Has a list of recipe ingredients ever been so strange and so very frightening you were actually compelled into making it? Just to see what it tastes like? Have you ever loved an ingredient so much you've tried it in things maybe you shouldn't have?
Well, there is no denying the fact that I love sauerkraut. I grew up on it and thought I had it every way possible. Apparently not.
This summer when my Mom and I were making sauerkraut I ended up with an extra jar of the store bought stuff in my pantry. It has sort of been burning a hole in my cupboard so I decided to pull it out and look and the little recipe pamphlet that was attached to the lid. Oh looky here, two recipes, one for Sweet and Sour(kraut) Chicken and one for Peanut Butter Chip Cake. What?
Cake, with sauerkraut in it? With peanut butter? That was even odd to me. However, you are just going to have to trust me on this one. The odd couple is not so odd! In fact, the cake is wonderful.
You don't taste the kraut at all, it disappears in all the sweetness and basically is used as an ingredient to keep the cake very moist.
The Wild Boar was my first cake victim. "Here honey, have a big piece of cake." "Mmmm, tastes like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup." "You like it?" "Yes, very much." "It's full of sauerkraut you know." He stops chewing dead in his tracks and looks at me like I'm from planet Bilzzabob. He couldn't believe it.
Next victim, my 9 year old. "Want some cake?" "Yep." "This is good." "It has sauerkraut in it." Okay, he freaked for a minute then went right on eating.
I think October will be the perfect month for this cake with all the Oktoberfest celebrations going on. Kraut and Oktoberfest go hand in hand. We should change the name to Oktoberfest Kraut Cake...it sounds more exciting.
Oh yeah, the best part is this is a one bowl cake. I threw everything in my stand mixer and beat the heck out of it. No delicate mixing or weighing of ingredients. It's so easy.
Here is the odd couple now. Bizarre!
In the bowl of a stand mixer or another large bowl, add all the ingredients except the chocolate chips. Beat until well blended. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Spread mixture in a greased 10 x 15 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool the cake and frost...recipe to follow at the end.
Sprinkle the cake with mini chocolate chips and salted, dry-roasted peanuts if you like.
It's really, really good and very moist.
Time for a second piece...yum.
Peanut Butter Chip Cake or Oktoberfest Kraut Cake
Adapted from Steinfeld's Sauerkraut
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup extra-crunchy, super chunk peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sauerkraut, rinsed, well-drained and finely chopped
1/2 cup mini-semi-sweet chocolate chips plus more for sprinkling on top
Salted, dry-roasted peanuts for topping
In the bowl of a stand mixer or another large bowl, add all the ingredients except the chocolate chips. Beat until well blended. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Spread mixture in a greased 10 x 15 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool the cake and frost. Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and peanuts.
Peanut Butter Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup regular peanut butter
2 Tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 Tablespoons boiling water
Combine all frosting ingredients. Beat until well blended and easy to spread.
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The word chicken TOTALLY threw me off for a minute. *lol*
Looks like something my “peanut butter and chocolate” lovin’ teenagers would enjoy!
I tried a chocolate cake with sauerkraut ONCE and it was awful. Yours looks delicious. I swear anything with peanut butter calls my name.
That does sound like an odd combination. But I’ll take your word for it.
Wow, that totally surprised me. I started reading after seeing the piece of cake and NEVER thought you’d say saurkraut! Fab combo, looks de-lish!
Heck, there’s chocolate cake with mayo, why not pb cake with saurkraut!
Hmmm. I’m a little leary of anything sauerkraut but my husband and I have a huge Oktoberfest every year and I think I might just have to make this!
You have got to shut up. I so want to make this, serve it to everyone I know and tell them afterward what was in it. I think I might just do that…
Oh, I love it! The story, the recipe, and the fact you gave it to your family on the sly!
Wow, interesting. I love a peanut butter chocolatey cake, so why not? I think it’d be fun, just because you could tell everyone about the sauerkraut! I made black bean brownies (on my blog!) and it was funny to listen to everyone ooh and ahh over them, and meanwhile, I’m giddy trying to wait to tell them there are BEANS in them! Same situation with this cake.
I’ll just have to trust you on this one, but I’m allergic to nuts… really. But it kinda makes sense. It’s not like people haven’t used sour cream in cakes… same concept.
Thats EXACTLY why I made that silly Cincinnati Chili, the ingredients were so odd that I couldn’t figure out what it would taste like, but this takes the cake! (pun intended) How funny that you found this on the sauerkraut jar. Someone should get an award for creativity. Lea Ann
Wow, just wow! I have a big scrapbooking weekend retreat coming up, this might have to be on the menu, just for the shock value, hahaha.
Never in a million years would I have thought of combining sauerkraut and PB! But I must admit – that looks heavenly!
