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 frostingĀ (<—- 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 š
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.
- IĀ 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 certainĀ 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 1/2-1 cup (65-125g) of powdered sugar.
How Many Cupcakes/How Much Cake Will this Peanut Butter Frosting Cover?
- If you’reĀ generouslyĀ 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
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (226g)
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter (245g)
- 3 cups powdered sugar (375g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 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.
- Gradually (about 1/3 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.
- Stir in vanilla extract and salt.
- With mixer on low-speed, add milk and stir until well-combined. Gradually increase speed to high and beat for 30 seconds.
- Spread or pipe frosting onto completely cooled cupcakes or cake.
Diana says
This frosting is killer on chocolate cupcakes! Love this recipie just as it is.
Sam says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Diana! š
Melissa Rousselle says
I made this yesterday but realized I had left out the milk, so I assume this may have been the reason that the frosting was tough to spread over the cupcakes… so while mine didnāt come out looking all that great, the taste was delicious regardless!
I also found that by refrigerating some of the extra, that it hardens a bit. Leaving it out on the counter for 20 minutes softened it up enough, but again wondering if the lack of milk may have made this happen? Overall, this recipe was exactly what I needed to make the best chocolate and peanut butter birthday cake for my partner! Thank you!
Sam says
Hi Melissa! I am so glad you enjoyed the frosting even without the milk! It will harden in the refrigerator regardless of whether you had added the milk in or not. That is just the nature of refrigerating frostings but you absolutely did the right thing by letting it warm up to be usable again. š
Jenna says
Hello Iām not using the frosting until tomorrow. Should I refrigerate it since it has milk in it?
Sam says
Hi Jenna! Yes, I would refrigerate. You will probably need to let it come to room temperature for 15 minutes or longer (as it will firm up in the fridge) and possibly even mix it again briefly before using. Enjoy!