This Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake has tender creamy peanut butter cake layers with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. Then it’s filled with a homemade strawberry jam and frosted in a very creamy peanut butter frosting.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Cake
Keyword jelly, peanut butter, strawberry, cheesecake, graham cracker
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
1 hour 1 hourhour
Total Time 1 hourhour50 minutesminutes
Servings 16people
Calories 255kcal
Author Molly Murphy
Ingredients
For the cake
3cupscake flour
1Tablespoonbaking powder
1teaspoonsalt
1teaspoonground cinnamon
Pinchof ground nutmeg
1cupunsalted butter at room temperature
1cupcreamy peanut butter
¾cupgranulated sugar
1cupbrown sugar, packed
4eggs at room temperature
1cupbuttermilk at room temperature
1Tablespoonvanilla extract
For the strawberry jam
3cupsfresh or frozen strawberries
⅓cupsugar
2teaspoonslemon juice
2Tablespoonscornstarch
5Tablespoonswater
¼cupwateronly if the filling is very thick
For the peanut butter buttercream
5cupspowdered sugar, measured and then sifted
1 ½cupsunsalted butter, slightly chilled
1cupcreamy peanut butter, 250 grams
1Tablespoonpure vanilla extract
¼cupheavy whipping cream
Pinchsalt
Instructions
For the cake
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray three 8-inch pans with cooking spray, line the bottoms with parchment paper and spray again. Set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and peanut butter until smooth and creamy. Add in the sugar and cream for about 5 minutes on medium speed.
On low-medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition, and scraping the bottom and the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix on low.
Add in half of the dry ingredients and half of the buttermilk. Mix on low just until incorporated or until almost no flour streaks remain. Repeat this step. With a rubber spatula, scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure the batter in fully incorporated.
With a kitchen scale, evenly divide the batter between the prepped cake pans and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Once the cakes are done, let them cool them for 10-15 minutes before transferring the cakes from their pans onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
For the Jam
In a medium sized sauce pan, add strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, and stir well. Cook on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes, stirring every so often. Strawberries should start to get tender at this point.
Once the strawberries have released all their sugar and the mixture has a more watery consistency, place the hot mixture in a blender or use an immersion blender to create a smooth mixture.
Return the hot mixture to the sauce pan and turn the heat to medium, let it come to a low boil.
In the meantime, dissolve water in the cornstarch to create a slurry.
Now slowly add in the slurry with one hand and mix the filling continuously with another hand.
The slurry will be activated and start to thicken once the mixture is hot enough, so make sure your strawberry mixture is hot.
Within a few seconds, the strawberry filling will start to thicken.
If it is too thick, add ¼ cup water and cook for a minute or two more.
For the buttercream
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and peanut butter. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes.
Add the powdered sugar to the bowl. Next, add the heavy cream and mix on low until incorporated, then increase the mixer speed to medium high. Add in the vanilla extract and salt and continue to beat on high speed until very fluffy, about 4-5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
To remove air bubbles from the frosting, use a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula to stir and push out the air bubbles.
assembly
Level your cakes, if needed. Place your first cake layer top side up on the cake board. Spread about ½ cup of the peanut butter buttercream on the cake and with more of the peanut butter buttercream, pipe a border around the edge of the cake to create a wall. Fill the wall with about ½ cup strawberry jam and carefully spread it around. Make sure you don't add too much jam or the cake will be unstable as you continue to stack and frost.
Place the second layer top side down on top of the strawberry jam and repeat step one.
Place the third layer of cake, bottom side up, on the second layer and spread a thin layer of frosting around the entire cake to create a crumb coat. Freeze the cake for 10 to 15 minutes to set the crumb coat.
After the crumb coat is set, continue to frost the cake with the remaining frosting.
Let the cake come to room temperature before serving. Refer to my storing instructions in my blog post for optimal storage.