Peanut Butter Sheet Cake

This is one of my FAVORITE cakes I've made in a long time... I bought a jelly roll pan awhile ago to make this amazing slab pie, and have since used it as one of my favorite baking trays, but this is the first recipe I've made since then that actually used it as the actual cake pan.

Monday is Memorial Day so 3 day weekend coming up, but I'm making it a 4-day weekend and leaving town on Friday. I'm going on a trip with a friend to the Indy 500 (the 100th running is on Sunday) and I'm SO excited to do a road trip and see some pretty cool things along the way. I love, love, love road trips. I think it's the way we grew up - I have so many memories of long car rides, camping trips, cookies and cheez its in the car, running around at rest stops with our golden retriever Darcy, playing endless and silly car games. Those are some pretty strong memories for me and I have started reconnecting to that piece of me and getting away on weekend trips again in the past few months and already have several more planned - actually quite a few planned! There will be camping by a lake, a weekend birthday trip to Destin, my brother's visit with another camping trip to Comer, GA to a national park, and we're going to Great Wolf Lodge near Charlotte, NC to celebrate Lindsey's 3rd birthday late in September. Those are just the ones I've committed to and know for sure we're doing. I think there will be at least one more camping trip in there somewhere as well. I cannot tell you how excited I am about all of this! I love the planning, the prepping, the stuffing the car full of stuff, baking cookies for the trip, making sure we have drinks and snacks for the car. Inevitably forgetting something and realizing it when you got there, schedules being thrown off, but making so many memories with my children, family, and friends. So this coming weekend sort of kicks off a summer of mini trips and I can't wait!

And now you know what's new with me and we can get back to CAKE!! This cake is soooo moist and tender, and I love the chunks of peanuts throughout from using the chunky peanut butter. I totally screwed up the icing (I boiled off too much liquid, then added too many marshmallows), so mine turned into a fantastically delicious peanut butter fudge. Fudge is really hard to spread. I advise following the recipe a little more closely than I did for that part. Or make peanut butter fudge... and just eat it without trying to spread it on the cake! :)

Peanut Butter Sheet Cake from ERNSBERGER5 on AllRecipes

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing
2/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
1/3 cup miniature marshmallows
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 10x15x1 inch jellyroll pan.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, 2 cups sugar, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Combine the water and 3/4 cup of butter in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in 1/2 cup peanut butter and vegetable oil until well blended. Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients. Combine the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla; stir into the peanut butter mixture until well blended. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 18 to 26 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
4. While the cake bakes, place 2/3 cup sugar, evaporated milk, and butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook stirring for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter, marshmallows and vanilla until marshmallows are melted and the mixture is smooth.
5. Spoon the frosting over the warm cake and spread in an even layer. Allow to cool before cutting and serving.