Recipe: Peanut Butter Lover's Cake

Peanut Butter Lover's Cake
Yields: one 9-inch round, 3-layer cake
First prize winner, Ruth Hershberger of Screven, Ga.

3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
5 eggs, separated
1 cup smooth peanut butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Peanut-Butter Frosting:
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup smooth peanut butter
4 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans; set aside.

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating well. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in peanut butter.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to peanut-butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating at low speed until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

In a clean bowl, beat egg whites at high speed until stiff peaks form; fold into batter. Spoon batter into prepared pans, dividing evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove cake from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.

Make frosting: Beat butter at medium speed until creamy. Beat in peanut butter until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioner's sugar;
add milk and vanilla, beating until smooth. Add additional milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, if needed to make spreading consistency. Spread frosting between cake layers and on top and sides of cake. Sprinkle peanuts on top of cake.