Spice Cake Recipe With Peanut Butter Frosting

If you’ve never made a spice cake from scratch, you are in for a real treat! Our Old Fashioned Spice Cake Recipe has a tender, beautiful crumb flavored with warm fall spices, and the creamy peanut butter frosting compliments it perfectly. If you think this is an unusual combination, you need to trust me. It’s one of my all-time favorites!

Some people see layered cakes and automatically think they’re hard or time-consuming to make. First of all, this is an easy cake recipe, and, just like or Apple Spice Cake and Peanut Butter Bundt Cake recipes, it turns out great in a 9×13 cake pan too. I give you some options below. We’re going to walk you through the steps for how to make spice cake, so there is no guesswork. 

I’m not sure what recipe my mother used — she probably used a spice cake mix — but I found this recipe in my MIL recipe box, and that’s always a great source for recipes! It’s actually called a New Duchess Spice Cake. I knew it would be good when I saw all of the spices and buttermilk listed in the ingredients. I changed the shortening to butter (cue the choir!), and this recipe was born.

Equipment Needed

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• Round Cake Pans – I took a cake decorating class and bought these pans. They bake evenly and clean up great too.
• Flour Sifter – My daughter bought me this sifter and I love it! It works smoothly and quickly!
• Mixing Bowls with Measuring Spoons. A handy set. I use mixing bowls so often that I have two sets so that I don’t run out!

Ingredients for the Old Fashioned Spice Cake Recipe

• Cake Flour. You can make your own cake flour! For every cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
• Granulated Sugar. We use white granulated sugar and brown sugar in this recipe.
• Baking Soda. Called a leavening agent. It’s essential for baked goods to have the right texture and rise. We recommend that it be replaced every 6 months or tested for potency. We show you how in our Basic Baking Techniques.
• Cinnamon. The foundation of a good spice cake is the cinnamon. We’ve found that Saigon Cinnamon is a good variety for our baking. If you’re sensitive to cinnamon, this article explains the difference.
• Nutmeg. If you don’t use nutmeg or cloves much, make sure these spices are still good for baking. I like to replace unused spices every six months.
• Cloves. This spice makes the cake. Please do not leave it out.
• Salt. You can use any salt. Our preferences are Kosher salt or Fine sea salt which we feel dissolves better with a less likely chance of salt pockets in our baked goods.
• Dark Brown Sugar. We enjoy the extra flavor of molasses in dark brown sugar but light brown sugar is fine if that’s what you prefer.
• Unsalted Butter. We use real butter but you can substitute it with a butter substitute. That may affect the flavor, however. You want the butter to be at room temperature meaning that when pressed with your finger it leaves a dent, not melted or runny. Using room-temperature butter creams alot better than cold butter. If you use salted butter, you’ll want to reduce the salt to 1/4 teaspoon.
• Buttermilk. We use full-fat buttermilk. It adds richness to the recipe and the additional fat makes baked goods soft and tender. If you don’t have any, sub yogurt or sour cream or make your own using our instructions found here.
• Eggs. Grade A large eggs are what we use for consistency in our recipes.

Ingredients of the Peanut Butter Frosting

• Powdered Sugar (Confectioners’ sugar). We recommend sifting the powdered sugar after measuring it.
• Creamy Peanut Butter. We don’t recommend using “natural” peanut butter for this recipe because the oils and solids separate in natural peanut butter.
• Unsalted Butter.
• Vanilla Extract. We use pure vanilla extract. However, you can use imitation vanilla extract if that’s what you have.
• Salt.
• Heavy Whipping Cream. We use full-fat cream. The additional fat adds a smooth richness to the recipe. You can substitute with any liquid but the texture and taste may vary.

How to Make the Old Fashioned Spice Cake Recipe

This recipe required me to sift the dry ingredients together and then add the wet ingredients and lastly the eggs. I generally make a cake in the opposite order but I went with the instructions, and let me tell you — this works!

Getting everything prepped.

The secret to baking is to have everything you need before you get started. Grab the baking equipment and pre-measure the ingredients you’ll need. Preheat the oven and prepare your pan(s) with parchment paper. I find that putting my prepared pans on a baking sheet before I fill them makes getting them into and out of the oven much easier.

