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
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
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
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.
Lisa
Hi Sam – thank you so much for a wonderful recipe! My husband requested a peanut butter ice cream cake for his birthday, but I could only find a good vanilla ice cream cake. I whipped up this frosting and voila! We had awesome peanut butter ice cream cake… whew!
Sam
I am so glad you were able to make something work and you enjoyed the frosting. 🙂
Michelle
Just finished frosting a chocolate cake with this…it’s awesome. I want to make Whoopi’s pies and fill with this frosting…I didn’t realize how much I loved peanut butter frosting until today 🙂
Sam
It is sooo addictive! I am so glad you enjoyed it. ☺️
Tammy
I can’t wait to try this I’m making my doughters birthday cake today and she lives peanut butter frosting of any kind so with all these great reviews I think this will be a hit thanks for sharing
Sam
I hope you love it! ☺️
Gary Jones
I used this to top my Pumpkin spiced Cheerios
Reese’s Pieces bars…delish!
Sam
Well that sounds like a delicious treat! ☺️
Allison
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
I am so glad you enjoyed it Allison! ☺️
Andrea Henderson
This is absolutely delicious and easy to make!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy it, Andrea! ☺️
Mary
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
I hope you love it! 😃
Charles
Is it possible to use regular sugar here in place of the powdered sugar?
Looks delicious anyhow!
Thank you
Sam
Hi Charles! Unfortunately substituting regular sugar here won’t work. Sorry…
Karen
I would assume that Almond Milk would work as a substitute for the milk just fine?
Sam
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
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!
Winnie
Can this be made in advance and refrigerated?
Sam
Yes that should be fine, it may just need to soften a little bit at room temperature before it is spreadable again.
Trish
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
It is so delicious! I’m glad everyone enjoyed it!
Michelle
Made this frosting spur of moment, it’s so great!!! Especially on a Butter Pecan cake 😀
Sam
I’m so happy you enjoyed! And yum that sounds amazing with butter pecan cake!
Liz
To make it non dairy, could I replace the butter with extra peanut butter?
Sam
I wouldn’t recommend it, I’m sorry it would be very thick and very strong of peanut butter.
Eliza
You can replace the butter with a dairy free butter like earth balance. 😊
DC Tim
You should be able to use non dairy milk or even a non dairy coffee creamer. You need to thin out the thickness
Mikaru86
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
That sounds so good! I really hope you like it (I think you will!). 🙂
Joan
!
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
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
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!