is 17×12 ?
I made this before and my family loved it. This time I needed to make it dairy free. The icing on the top looks like oil pools on it. I read about what to use for butter substitute for icing and everyone recommended coconut oil. Do you have a better suggestion for a butter substitute? The cake looks great. The icing does not. Any ideas?
There is no oil pooling on the top of the frosting, it might be a trick of the eye with the photo color. I have only used butter, but if you try something else let us know how it turns out!
I have made this cake several times and we all love it. It’s easy to make and it’s moist. My family and friends all love it. We have picnics in our neighborhood a bunch of us get together and cook out and of course I always make 2 of these cakes in glass baking dishes and there is never a crumb left. Thank you for the awesome recipe.
When I was making this cake, I thought I remembered the amount of peanut butter. Spoiler alert: I didn’t! 🤣 I quadrupled it to one cup by mistake and didn’t realize until it was in the oven. I had to add an extra 5 minutes on the bake time, and it was very dense and slightly oily. But if you love peanut butter…freaking amazing!
I followed the recipe and it turned out amazingly good! It was also east for me to make given my lack of cooking skills. Only issue is it’s a lot so I need to invite some friends to share it with. Will definitely make this again. PB heaven!
I made this cake for the first time today and honestly, we thought it was “okay”. I usually use a different recipe but figured I would try this one and compare. Again, just our opinion, but I’ll be using my old recipe that we love. I wouldn’t make this one again.
I’m sorry to hear that 🙁