Peanut Butter Cookie Cake

This is the dessert equivalent of a greatest-hits album, peanut butter cookie dough pressed into a tube pan, spread with melted chocolate chips, and topped with a peanut butter boosted yellow cake batter that bakes into one tall, striped slice.

Every bite pulls cookie, chocolate, and cake together.

Slicing the refrigerated dough into eighth-inch rounds is what makes the crust work, thick slabs won’t bake through under a heavy cake layer. Press the slices tight against the pan with no gaps, because any exposed pan will grab the cake batter and make the cake stick when you flip.

The cake batter is a boxed yellow mix doctored with chunky peanut butter and eggs, giving it more structure than a standard mix on its own. Low speed first to moisten, then two minutes on high builds the airy crumb that contrasts the cookie base.

Cool upright for exactly 10 minutes before inverting, any longer and it sticks, any shorter and it falls apart.

Pro Tips

• Grease the tube pan generously under the cookie dough, the chocolate can make it stick without a buffer
• Let the melted chocolate cool slightly before spreading, hot chocolate melts the cookie dough and muddles the layers
• Check doneness with a toothpick in the cake layer, not the cookie layer which will read doughy
• Invert onto a rack over a baking sheet to catch any melted chocolate drips

Variations

• Swap chocolate chips for white chocolate or butterscotch chips for a different middle
• Use a chocolate cake mix instead of yellow for a triple-chocolate-peanut-butter version
• Top the cooled cake with a drizzle of melted peanut butter mixed with powdered sugar