Never thought about a peanut butter cake but apparently, a lot of people do. I found many recipes online but adapted one from thewoksoflife.com. It provided the right amount of 'I know what it is' but not too over the top. The banana cake was one from Food52 and I loved that it was so banana-y. Together, they were bffs, with chocolate ganache laced Italian buttercream holding it together.


Oh, my pretty little layers!

Banana Cake

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
3 tsp lemon juice
4-1/2 cups flour
2-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1-1/2 cup butter
Scant 2 cups sugar
3 eggs
4 egg yolks (I did this to free up some whites for the Italian buttercream)
3 tsp vanilla
2-1/4 cups buttermilk

Directions:
1. Prepare 2 9 inch pans by greasing, flouring, and then lining it with parchment paper on the bottom.
2. In one small bowl, mix them banana with the lemon juice, and set this aside.
3. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and salt.
4. Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 275°. Yes, 275° and not 350°.
5. In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the yolks. Then add the vanilla.
7. With the mixer on low, fold in the banana.
8. Divide the batter into the pans and bake in the oven for one hour until a skewer comes out clean.
9. Remove from the oven and place the pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. 10. Then put the cakes (still in the pans) in the freezer for the next 45 minutes. this is a trick to keep the cake very moist.


Peanut Butter Cake

Ingredients:
3-1/2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
4 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cups buttermilk

Directions:
1. Prepare 2 9 inch pans by greasing, flouring, and then lining it with parchment paper on the bottom.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set this aside.
3. In a bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the oil, peanut butter, and sugar until smooth and slightly increased in volume.
4. While waiting, you can preheat the oven to 350°F.
5. To the oil and sugar mixture, at the eggs one at a time, followed by the yolks. Then add the vanilla.
6. On a low-speed, for the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. Start and end with the dry ingredients.
7. Divide the batter among the two pans and bake for around 30 minutes, until it passes the skewer test.
8. Cool the cake in the pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, before inverting them onto the rack to cool completely.

Frost and decorate ... I used my go-to Italian buttercream recipe, but saw some interesting PB frosting out there too. Will give it a go for cupcakes next time around. Maybe with a jam filling too. Now that's an idea. PB cupcakes with jam with PB frosting. Tell them you got the idea here!