Start Mixing the homemade spice cake.

Measure the dry ingredients into a sifter and sift them into the mixing bowl or directly into the bowl of an electric mixer. 

Add the brown sugar, butter, and buttermilk, and then the eggs. Turn the mixer down to low speed and spoon the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Start baking.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared pans (see tips for options), and bake according to the directions. The baking time depends on the size of the pans used, and specific instructions for each step can be found on the recipe card.

Cool your Old-Fashioned Spice Cake.

Cool completely before frosting the cake for the best results. It’s always tempting to frost this cake early, but if you do you’ll have goopy frosting as it starts to melt. Put the cake on a wire rack for about 15 minutes and then invert it from the pan to cool completely.

How to Make the Peanut Butter Frosting

Mix all of the ingredients except heavy cream with the paddle attachment to cream everything together. Add the heavy cream and beat the mixture until it is smooth, light, and fluffy. You are going to be so happy you found this Old Fashioned Spice Cake Recipe! This frosting is the perfect spice cake frosting, too.

Tips for the Old Fashioned Spice Cake Recipe

• You can bake this spice cake in a 9×13 pan or a bundt cake pan if you don’t want to make a layered cake. You might find our FREE printable Baking Pan Conversion chart helpful.
• Ingredients are measured before sifting.
• This cake is delicious with cream cheese frosting, caramel frosting, or buttercream frosting but I strongly suggest the peanut butter frosting!
• Refrigerated ingredients should be brought to room temperature before you mix the cake so that it bakes more evenly.
• This recipe required me to sift the dry ingredients together and then add the wet ingredients and lastly the eggs. I generally make a cake in the opposite order but I went with the instructions, and let me tell you — this works!
• Cake strips are a great way to keep the outside edges of your cake from overbaking before the center is fully cooked resulting in a evenly baked cake.

Frosting Tips

• Trim the dome from both cakes to make them flat. Place one trimmed cake onto the serving plate and frost it. Place the second trimmed side on top of the bottom layer.
• I find that putting the unfrosted cake in the freezer for 15 minutes before frosting it helps to keep the crumbs from being picked up. You can also frost the cake layers with a thin coat of frosting (called the crumb coat) and then freeze it before adding more frosting.

How to Store Spice Cake

This cake can be stored in the refrigerator covered for 3 to 5 days. Spice cake can also be frozen using air-tight containers. To thaw, let the cake sit at room temperature uncovered.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Spice Cake Recipe

Do I have to use Cake Flour?

Cake flour makes a cake a little more tender. If you use all-purpose flour, your cake will still be delicious. The crumb and texture will not be the same.

Do the ingredients have to be sifted?

No, the ingredients do not have to be sifted. However, we’ve found that the cake is lighter and blends together more evenly when the ingredients are sifted together. We measured the ingredients and then sifted them together.

I hope you enjoyed this delicious recipe as much as we do. Drop me a comment below, and don’t forget to give it a star rating. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Your comments and ratings help others decide if this recipe is for them too.

More Great Cake Recipes

Eating this cake made me feel like a Happy Duchess, and I will definitely be making this easy spice cake recipe again. It’s been declared my new birthday celebration cake! However, if you’re still interested in more delicious recipes for cake, you may enjoy these:

• Raspberry Chocolate Pound Cake. A decadent chocolate set off by raspberries.
• Black Russian Cake with Kahlua filling. Perfect for a dinner party.
• Bananas Foster Cake with Praline Glaze. A delicious dessert worthy of praline.
• Lemon Pudding Poke Cake. One of my favorite flavors, lemon takes this poke cake over the top.
• Vintage Cherry Chip Layer Cake. Tasty and old-fashioned. A very satisfying and comforting dessert.
• Kentucky Butter Cake. A sweet butter sugar glaze slathered over this cake takes it over the top. We love how easy it is to make and gorgeous to look at!

What’s your favorite celebration cake?

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Originally released on January 19, 2019, this homemade spice cake recipe has undergone updates to enhance our readers’ experience, including simple details and new images. No changes were made to the actual recipe.