Reese’s peanut butter cookie cake is a best-of-both-worlds dessert that is soft, chewy, and filled with crunchy candy bites and creamy peanut butter and chocolate flavors. This easy recipe means you never have to choose between a cookie and a cake again.

This Reese’s peanut butter cookie cake is the easiest cookie cake ever. With pops of colorful candy, chocolate chip mix-ins, and an ultra creamy chocolate frosting, this recipe is perfect for an easy birthday cake, a children’s party, or a fun sweet treat that doesn’t force you to decide between tender cookies, and a frosting-topped cake.

This recipe is made with standard chocolate chip cookie ingredients, and is just as easy to make as a batch of drop cookies. The texture is so soft and thick that it slices just like a cake, instead of crumbling like a cookie. You can also omit the Reese’s pieces and turn this into a recipe for a chewy chocolate chip cookie cake. 

If you think chocolate and peanut butter are the world’s best flavor combination, you will love this dessert.

What is a cookie cake?

A cookie cake is a large baked dessert with the texture and taste of a soft and chewy cookie, but topped with frosting and decorated like a cake. The great thing about cookie cakes is you can bake one big cookie to serve at a party, rather than a few dozen individual cookies. These desserts have a nostalgic appeal, so serving one at your next gathering is sure to bring back a few childhood memories.

How to Make

1. Prepare the baking pan. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan.

2. Make the batter. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add the peanut butter and beat until fully combined. Follow with the vanilla and then the eggs. 

3. Mix in the baking soda and cornstarch, and then, with the mixer running, gradually add the flour until it is fully mixed in.

4. Stir in the Reese’s pieces and chocolate chips.

5. Spread the batter out in the prepared pan, and scatter Reese’s pieces over the top.

6. Bake at 350 degrees F for 24-26 minutes. Allow the cake to cool before adding frosting.

7. Make the frosting. Beat the butter, cocoa powder, honey, and peanut butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and mix until combined, and then beat on high until smooth.

8. Decorate the cookie cake. When the cake is cool, use a piping bag to pipe frosting around the perimeter of the cake. Slice and serve!

Ingredients

For the Cake:

• Unsalted butter – Use unsalted butter to control the salt level. Letting the butter come to room temperature will help you cream the butter and sugars.
• Light Brown Sugar, White Sugar – This recipe calls for two sugars. Light brown sugar helps the cookie cake stay soft and moist, while white sugar adds sweetness.
• Creamy Peanut Butter – Creamy peanut butters that do not have any oil separation work best with this recipe. Commercial varieties like JIF are perfect for peanut butter cookies because they integrate with the other ingredients so easily.
• Eggs – Eggs add moisture, structure and extra richness to baked goods like cookie cakes. They also act as a binding ingredient.
• Pure Vanilla Extract, Baking Soda, Cornstarch, Kosher Salt, All-purpose flour – Standard baking ingredients for cakes and cookies.
• Reese’s Pieces, plus more for topping the cake – A classic crunchy chocolate candy with a creamy peanut butter center. 
• Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate Chips – For an extra bite of chocolate. The slightly bitter taste of semi-sweet or dark chocolate will give you the best results. Milk chocolate chips will add a touch more sweetness to this recipe. 

Chocolate Frosting:

• Unsalted butter – The butter should be soft enough for easy mixing. Remove the butter from the refrigerator well before you need it to ensure it softens enough.
• Unsweetened cocoa powder – Unsweetened cocoa powder produces a nice fudgy taste. When it comes to brands, Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder produces a great result. 
• Honey – A natural sweetener.
• Creamy peanut butter – For more creamy peanut butter flavor. Stay away from natural peanut butters which don’t bake or blend well, and go with a commercial brand like JIF. 
• Powdered Sugar – Powdered sugar quickly dissolves into the frosting and will help to create a smooth texture. 

Tips

• Serve with ice cream – Did someone say ‘cake and ice cream party’? A big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of this Reese’s peanut butter cookie cake is dessert heaven.
• Cool completely – It may be tempting to start decorating this cake while it’s still warm so that you can start slicing and serving, but frosting the cake before it’s completely cool will cause the delicious frosting to melt.
• Specialty cake pans – Bake this cake in specialty cake pans with shapes like hearts, Christmas trees, or Easter bunnies for Valentine’s Day, Christmas, or Easter. 

Variations

• Try different mix-ins – Chop up chocolate bars like Snickers, Heath bars, or artisanal chocolate bars in place of the Reese’s. Regular M&Ms or peanut M&Ms would also be a fun addition. 
• Create a candy layer – Turn up the chocolate and peanut butter flavors by adding a layer of peanut butter cups. 
• Swirl caramel – Chocolate, peanut butter, and creamy caramel are a cookie lover’s dream.

FAQs

More Peanut Butter Desserts

• Peanut Butter Snacking Cake
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Bars
• Frozen Peanut Butter Cheesecake Pie