If you like butterfingers, or cake, or chocolate and peanut butter….this recipe is for you. Cake is one of my favorite desserts to eat and to make. This one was fun to make as it has both a peanut butter whipped cream between the layers of cake, and a butterfinger frosting on the outside.
My family prefers desserts that aren’t crazy sweet, so I modified an existing recipe to reduce a little of the sugar in the components. It is still *very* sweet, so don’t worth this is some healthy tasting cake. It still feels like a complete indulgence. I bought the already unwrapped little mini butterfinger pieces for this so I didn’t have to unwrap a bunch of butterfingers. I just used my rolling pin to smash them up.
You can also add a chocolate drip to the sides of this cake if you want to make it look fancier, but I was too lazy to do that 🙂 The filling/frosting for this cake use both butter and cream cheese, and make sure to fully soften those to room temp before you attempt to make the filling/frosting. If the cream cheese is at all cold, you will get lumps instead of creamy smoothness.
Butterfinger Cake
Equipment
- 3 8 inch round cake pans
- parchment circles
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 cups AP flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 3 large eggs room temp
- 1 cup buttermilk room temp
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup hot water
Peanut butter whipped cream:
- 4 oz cream cheese room temp
- 1/2 cup peanut butter don't use natural
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup cream
- 1 1/2 cup chopped butterfingers
Butterfinger frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese room temp
- 1 1/2 cup butter room temp
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 4-8 cups powdered sugar depending on your sweetness preference, original recipe used 8, I used 5
- 1 cup crushed butterfingers
- 1/4 cup cream
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350. Spray 3 8 inch round pans with bakers joy then place a parchment circle in the bottom of each and spray that. This makes is super easy to get your cakes out of the pan after they have cooled a bit.
- Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and oil. Mix the liquid into the dry and gently mix until is comes together. Stir in the the hot water until combined.
- Divide evenly among the 3 pans, and bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Not overbaking the cake is a key to moist, tender cake, so start checking for doneness at 15 minutes or so.
- Remove cakes from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before continuing.
For the peanut butter whipped cream:
- Whip the cream, vanilla and powdered sugar until soft peaks and set aside. Mix the peanut butter and cream cheese with a paddle attachment until smooth. Add the whipped cream and mix gently until combined. Set aside until ready to use.
For the frosting:
- Mix the butter and cream cheese with a paddle attachment until smooth. Add in the sugar and vanilla and mix again. Add the cream slowly while mixing, until you have a smooth frosting. Add in the crushed butterfingers and mix well. Spoon into a piping bag.
To assemble:
- Trim the tops of the cakes to get them level. Place the first round down on your serving dish and pipe a circle of frosting around the outer edge. Fill the center with 1/2 the peanut butter whipped cream and top with 1/3 the chopped butterfingers.
- Add the second cake layer and repeat. Top with the final layer. Pipe more frosting over the sides and top and smooth it with an offset spatula. Cover the top with chopped butterfingers. Store this cake in the fridge but allow to come to almost room temp before serving.