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EASY Peanut Butter Cookie Cake is a giant peanut butter cookie! My husband loved this cake for his birthday.
Sometimes you feel like a peanut butter cookie…but you want a peanut butter cake too. This cookie cake is the perfect combination.
Monday was my husband’s birthday. He probably wouldn’t appreciate if I spilled his age but he’s double-digits older than I am and I’m 40 so…you can do some estimation.
We’ve had a challenging summer, as some of you may know from reading my newsletter. He had his hip replaced early in June and he’s still in the recovery period: no driving, has to use a walker. He had to work (from home) on his birthday, so we didn’t do anything spectacular, but we did go for dinner and I surprised him with a weekend in San Francisco once he gets the green light to be a normal person again.
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that if Mel eats one of my desserts, you know it has to be good. (You also know it’s either carrot cake or peanut butter.) It’s kind of a running joke, that he doesn’t eat ant of the sweets I put on this site. People always say to him, “Oh man how do you keep from eating all her desserts?” and he replies, “It’s easy, I don’t eat dessert.”
In fact, he has his own tag on this site. It’s the Mel Ate It tag, a collection of all the things he’s actually eaten. (Let’s remember I have over 1000 recipes…)
When his birthday was rolling around I tried to decide: do I go carrot cake or do I go peanut butter? It’s always going to be one of those two, because those are the only desserts he eats – ever. (Except when I make toffee at Christmas, but still…peanut butter.)
His absolute favorite are peanut butter cookies. I decided to make my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe into a cookie cake, which, if I’m being honest, is my favorite kind of cake too.
A cookie cake is the best of both worlds: it’s a giant cookie that’s topped with frosting, like a cake!
Because this peanut butter cookie cake is so thick, it’s soft and chewy at the same time. It’s full of rich peanut butter flavor and I added a rich fudge frosting around the outside. Chocolate and peanut butter are totally BFFs, especially where Mel is concerned.
This giant peanut butter cookie recipe starts with all the normal peanut butter cookie ingredients and is baked in a cake pan. Sure, you can make this as a 9×13-inch cake as well, but I love making round cookie cakes.
I’ll never forget walking around the mall as a kid and seeing the cookie cakes at Mrs. Field’s. I always wanted one of those! This is even better, because it’s homemade with my favorite recipe EVER.
How do you make a peanut butter cookie cake?
It’s as easy as making peanut butter cookies. Simply mix up your dough and press it into a cake pan. Bonus: no scooping or chilling needed!
This is the same recipe I’ve made so many peanut butter cookies with: stuffed with Snickers and Oreos, or turned into caramel bars.
What kind of frosting goes best on a peanut butter cookie cake?
Really, any kind of frosting goes, but I love this fudgy chocolate one. It’s the same one I use on my chocolate cake; it starts with melted butter and is super rich and chocolatey.
Tips for making a peanut butter cookie cake:
- Don’t over bake this. Err on the side of underdone, just once it’s golden brown around the edges.
- Skip the frosting if you want, or fill the cookie cake with chocolate chips or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
- You don’t have to do the criss-cross marks but I like adding them to make it known what kind of cookie it is.
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PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE CAKE
Ingredients
FOR THE COOKIE:
- 1/2 cup 113g unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup 213g creamy peanut butter
- 3/4 cup 138g light brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup 50g granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon 5ml vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon 15ml milk
- 1/2 teaspoon 3g baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 3/4 cup 248g all-purpose flour
FOR THE FROSTING:
- 1/4 cup 56g unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup 21g unsweetened cocoa
- 1 1/4 cups 142g powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1-2 tablespoons 15-30ml milk
- Sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9-inch round cake pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place butter and peanut butter in a large bowl. Using a hand or a stand mixer, mix until combined then add both sugars. Cream until smooth. Mix in egg, vanilla, and milk and mix on medium speed until combined.
- Mix in baking soda and salt, then slowly mix in flour and mix just until the batter is smooth and comes together. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl during mixing.
- Press batter into prepared pan. Use a fork to create criss-cross marks all over the top.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or just until golden brown. Cool completely.
- Make frosting: whisk butter, cocoa, powdered sugar, salt, and 1 tablespoon milk until smooth, adding a bit more milk as needed for consistency. Place frosting immediately in piping bag and frost immediately, top with sprinkles.
- Store loosely covered for up to 2 days, longer in refrigerator.
Recipe Notes
Recipe Nutrition
Love cookie cakes? Check out Lindsay’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake, Cheryl’s Birthday Sugar Cookie Cake, or Tanya’s Frosted Sugar Cookie Bundt Cake.
Or check out some of my favorite peanut butter cookie and cookie cake recipes:
Peanut Butter Surprise Cookie are full of caramel.
Caramel Stuffed Peanut Butter Cookie Bars are full of caramel too!
Football Cookie Cake is peanut butter too!
**Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!**
This looks delicious! I totally agree that a cookie cake is the best cake! Wishing your hubby a happy birthday and fun together as a family!
Wow, it looks fabulous! Wish I was there to help with wishes for Mel (really to help eat it). lol
I want to sink my teeth into that cookie cake right now! Definitely will try this one!
Thank you!!!!
Happy belated birthday, Mel! I have been thinking about you guys and hoping you’re hanging in there after the surgery. Hopefully you can get that green light soon to enjoy your SF weekend!
I always wanted one of those Mrs Field’s cookie cakes too! This looks even better 🙂
This is just so mouth watering! I can definitely see this is my future dessert plan. Thank you! 🙂
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