I can melt peanut butter....
By "work" do you mean be just like using butter? Or taste good even though somewhat heavier?

I've never heard of anything like it. Like Linda, I think it sounds heavy, but who knows? Annie's cuppa peanut butter cookies use the peanut butter as both flour and non-egg fat. If I use just the right kind of peanut butter, I can make them in mini-cheesecake pans and they'll turn into a popover with a blondie-like texture.

Even without all the oats and raisins weighing it down, they're not a fluffy kind of cookie. If you add some baking soda, it'll give more leavening with the acid of the buttermilk, but I don't know if it's cumulative. I guess the buttermilk is enough liquid. It might work. I'd be tempted to go Jewish and add another egg. :) I don't know how much liquid is in peanut butter. In butter it's about 17-20%. You could just try it... As long as it cooks completely and doesn't burn, you'll have something edible. I don't know what, but you should be able to figure out what to do with it if it isn't cake. :) Maybe make it into bread pudding, or a crumble, or it'll serve up like a bar cookie. Or it'll be the cake of your dreams. :)

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.

By "work" I mean "taste good even though somewhat heavier".

As for the peanut butter, I use natural peanut butter that's pretty liquid. Its texture is quite like that of softened butter at room temp. My room temp is high :)

Edited to add: Its texture is actually far more liquid than softened butter.

I never buy peanut butter, and so I guess I'm the wrong person to comment on this. I do have almond butter in the fridge, however, and it is a bit on the crunchy side and nowhere close to liquid. I sometimes buy cashew butter, which I think is closer to peanut butter than almond butter. However, I would prefer the flavor of almond butter in your recipe than peanut butter, but then as I said I am not a big fan of peanut butter.

I can see peanut butter with the oats, but I'm not so sure about the raisins and cinnamon. I would not use cinnamon, but that's just my personal preference. Taste some peanut butter with cinnamon first and see if you like it. When I made peanut butter sandwiches, I never used anything but peanut butter and bread - no jam or anything sweet, but again that's my personal preference.

Thanks for the tip on the cinnamon. I'll do as you suggested. Would never have occurred to me otherwise.

Interesting that the pancake recipe makes a good cake. Do you leave it overnight before baking it? Are you trying to make it more healthy? I'd try a compromise initially... I'd add 1/8 cup butter and 1/4 cup PB.

I soak the oats in buttermilk overnight, then take out of the fridge so it reaches room temp. I take out the eggs out of the fridge as well. I put the batter in the oven immediately after mixing in the dry ingredients.

The reason I'm using it as cake batter rather than for pancakes as originally intended is that I don't have time for making pancakes in the morning. This batter makes a great sheetcake to cut a square from for eating with morning coffee. I also freeze squares when I double the quantity and they thaw overnight (not in the fridge, just on the kitchen counter) and are very good in the morning.

I'm trying to make it healthier. It's getting to be too much butter for me.

So you're trying to use the PB as a healthier fat, and not necessarily taste? Another alternative would be to try substituting applesauce for the butter. I'd use 1/2 c applesauce to replace the 1/4 c butter.

Both healthier fat AND taste. It's the butter - more than the cinnamon - that makes this cake so tasty. You take out the butter and the cake tastes like fodder, plus the texture is way too dry. That's why I think I need some highly tasty fat, like peanut butter.

Maybe part peanut butter and part coconut oil?

No. No no no. I thought the point was you wanted it to be peanutty and butter seemed the best thing to sub for.

There is an aphorism that butter melts at mouth temperature. What it means is that butter cookies and butter cakes have that meltaway richness that nothing can duplicate. Parve vegan baking sticks can make beautiful, tasty, perfect crumb baked goods, but margarine has a different kind of fat globule which melts at a higher temperature in the oven, and also gives a firmer texture in the mouth. No meltaway. For some things that's even preferable. But nothing is butter. Nothing else tastes buttery or feels buttery or has that special buttery butterness.

If the butter is what makes the baked pancake good, then butter is what you need. Cut smaller squares.

agmss15 - what you wrote ties in with what I just found on this site:

https://www.leaf.tv/articles/can-you-substitute-peanut-butter-for-butter-in-baking/

"Substituting Peanut Butter for Butter

Unlike other fats and oils, butter, depending on the style and salt content, is at least 80 percent fat, with milk solids and water making up the remaining 20 percent; on the other hand, peanut butter is only 50 percent fat. It contains 25 percent protein, fiber and other carbohydrates in addition to fat. To effectively substitute peanut butter for butter in a recipe, first combine equal parts creamy peanut butter and oil; use the mixture cup for cup as you would use butter in cakes, muffins, cookies, brownies or quick breads."

Thanks! I'll go ahead and do it, but I think I'll use canola rather than coconut oil.

I was thinking coconut because it is solid at room temperature. Peanut butter is essentially butter + some flour. Not quite equivalent but...

Interested to see how your experiment works out.

I'll come back after giving it a try.

Wintercat--please tell us how long and at what temp you bake the sheet cake? And what size pan? Thanks a bunch, it sounds really good and I like the sound of a square of this instead of a piece of toast.

They make butter extract but I’ve never used it myself. I’m sure it’s in a lot of commercial baked goods. Maybe add that to your oil?

junco - I need to measure my baking sheet. It's rather small because my oven is small. I'm at work now, so I'll do it when I get home.

I bake at 180 C, which is 356 F according to the temperature converter on Google. I like this cake with a slightly crusty top and bottom, and at this temperature for about and hour and a half (90 minutes) that's what I get, but ovens are different and the best thing would be to keep checking when you first bake it.

chickadee - that's a good idea. If the flavour isn't to my taste the first time I make it with peanutbutter, I'll try the butter extract. Thanks!

10.5 x 8.5 inch pan for qt batter. 14 x 12 inch pan when i double qt of batter. This is the pan that came with the oven.

Forgot to mention i sub heavy cream plus water 50:50 for buttermilk cause always have cream on hand but not buttermilk. This is a very forgiving recipe. I like it better with cream. Give it a try.

This is from my phone i'm sick at home. Happy subbing!