Leo
I have never been great at frosting cakes. No matter how much time I spend with an offset spatula, my frosted cakes always end up looking like a toddler made them out of Play-Doh. Because of this, I have a deep, personal appreciation for any cake that literally frosts itself while it bakes.
Enter the Earthquake Cake.
If you have never heard of an earthquake cake, the concept is brilliant. You make a rich chocolate cake batter and pour it into a pan. Then, you mix up a heavy, dense cream cheese and peanut butter filling. You drop massive dollops of that heavy filling directly on top of the raw cake batter, cover the whole thing in chopped Reese’s cups, and bake it.
As the cake bakes, the cake batter rises, but the heavy cream cheese sinks. The top of the cake physically cracks open and creates massive fault lines and craters (hence the name “earthquake”). When you cut into it, the frosting is already baked directly into the center of the cake like molten lava.
It looks like a complete, beautiful disaster. You do not have to frost a single thing.
I made this for a neighborhood block party in October. It is so ridiculously rich that people were splitting a single square in half. If you love this flavor profile but want something you can eat without a fork, you should absolutely make my Decadent Snickers Brownies or my Chocolate Peanut Butter Valentine’s Heart. If you want a clean, elegant slice of cake, go make my Vanilla Magic Custard Cake.
But if you want a chaotic, gooey, peanut butter masterpiece, let’s make an earthquake.
🍫 Bake Time · Heavy Dessert · 15 Servings
Prep time: 20 min · Bake time: 45 min · Chill time: 1 hr · Calories: 420 kcal
The Nutrition Breakdown
I am not going to lie to you. This is essentially a massive chocolate cake stuffed with an entire peanut butter cheesecake and handfuls of candy. It is a heavy-duty dessert. Here is the estimated breakdown per square (assuming you cut the 9×13 pan into 15 generous pieces):
- Calories: 420
- Protein: 6g
- Carbohydrates: 54g
- Dietary Fiber: 2g
- Total Sugars: 41g
- Fat: 22g
- Saturated Fat: 11g
- Sodium: 310mg
Do not try to make this healthy. If you use low-fat cream cheese or artificial sugar, the heavy swirl mixture will completely liquefy in the oven and ruin the cake. Embrace the butter.
The Right Tools for the Job
This cake is heavy, wet, and sticky. If you use the wrong pan, you are going to have a horrible time trying to serve it.
The Pan: You must use a 9×13-inch light-colored metal baking pan. Do not bake this in a glass Pyrex dish. Glass takes way too long to heat up. Because this cake is already incredibly gooey in the center from the cream cheese, baking it in glass will cause the edges to burn into rocks while the center stays completely raw and liquid. Metal conducts heat evenly.
The Mixer: You need an electric hand mixer for the peanut butter cream cheese filling. If you try to mix a block of cream cheese and powdered sugar by hand with a wooden spoon, you will end up with tiny, disgusting white lumps of raw cheese floating in your cake.
The Ingredient Lineup
The Chocolate Cake Base:
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup hot, strongly brewed black coffee
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
The Peanut Butter Earthquake Swirl:
- 1 block (8 oz) full-fat cream cheese, completely softened
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (do NOT use natural)
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
The Mix-Ins:
- 1 1/2 cups chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups (about 15 fun-size cups)
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
The Coffee: Do not skip the hot coffee in the cake batter. You will not taste coffee in the final cake. The boiling hot liquid forces the cocoa powder to bloom, making the cake taste twice as dark and rich. I use this exact same trick in my Ultimate Moist Chocolate Bundt Cake Recipe.
The Peanut Butter: You need standard, highly-processed creamy peanut butter like Jif or Skippy. If you use natural peanut butter that separates in the jar, the oil will leak out in the oven and fry the top of your cake in a pool of grease.
Mix, Swirl, Bake
1. Make the cake batter.
In a massive mixing bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
Slowly pour the hot coffee into the batter while whisking gently. The batter will become extremely thin and watery. That is exactly what you want. Pour the watery batter into your heavily greased 9×13 metal pan.
2. Beat the earthquake swirl.
In a separate bowl, use your electric hand mixer to beat the softened cream cheese and softened butter together until completely smooth. Add the creamy peanut butter and vanilla extract, and beat again.
Finally, turn the mixer to low and slowly add the powdered sugar until the mixture is thick, pale, and completely lump-free.
3. Drop the dollops.
Take a large spoon and drop massive, heavy dollops of the peanut butter cream cheese mixture directly onto the raw, watery chocolate cake batter.