Ahh, “chicken” caught me in the beginning as well! I was trying to figure out how chicken was involved in this cake for a solid minute!
This sounds awesome, though. It intrigues me, I have to try it!
Okay so I really thought that you were making a cake with sweet and sourkraut chicken with peanut butter and chocolate chips in it. Oh my! That would definitely have been a first – and possibly the last! Is it worst that I was WILLING to try that recipe at least once?
)
My best, Lynn
I’m game! oh yeah!
I would never have thought to combine those ingredients, but it makes sense. The kraut would make a moist cake, and that peanut butter frosting looks fantastic.
So I still don’t get where the chicken is. I guess that’s a different cake. and, hey, if I could make a cake with grated potatoes, and another with tomatoes, I guess you can make one with sauerkraut. You can even call it nutritious, and the piglets will never know the difference!
I will have to summon up a lot of guts to try this one, but it does have me intrigued.
Just beautiful…we’ll have to try this. Think it’s okay to throw some brats in there too
Yep..I would have to agree that is very strange!! Who would have thunk it???
when i saw the words sauerkraut and cake, i feared that this is where we were headed. how could it possibly work? clearly, this is worth a try. excellent find, cathy!
I am wanting a piece of cake so bad, I think I’ll make this. you have extolled the virtues of peanut butter frosting before. I’m sold.
Fermented food in cake, yes this will work!!
You had me at sauerkraut – yum!!!!
… ok. Yeah. Weird. But I do really want to make it. I think it might just have to be done.
Oh I am SO making this because it sounds delicious and I love freaking out my husband with weird ingredients. Perfect Halloween treat by the way.
This looks so good! I am definitely going to try this and not tell anyone what’s in it until they’ve eaten the entire thing! Especially my mother…she’s weird like that, worse than my 6 year old! LOL!
I don’t know if I would have been brave enough to try this recipe. I must say, it looks AMAZING. Who knew.
Now that’s even weirder than the garlic-chip cookies recipe I have tucked away in my collection. It’s funny how stuff like that can make dessert taste fantastic. It takes a brave person to make the first move and actually try it though.
This would be worth making just to see my kidlin’s expressions when I tell them, ever so sweetly, that the cake has kraut in it. hehe
David Lebovitz has a chocolate cake that’s made with kraut. A good friend has dared me to make it but I haven’t taken her up on it. I think I’ll make yours instead. It looks delicious!
definitely a “whod’a thunk” recipe here.. but looks yummy in end result
thanx!
gp who wont tell her guests there’s s’kraut in the afternoon snackie
okay, this is just too weird, I’m going to have to break my no-baking rule and try it!
And to think the grape jelly meatball recipes confounded me when I first saw them. Got to try this one!
Now that’s crazy wild. Seriously. I would have never in a million years paired these ingredients and expected it to actually taste good. Wow!
Now I am gonna have to buy a bag of sauerkraut just to make this cake – so intriguing!
It would be fun to serve this to the family and see if they could guess the secret ingredients. Based on your photos, it looks amazing!
Wow! This is about the craziest cake combo I’ve ever seen! I’m the only one in my family that will touch kraut! What a great way to trick them into eating some! ;D
I recently tried wine kraut. It’s much less zingy.
Thanks! I have a lonely jar of saurkraut in my cupboard that never really sounds appetizing…so it continues to sit there! I’ll have to try this out…yum!
Putting sauerkraut in a cake sounds disgusting. However, the pictures look delicious and you haven’t steered me wrong yet. I may have to give this a try.
I just dont know, but I once had a roomate that put sauer kraut in deep dish pizza. Now the peanut butter icing, I like.
Wow! That is a very interesting recipe. It looks delicious but I think I’d rather let someone else make it. I don’t handle sauerkraut well at all.
Hm, It looks really,really good but sauerkraut? Guess I need to jump in and try it!
Happy Friday!
~ingrid
I cannot abide saurkraut but I am having a similar I must try this to see if t is true reaction
Sounds crazy, but I bet it was great! I’m convinced any vegetable will make a cake stay tender and delicious. Love the choc chips and peanuts on top too!
I will for sure try this…….love to make wierd things and then tell fam about it…after they eat it…..LOL
That sounds rather awful and looks absolutely delicious.
My mother used to make chocolate sauerkraut cake when I was younger 30+ years ago. The sauerkaut actually is like coconut in the cake. It is the secret to the moistness. The key is to make sure the saurkraut is thoroughly rinsed. This peanut butter cake sounds great. Definitely will try.
How funny that I should come across this today! I just made a chocolate sauerkraut cake and was sitting down to blog about. The combo of peanut butter and kraut I had never heard, I will link to this in my post