No matter how fancy I think I am, how important my work might be on a certain day, no matter how dressed up I am, there’s always another simultaneous truth in the world of mothering: I wil very likely find myself toiling away at one of the world’s most mundane parenting tasks, including but not limited to making a PB&J. In that way, the peanut butter sandwich is the truth. A kind of meditation on the realness of having kids and how it takes you down to earth.
I had a bunch of pretty cheap spring strawberries at the house over the weekend, and that’s what gave me the idea to make my PBJ in cake form. (I also secretly like bright pink strawberry cake mix, if I”m being honest.) This not-too-sweet cake features strawberry and peanut butter buttercream, red berry jam and a strawberry-flavored caked that you can, if you’re in the mood, dye to a pleasing pink color with beet powder or food coloring. It was early spring and the first thing blooming in my yard was the yellow forsythia bush, so I used those flowers to decorate it. (Not poison, but also doesn’t taste great so had to take the blossoms off before serving.) I though it was beautiful and delicious. The boys, however, tried it and were like, “It tastes just like a peanut butter sandwich, except could you make the cake part more like squishy white bread?” So basically, they’d rather just have a sandwich. Sigh.
This recipe requires strawberry puree that has been reduced on the stove. That takes a little extra time so you could make it ahead. The red jam on top of the peanut butter filling gives it an unmistakable PBJ look when you slice it. I used a mixed berry jam from Costco that I also use to make sandwiches.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake
Makes one 8-inch double layer cake
Ingredients:
Strawberry concentrate:
1 pound strawberries, washed and hulled
Cake:
2 and 1/2 cups AP flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup salted butter at room temperature
1 and 3/4 cups white sugar
5 egg whites
1/3 cup plain yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup strawberry concentrate
1/2 cup half and half
Optional: 1 teaspoon beet powder or 3 drops red gel food coloring
Peanut butter frosting:
1/2 cup salted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon half and half
Strawberry frosting:
3/4 cups salted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup strawberry concentrate
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon beet powder or 2 drops of red gel food coloring
1/4 cup red berry jam
Instructions: Make the concentrate. Puree the hulled strawberries. Pour into a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer. Boil until reduced by more than 1/3, to about 3/4 cups, for about 20 minutes — stirring occasionally. Once reduced, pour into a small bowl and place in the freezer to cool. (This step can be done ahead and refrigerated).
Make the cakes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 8-inch cake pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine butter and sugar. Add egg whites, yogurt, vanilla. Mix until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix to combine. Next add the strawberry concentrate, half and half, and, if desired, beet powder or food coloring. Mix until well combined. Divide into prepared pans. Bake for 25 minutes, until the top of the cakes spring back when you touch them. Invert on a cooling rack. Do not frost until completely cool. (I like to put mine in the freezer because it makes them a little easier to frost.)
Make the frostings: In the bowl of a standing mixer, whip butter and peanut butter together until blended. Add pinch of salt. Then add powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time. Drizzle in the half and half and then whip for 2 minutes. Set aside and clean mixer for second frosting. In the bowl of a standing mixer, whip butter, then add powdered sugar a 1/4 cup at a time. Add strawberry concentrate and vanilla. Whip for 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy.
Assemble cake. If the cakes are very rounded, slice across the tops to make them flatter with a serrated knife. Place a spoonful of peanut butter frosting on your cake plate and position the first round on top of it to hold the cake in place. The round should be bottom side up. Cover the top of that first layer with peanut butter frosting and then a layer of red berry jam. Put the second round on top, again flat bottom side-up. Frost the top and sides of cake, using the strawberry frosting and an off-set spatula, if you have one. Decorate how you please.