Do not try to spread it out into a flat layer. Just drop big globs of it everywhere.
4. Swirl it.
Take a metal butter knife and gently drag it through the batter and the dollops to create a marbled pattern.
Do not over-swirl it. If you swirl it too much, the peanut butter mixture will just dissolve into the chocolate batter. You want large, distinct pockets of the heavy filling to remain intact.
5. Add the candy.
Generously scatter the chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups and the chocolate chips evenly over the top of the entire swirled mess.
6. Bake.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 to 50 minutes. This is the hardest cake in the world to test for doneness because it is supposed to be gooey. The edges of the cake should be puffed, solid, and pulling away from the pan. The very center of the cake should still have a slight jiggle to it.
7. The Mandatory Chill.
Pull it out of the oven. Do not touch it. The cream cheese and the candy inside are literally boiling lava. If you cut into this cake right now, it will collapse into a soupy puddle. Let the pan cool completely to room temperature on the counter (about 2 hours), or stick it in the fridge for an hour after it stops steaming.
What I Got Wrong First
My first attempt at an earthquake cake was a structural nightmare. I forgot to take the cream cheese out of the fridge to soften it. I was impatient, so I just threw the cold, hard block of cream cheese into the mixer with the butter and turned it on high.
The cold cheese refused to blend. It broke apart into hundreds of tiny, hard, white lumps. No matter how much powdered sugar I added, it looked like cottage cheese. I baked it anyway, and the lumps refused to melt in the oven. The cake tasted fine, but it looked diseased. Learn from my mistake: your cream cheese and your butter must be completely room temperature before you mix them.
Quick Cake Troubleshooting
Why did my cream cheese filling completely disappear?
You over-swirled it with the knife. You only need to drag the knife through the pan about three or four times. If you swirl it like you are scrambling eggs, the heavy filling just melts into the watery chocolate batter and you lose the “earthquake” craters.
Why is my cake totally liquid in the middle?
Earthquake cakes are famous for being gooey, but they shouldn’t be soup. If it is literal liquid after two hours of cooling, your oven runs cold. Next time, cover the edges with tin foil so they don’t burn, and bake it for an extra 10 minutes.
Can I use a boxed cake mix instead?
Yes! If you do not want to make the chocolate cake batter from scratch, you can absolutely cheat. Buy a box of Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix, follow the instructions on the back of the box to make the batter, pour it in the pan, and then proceed with the peanut butter swirl and candy from this recipe. It works perfectly.
Make-Ahead Baking Schedule
Because of the heavy cream cheese filling, this cake actually gets better as it sits. The moisture gets trapped inside the craters, making the chocolate cake insanely fudgy on day two.
The Day Before: Bake the entire cake, let it cool completely on the counter, and then cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap. Put the pan in the fridge overnight. Cold earthquake cake is actually my preferred way to eat this. It slices beautifully when it is cold, and the peanut butter cups turn snappy and firm.
Freezing: I do not recommend freezing the entire baked cake. The cream cheese filling can get a little grainy when it thaws. However, if you have a few leftover slices, wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them for a late-night emergency snack.
Variations and Tweaks
The Rolo Earthquake: If you are allergic to peanuts, completely skip the peanut butter and the Reese’s cups. Make the cream cheese swirl exactly the same (just omit the peanut butter). Drop chopped Rolo candies and a heavy drizzle of thick caramel sauce over the top before baking.
White Chocolate Macadamia: Use a Yellow Cake mix or a vanilla cake base instead of chocolate. Make the cream cheese swirl, and top the whole thing with white chocolate chips and toasted macadamia nuts.
Mint Chocolate: Swap the Reese’s cups for chopped Peppermint Patties or Andes Mints, and use dark chocolate chips. This is incredible around the holidays.
Storing Leftovers
Because the heavy swirl contains a full block of cream cheese, this cake must be stored in the refrigerator. If you leave it on the counter for three days, the dairy will spoil.
Keep the pan covered tightly with foil or plastic wrap in the fridge. It will easily last for up to 5 days. You can eat it straight out of the fridge, or microwave a slice for 15 seconds if you want the peanut butter to get melty again.
Reese’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Earthquake Cake
No spatula frosting needed. Hot coffee-bloomed chocolate cake + heavy peanut butter cream cheese dollops that sink and crack the top into fault lines — molten candy lava baked right in.
