3 Ingredient Flourless Peanut Butter Cake
This Flourless Peanut Butter Cake is so easy to make with 3 ingredients! Creamy peanut butter mixed with eggs and sugar bakes up into a fudgy rich peanut butter cake that’s perfect for dessert or as a snack cake.
I’ve been enjoying making recipes with four ingredients or less lately, and this flourless peanut butter cake is a new favorite. It’s so simple, and after testing it a few times, I’m so happy with the way it turned out.
I was inspired after making my two-ingredient flourless Nutella cake to give another flourless cake a try. Well, the first attempt was a disaster. I could tell right away the batter was too thick. The cake came out full of small holes and was not sweet at all. It was so bad even the puppy wouldn’t touch it.
So I regrouped and tried again, reducing the peanut butter amount and adding sugar to the batter. And this time, it was a success. It baked up just like the Nutella cake. While I prefer the Nutella cake, I like the peanut butter one too. And it’s almost just as easy to make.
3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cake
- Large eggs
- Creamy peanut butter
- Granulated sugar
Peanut butter: I’ve only tested this cake with creamy peanut butter, but crunchy peanut butter will work, too. It will add some crunchy texture to the cake. I haven’t tested it with natural peanut butter or other kinds of nut butter.
When you measure the peanut butter, you will want to use a scale. You need the exact weighted amount to achieve the right texture for the cake.
Recipe Tips
Pan size: I recommend using a springform pan for this cake. It makes it easy to remove the cake when you are ready to serve it. If you don’t have one, you can use an 8″ round cake pan, but you should line it with parchment paper so you can lift out the cake in one piece for slicing.
Whipping the eggs: The cake gets its texture and volume from whipped eggs. A stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment makes this easy – you can turn on the machine and let it whip the eggs for eight minutes or until they are tripled in volume. You can also use a hand-held electric mixer.
Folding: Once you’ve whipped the eggs, you will need to fold them into the peanut butter. Do this slowly and carefully so you don’t deflate the egg mixture.
Baking: The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean. It should only take about 20 minutes or so for the cake to bake. Allow the cake to cool completely before removing a slice.
Optional Toppings
This flourless peanut butter cake is delicious on its own, but you can add a topping if you want to dress it up.
- Spread chocolate ganache over the top of the cooled cake or add a thin layer of peanut butter frosting.
- Warm some peanut butter in the microwave and drizzle it over the top. Or melt some chocolate and drizzle it over the top. A combination of both would be good, too!
- Decorate the top with some mini peanut butter cups or mini chocolate chips.
- Dust the top of the cake with powdered sugar.
More Peanut Butter Desserts
- No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies
- 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Brownies
- 2 Ingredient Peanut Butter Fudge
- Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
Three Ingredient Flourless Peanut Butter cake
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 5 oz peanut butter, weigh this out on a scale
- 3/4 cup sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 inch round springform pan. Then line with parchment paper on sides and on bottom. You need to line with parchment paper because cake will stick even if you grease pan. Greasing it first makes the parchment paper stick better to the pan.
- Beat eggs on highest speed with mixer until triple in volume, about 8 minutes. Make sure you beat the eggs long enough. This cake depends on the egg volume. Add in sugar and beat for another minute.
- Measure out peanut butter into a glass bowl. Add in 1/3 of the egg mixture. Stir with a spatula in the same clockwise direction until all of the egg is mixed in and no streaks remain. Make sure you stir gently with a spatula and do not use a whisk or a mixer, as you will deflate the eggs too much. Then add another 1/3 of egg mixture and stir again until no egg streaks remain. Scrape the bottom of your bowl a few times to make sure none of the peanut butter has sunk to the bottom. Pour in remaining third and make sure to scrape the foam that sticks to the mixing bowl into the cake batter and stir until no streaks remain.
- Pour batter into springform pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes until knife inserted comes out clean. Let cake cool before cutting and serving.
I’m doing mine in cupcake paper. The last half I added a few quick oats and cinnamon. Let’s see what we get.
Hi, do you think it’s possible to reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup and still turn out ok? Thanks!
The cake should bake okay but i dont think it will be sweet enough
Just to be sure the pan is supposed to be a springform… not foam. Yes?
yes, sorry for the typo!
I would take this lovely, but flat cake and stack it on top of the Nutella cake for a chocolate peanut butter hazelnut taste sensation.
yummy idea!
I don’t have a food scale, how much pb is 5 ozs in cups or measuring spoons?
I’m not sure. Try doing a google search. I’ve found that when I don’t know the conversions, usually someone has done the work somewhere online
Love this. I got peanut butter and eggs from the food bank this month and sugar was on sale.
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
could you use egg substitute?
No, I don’t think so. You need real eggs for this one.
I would csll this a pie, not a cake. My PB cookies uses 4 ingredients & no flour. Try adding some vanilla next time. It adds flavor. (Cookies: 1 egg, 1 cup PB, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla–roll into balls & flatten on bake sheet w/glass dipped n sugar or w/a fork. Bake @ 325 (preheated)–14-16 min. until lightly brown) I prefer Jiff & sometimes I use the crunchy when I feel like having nuts in my cookies.
Hmm, well it might be shaped like a pie but it doesn’t have a pie filling. It just tastes like cake to me. Thanks for your PB cookie recipe. I actually have a few flourless PB cookie recipes too.
Intriguing, Kirbie. Thanks for “fiddling” with the recipe. I like peanut butter better than Nutella, and I always have these ingredients on hand.
Ah, give it a try!
lol…disregard the previous comment…I went back and re-read the instructions, and there it was…the egg/sugar mixture… Sorry. :/
Np! good luck with the cake.
um…there’s a problem with the directions…In the ingredients list there is listed 3/4c sugar, and 4 eggs, and then in step 2 second sentence, you say to add 1/3 egg MIXTURE…um, WHAT egg mixture? Please respond with the instructions for this..
thanks!
Made this today with chunnky pb, since the batter is so thin, the chunks of peanuts sinked to the bottom of my pan and made a nut crust lol, it was delicous! Thanks for sharing the recipe
Interesting. I never tried with chunky PB but glad it works!
I wonder if you could replace the sugar with splenda or a splenda blend to make it low carb or more diabetic friendly. Looks yummy like it is, though.
I think that would work.
I see a jar of Skippy in the pic. Do you think this would work with homemade peanut butter, ie: just peanuts with no oils added, or would that be too thick?
I dont think it will work the same with homemade peanut butter. I’m sure a version is possible, but you would have to play around with the ratios of the other ingredients.
Looks absolutely DELICIOUS and so simple! Do you know if I could mash both your 2/3 ingredient recipes together and make a peanut butter and nutella cake with the same measurements? 🙂
Hmm, it might be a little tricky because I didn’t use the same amounts when I made the PB one compared to the Nutella one because the two spreads have a different consistency.
This is actually the same recipe for 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies except you don’t whip the eggs, I guess that’s where you get the difference in texture. Love your website!
I’ve done the peanut butter cookies too. I never thought about them being similar. It’s definitely a different texture because of all the eggs and the whipping.
looks good, but isn’t this just a giant cookie? I could see spreading some nutella on it, and topping it with coconut, m&ms, etc, like a cookie pizza. mmm.
Actually the texture is really like a cake. Even though it has no flour. The whipped eggs make it fluffy. I like the idea of topping it with stuff though it would probably have to be after as I think some stuff on top my weigh it down too much and not rise properly.