Flourless Peanut Butter Loaf Cake Recipe — Registered Dietitian Columbia SC - Rachael Hartley Nutrition (2024)

I'm not much of a cake person. Now don’t get me wrong, I love dessert. Freshly baked cookies dotted with melty dark chocolate and cool and creamy ice cream with lots of chunks in it makes my heart flutter a bit. But cake? Nah.

Although really, to be more specific, I should say I'm not much of an icing person. This may be controversial, but I honestly believe icing ruins cakes. There are very few foods I hate, but I put buttercream right up there with red apples and papaya. Barf.

Now, there are some cakes I like, and this flourless peanut butter loaf cake is one of them. It's fluffy and (TW) moist with not a speck of icing to distract.It’s got a tender, buttery crumb and rich peanut butter and maple flavor. It’s sweet, but not cloying. It’s one of those cakes I like to call a snacking cake, because it’s perfect paired with a latte or cup of tea as an afternoon snack. Yup, that’s right - cakes do make for a perfectly acceptable afternoon snack.

How to Make this Flourless Peanut Butter Loaf Cake

The other lovely thing about this recipe is that it’s incredibly simple to make. All you need to bake this flourless peanut butter loaf cake are a few basic ingredients, like peanut butter, eggs, maple syrup and vanilla extract, one bowl and loaf pan and you’re good to go! It’s a recipe I come back to again and again whenever I have a craving for something sweet and baked.

To make it, simply whisk up the eggs and vanilla extract until slightly foamy. Then whisk in peanut butter, pure maple syrup, baking soda and salt. Make sure you use a creamy peanut butter, and preferably one that’s a little thinner to make it easier to blend. If you keep your peanut butter in the fridge, make sure you let it come to room temperature! Alternatively, you can also make this cake batter in a food processor and save the arm workout.

To bake, simply pour the batter into a prepared loaf pan, top with coconut flakes, which get nice and toasty in the oven, and bake at 325 degrees F until just set. Let it cool before slicing and serving! It deflates a bit in the center after sitting out and cooling, which I really enjoy cause the edges are a bit fluffier than the denser center.

Flourless Baking

Although the whole gluten free diet trend was incredibly annoying and frustrating for many reasons (did diet culture really need to give people one more totally innocuous thing to fear?), there was one fun thing I got out of it which was learning how to bake with alternative flours, or in this case, no flour! If you’re able to take the little flashy thing from Men in Black to the part of your brain that equates gluten free or flourless with healthier, it creates space to learn how baking with different types of flour or no flour at all can create different flavors and textures in baked goods.

This flourless peanut butter loaf cake recipe uses eggs and baking powder to provide structure and lift to a cake. Remember those chocolate lava cakes that were on every restaurant dessert menu in the early 2000s? Those were flourless cakes too. They get a super dense and moist texture with a little bit of crispness on the top. It’s a really yummy and unique texture, and because the peanut butter is a main ingredient, that flavor gets super concentrated. Seriously, the rich smell of peanut butter and maple syrup coming from your oven is the fall candle of your dreams.

Flourless Peanut Butter Loaf Cake Recipe Adaptions

Feel free to make this cake with any type of nut butter you like! I’ve made it with both almond butter and cashew butter, and both were really tasty. I’ve also made this cake with a random combination of nut butters when I didn’t have enough of one type to make a full cup!

Another fun adaption - add chocolate chips! Seriously, is there a more classic dessert combination than peanut butter and chocolate? You could also add chopped peanuts to give the cake a bit more crunch. I’ve also spiced this cake up with added cinnamon (try about 1/2 tsp). Actually, I think it would be really tasty topped with a mixture of cinnamon and crunchy sugar, like demerara sugar.

If you like this flourless peanut butter loaf cake recipe, follow my cake recipes pinterest board for more baking inspiration.

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 cup peanut butter

• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking power

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• Coconut flakes

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Whisk together eggs and vanilla extract until slightly foamy. Whisk in peanut butter until blended. Whisk in maple syrup, baking powder and salt until well combined.

3. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Sprinkle with a handful of coconut flakes.

4. Bake 30-40 minutes until center is set. Let cool before slicing.