Peanut Butter Bundt Cake

Five weeks since Caleb was born and the shape of my life has shifted in ways I am still learning to map. Not in the daily-structure sense — my days in Tuscaloosa are largely the same: garden, Bernice's Table on Tuesdays, cooking, the church, Kezia on Saturdays. But there is a direction to everything now that is new, an orientation toward the future that I had not fully felt since before Marcus died. Before Marcus died I was oriented forward because that was ordinary life: the children growing, the next season coming, the future a plain you were walking across without particular anxiety. After Marcus died the future became more cautious — I turned toward it, but carefully, holding something. Now the caution has shifted into something else. Not carelessness. Something more like trust.

Caleb Marcus Simms. Five weeks old. He will know about this table. He will grow up knowing Bernice's Table exists and why and whose name it carries. He will eat this cornbread. He will hold this cast iron when he is old enough. He will hear the story of the pearl ring and the cedar box and the night his grandmother stood in the kitchen at midnight making macaroni and cheese because she had to do something with her hands and the kitchen was the only place she knew how to survive. He will know all of it because I will tell him, and because the table is still set, and because food carries what words sometimes can't, and because this is a family that feeds people and always has been.

September. Five weeks. A whole new season. I am going to be fine. I have been fine. I will keep being fine. There is cornbread in the oven and my grandson is five weeks old and the table is full.

The cornbread belongs to Bernice, to the cast iron, to the midnight hours that have already been lived — but when Caleb arrived I wanted to bake something just for the celebrating, something that felt like abundance and sweetness and a little bit of showing off, the way you do when a new person enters your family and you want the table to say welcome, we have been waiting for you. This Peanut Butter Bundt Cake is what I made that first Sunday after he came home: golden all the way through, draped in glaze, the kind of thing you carry to a table and set down without apology. It is a cake that knows it’s a cake. Caleb will have this one too.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 30 min (includes cooling) | Servings: 12

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
For the glaze: 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, 1 cup powdered sugar (sifted), 4–5 tbsp whole milk, pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Heat oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan with softened butter, then dust with flour, tapping out any excess. Set aside.
Whisk dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until evenly combined.
Cream the fats and sugar. In a large bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the peanut butter and softened butter on medium speed until smooth and unified, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, 3–4 minutes more.
Add eggs and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in the vanilla extract.
Alternate wet and dry. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk in two additions (flour — buttermilk — flour — buttermilk — flour). Mix only until just combined after each addition; do not overmix.
Fill and bake. Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared Bundt pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 50–55 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted into the thickest part comes out with just a few moist crumbs. The top should feel set when lightly pressed.
Cool before turning. Let the cake rest in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a thin spatula around the center tube and outer edge if needed, then invert onto the rack and allow to cool completely, at least 45 minutes, before glazing.
Make the glaze. Whisk together the peanut butter, sifted powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, and 4 tablespoons of milk until smooth. Add the fifth tablespoon of milk if the glaze is too thick to drizzle; it should fall in a slow, steady ribbon. Drizzle generously over the cooled cake, letting it run down the ridges on its own.
Serve. Allow the glaze to set for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve at room temperature. Store covered at room temperature for up to 3 days, or refrigerate for up to 5.

Nutrition (per serving)

Peanut Butter Bundt Cake — Baked With a Full Heart and a Table to Come Home To