NBM, Day 8: Peanut Butter-Banana Swirl Bundt

For Day 8 of National Baking Month, I finally dipped into a book I bought last year, Beautiful Bundts, by Julie Anne Hession, for this cake, which features a classic combo: peanut butter and banana. The peanut-butter glaze and chopped peanuts add a pretty finish to the exterior.

NBM, Day 5: Peanut Butter-Nutella Coffee Cake

While turning the pages of the One-Layer Cakes special issue of Bake from Scratch, I was drawn to this Peanut Butter-Nutella Coffee Cake for its winning combo of flavors. PB? Yes. Nutella? Oh yes. Peanut streusel topping? Bring it. Total keeper. I tweaked one thing: I put most of the batter in the pan before baking rather than half so that the Nutella wouldn’t sink as much as in the magazine photo. I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out.

NBM, Day 2: Peanut Butter Fingers with Salty Milk Chocolate Glaze

For day 2 of National Baking Month, I plucked a recipe from the fun and inspirational Vintage Baker, which Jessie Sheehan published last year. I’d tried her Chocolate Molasses Crinkles during the holidays and had really wanted to try these chocolate-glazed peanut butter treats because, of course, you can never go wrong with a chocolate-peanut butter combo. The recipe directs to trim the edges off the cookie before cutting it into bars. Not sure if maybe I trimmed off too much, but no worries because the trimmings make for good snacking. The bars are delicate and delicious, and are especially nice with a sprinkling of flaky sea salt on the glaze.

Every Peanut Butter Cupcake in the Book

For a recent work birthday, I needed to make something that involved chocolate and peanut butter. I'd started to feel that over the years, I'd done all the varieties of things I could make (cakes, pies, ice creams), so this year, I opted for cupcakes. When I perused Julie Hasson's 125 Best Cupcake Recipes, I ended up deciding to make all four of the peanut butter-chocolate cupcake recipes. Each one made a dozen cupcakes, so I was sure to have leftovers. I made a double batch of her peanut butter frosting for half of the cupcakes; for the other half, I used a chocolate buttercream.