Peanut Butter Frosting

A silky smooth but perfectly pipeable peanut butter frosting that’s the perfect complement to any cake or cupcake. Also great for just eating by the spoonful!

Maybe you guys haven’t noticed, but I’ve been working on bulking up my “Frostings” section on the blog.

In the past, I would share cake or cupcake recipes and tag on my preferred complementary frosting, but I’m a big believer in choices. Maybe you’d rather frost your funfetti cake with chocolate frosting (or even peanut butter frosting) instead of buttercream, right? Well I wanted to have a good variety of options for you to choose from.

So far I’ve shared my favorites of the following:

• Cream cheese frosting (<—- possibly my favorite frosting of all-time)
• Chocolate frosting
• Vanilla buttercream frosting

And today I’m adding peanut butter frosting to the list.

This recipe is super easy to make, and on Monday I’ll be sharing a very complementary and very dark chocolate cupcake recipe with you, but of course you can put it on whatever you want. You can even just eat it by the spoonful, I know I did.

And yet it remains a mystery to me why my cardio sessions aren’t paying off 😭

Anyway, Peanut Butter Frosting requires just 6 ingredients to make. It’s smooth, creamy, and is great for piping on top of cupcakes or decorating a cake.

Tips for Making Peanut Butter Frosting

• While chunky or creamy peanut butter can work in this peanut butter frosting recipe, I don’t recommend using chunky unless you don’t intend to pipe the frosting. The little peanut pieces will clog up your frosting tips in a second.
• I don’t recommend using natural peanut butter (the kind that separates, you know the one that you usually need to stir before using). I haven’t tried it myself but I’m pretty certain that it wouldn’t work too nicely work with this recipe (it would be too oily).
• This peanut butter frosting pipes very nicely as written. However, for a stiffer frosting, you can add an additional ½-1 cup (65-125g) of powdered sugar.

How Many Cupcakes/How Much Cake Will this Peanut Butter Frosting Cover?

• If you’re generously frosting your cupcakes (as seen in my cupcake photo below), then this frosting will handily cover 12-15 cupcakes. If you’re being a bit more modest, it will cover 24 (I covered 24 cupcakes with peanut butter frosting rosettes using the 1M tip).
• This frosting will also cover a 9×13 sheet cake or a round 2-layer 8″ or 9″ cake. Now I’m just thinking about how I want to make a cake with this frosting and then cover it with ganache… Yum!

Enjoy!

Oh, and do you have any requests for other frosting recipes you’d like to see? I’m currently working on caramel but would love any suggestions that you have!

How to Make Peanut Butter Frosting

Peanut Butter Frosting

A silky smooth but perfectly pipeable peanut butter frosting that's the perfect complement to any cake or cupcake. Also great for just eating by the spoonful!

4.98 from 575 votes

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Course: Frosting

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 12 generously frosted cupcakes or 24 modestly frosted cupcakes

Calories: 381kcal

Author: Sam Merritt

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
• ▢ 1 cup (245 g) creamy peanut butter
• ▢ 3 cups (375 g) powdered sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 2 Tablespoons milk

Instructions

• Combine butter and peanut butter in a large bowl and use an electric mixer to beat until creamy and well-combined.  
  1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (245 g) creamy peanut butter
• Gradually (about ⅓ cup at a time), with mixer on low speed add powdered sugar until completely combined. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl so all ingredients are well-combined. 
  3 cups (375 g) powdered sugar
• Stir in vanilla extract and salt.
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon salt
• With mixer on low-speed, add milk and stir until well-combined. Gradually increase speed to high and beat for 30 seconds.  
  2 Tablespoons milk
• Spread or pipe frosting onto completely cooled cupcakes or cake.

Notes

This cake will frost a 9x13 sheet cake, a 2-layer round 8" or 9" cake, 24 cupcakes, or will generously frost 12 cupcakes (as seen in photos)

Natural Peanut Butter

Since first sharing the recipe I have now tested this recipe with natural peanut butter and it worked just fine, though was a bit gritty. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1/12th batch | Calories: 381kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 41mg | Sodium: 199mg | Potassium: 148mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 32g | Vitamin A: 477IU | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.

Tried this recipe? Show me on Instagram!Mention @SugarSpun_Sam or tag #sugarspunrun!