Ingredients 01
Hot coffee = no coffee flavor, just deeper chocolate — it blooms Dutch cocoa (same trick as my Chocolate Bundt Cake). Natural peanut butter leaks oil and fries the top — use standard Jif/Skippy. Low-fat cream cheese liquefies and ruins the craters.
As an Amazon Associate, we may earn from qualifying purchases. Click any ingredient name to shop it on Amazon — no extra cost to you.
How to Cook 02
Whisk 1¾ cups flour + ¾ cup Dutch cocoa + 2 cups sugar + 1 tsp baking powder + 1 tsp soda + 1 tsp salt. In another bowl whisk ½ cup oil + 1 cup buttermilk + 2 eggs + 1 tsp vanilla. Pour wet into dry, stir just combined. Slowly whisk in 1 cup hot coffee — batter turns extremely thin and watery, that’s correct. Pour into heavily greased 9×13 light metal pan.
With electric hand mixer beat 8 oz softened cream cheese + ½ cup softened butter till completely smooth. Add ¾ cup creamy peanut butter + 1 tsp vanilla, beat again. On low slowly add 2 cups powdered sugar till thick, pale, lump-free. If cheese/butter cold you’ll get cottage-cheese lumps that stay diseased after baking — must be room temp.
With a large spoon drop massive heavy dollops of the peanut butter mixture directly onto the raw watery batter — everywhere. Don’t spread flat; globs must stay heavy so they sink and crack the top.
Drag a metal butter knife 3–4 times through batter + dollops to marble. Stop. Over-swirling dissolves filling into chocolate and you lose craters — you want distinct heavy pockets.
Scatter 1½ cups chopped Reese’s + ½ cup chips evenly over the swirled mess — over dollops and plain batter.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) 45–50 min. Hardest cake to test — it’s supposed to be gooey. Edges should be puffed, solid, pulling from pan; center still has a slight jiggle. That’s done.
Cream cheese + candy are boiling lava. Cool to room temp on counter (~2 hrs) — don’t cut or it soups. Then fridge 1 hr after steaming stops to slice cleanly. Cold holds the craters.
Notes 03
9×13 light metal — not glass Pyrex. Glass heats slow, edges burn to rocks while gooey center stays raw liquid; metal conducts evenly. And use an electric hand mixer — wooden spoon leaves raw white cheese lumps floating in cake.
Cold cheese = diseased lumps: threw cold block in mixer on high — shattered into hundreds of hard white bits, looked like cottage cheese, never melted. Soften cream cheese + butter completely to room temp first.
Filling disappeared? Over-swirled — 3–4 knife drags only; scrambling dissolves it. Liquid after 2 hrs? Oven runs cold — tent edges with foil, bake +10 min. Box mix cheat? Yes — Dark Chocolate Fudge box batter, then same PB swirl + candy works perfectly.
Bake day before: cool completely, wrap tight with plastic, fridge overnight — cold slices beautifully, Reeses turn snappy. Trapped moisture makes cake fudgier. Don’t freeze whole cake — filling goes grainy; freeze individual wrapped slices for emergencies.
Rolo Earthquake (peanut-free): omit peanut butter + Reese’s; make plain cream cheese swirl, top with chopped Rolos + thick caramel drizzle. White Chocolate Macadamia: use yellow/vanilla base + white chips + toasted macadamias. Mint Chocolate: swap Reese’s for Peppermint Patties/Andes + dark chips — holiday hit.
Full block of cream cheese = fridge 5 days, tightly foiled/plastic. Counter 3 days will spoil dairy. Eat cold or microwave slice 15 sec to melt peanut butter. Fork needed — for no-fork, make Snickers Brownies or Chocolate Peanut Butter Valentine’s Heart; for elegant slice try Vanilla Magic Custard Cake.
Nutrition 04
| Nutrient | Per Serving (1 of 15) |
|---|---|
| Calories | 420 kcal |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Carbohydrates | 54 g |
| Fiber | 2 g |
| Sugar | 41 g |
| Fats | 22 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 310 mg |
9×13 pan cut into 15 generous squares. Heavy dessert — chocolate cake + peanut butter cheesecake + candy. Embrace the butter; low-fat swaps liquefy filling.
Allergens: wheat (flour), dairy (buttermilk, cream cheese, butter, chocolate), egg, peanuts (peanut butter, Reese’s), soy (candy). Check labels.
Explore more: Decadent Snickers Brownies · Chocolate Peanut Butter Valentine’s Heart · Vanilla Magic Custard Cake · Ultimate Moist Chocolate Bundt Cake
