Description
This Gourmet Peanut Butter Earthquake Cake is a chocolate lover’s dream. Featuring a rich cocoa base that ‘cracks’ during baking to reveal a molten peanut butter and cream cheese center, it creates a beautiful, cratered surface with salty-sweet ‘lava’ pockets and a decadent fudgy texture.
Ingredients
The Chocolate Base
- 1 box chocolate cake mix (plus eggs, oil, and water per package)
The ‘Earthquake’ Filling
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
The Topping
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
Base: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×13 pan. Prepare cake mix per box and pour into pan.
Filling: Beat softened cream cheese until smooth. Add melted butter, peanut butter, and vanilla. Mix well.
Thicken: Gradually blend in powdered sugar until a thick paste forms.
Swirl: Drop dollops of the peanut butter mix over the raw batter. Use a knife to create thick streaks (do not over-mix).
Bake: Top with chocolate chips. Bake for 40–45 mins until edges are set. Rest for 15 mins before serving warm.
Notes
Don’t Over-Swirl: The ‘earthquake’ effect depends on heavy pockets of filling sinking through the batter. Excessive mixing will blend the textures.
Room Temperature: Cold cream cheese will leave white lumps that won’t melt away.
The ‘Jiggle’ Factor: A toothpick test will fail because of the gooey center; check for the cake edges pulling away from the pan instead.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking / Swirling
- Cuisine: American Comfort
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Square
- Calories: 520
- Sugar: 54g
- Sodium: 410mg
- Fat: 28g
- Saturated Fat: 14g
- Unsaturated Fat: 14g
- Trans Fat: 0.5g
- Carbohydrates: 68g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 6g
- Cholesterol: 65mg
Keywords: peanut butter earthquake cake, chocolate peanut butter dump cake, gooey cream cheese cake, chocolate lava cake, easy potluck desserts, peanut butter swirl cake