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 1/2-1 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!
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
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Combine butter and peanut butter in a large bowl and use an electric mixer to beat until creamy and well-combined.
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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.
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Stir in vanilla extract and salt.
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With mixer on low-speed, add milk and stir until well-combined. Gradually increase speed to high and beat for 30 seconds.
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Spread or pipe frosting onto completely cooled cupcakes or cake.
Recipe 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)
Joan says
!
I love your blogs. Your recipes are delicious yet I need to cut back on the sugar so I wish you could reduce the sugar content or use natural sugar from bananas or dates…
Sam says
Hi Joan! I am so glad you are enjoying the recipes, many of the recipes you can get away with reducing the sugar a bit, but unfortunately I don’t know much about substituting natural sugars, I’m sorry!
Janet says
Absolutely loved this on double chocolate fudge cake. Hubby and I both thought it tastes like the old original Dunkin’ Donuts peanut butter cream donuts they used to serve. It’s the best icing recipe yet! Thank you. I tweaked it, instead of milk I used heavy whipping cream, delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Mikaru86 says
This recipe comes at the perfect time. I’m currently putting together the recipe list for my birthday baking and a peanut butter brownie recipe was on my list already, but now I’m going to use this frosting for some decoration on top afterwards :3
Sam says
That sounds so good! I really hope you like it (I think you will!). 🙂
Liz says
To make it non dairy, could I replace the butter with extra peanut butter?
Sam says
I wouldn’t recommend it, I’m sorry it would be very thick and very strong of peanut butter.
Eliza says
You can replace the butter with a dairy free butter like earth balance. 😊
DC Tim says
You should be able to use non dairy milk or even a non dairy coffee creamer. You need to thin out the thickness
Michelle says
Made this frosting spur of moment, it’s so great!!! Especially on a Butter Pecan cake 😀
Sam says
I’m so happy you enjoyed! And yum that sounds amazing with butter pecan cake!
Trish says
Just made this today. With a yellow cake and I made it a little more thin than I wanted to, but I poked holes all thru my cake and poured it all over.
Family loves it, wants it again at Thanksgiving.
Thanks so much.
Sam says
It is so delicious! I’m glad everyone enjoyed it!
Winnie says
Can this be made in advance and refrigerated?
Sam says
Yes that should be fine, it may just need to soften a little bit at room temperature before it is spreadable again.
Karen says
I would assume that Almond Milk would work as a substitute for the milk just fine?
Sam says
I would think that would work fine, but you would probably need less because it’s thinner. So I would start with less and gradually add as needed. 😃
Karen says
Thank you! I made a test batch last night and it worked great! I have never been able to make good frosting (like my mom used to) but this turned out very good!
Charles says
Is it possible to use regular sugar here in place of the powdered sugar?
Looks delicious anyhow!
Thank you
Sam says
Hi Charles! Unfortunately substituting regular sugar here won’t work. Sorry…
Mary says
Thanks so much for this recipe! I found it just in time too, I’m making this for my Moms birthday. Chocolate cake and peanut butter frosting, sounds yummy! Have a good weekend!
Sam says
I hope you love it! 😃
Andrea Henderson says
This is absolutely delicious and easy to make!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoy it, Andrea! ☺️
Allison says
Wow! I was baking for my sister’s birthday today, unfortunately we didn’t have any frosting she liked, so I decided to try it from scratch! I found this recipe, halved it, and it turned out just perfect! It tastes exactly like Reese’s peanut butter cups filling, my family loved it, and want it again next time. I put this on brownies, and it is heavenly 🙂 yummm
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed it Allison! ☺️