Peanut Butter Frosting
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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
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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
Oh my goodness, This is The best Peanut butter Frosting I have ever made. My cupcakes turned out great and this Frosting is a hit. They will be served on Saturday for The 4th of July Party. They came out just beautiful with plenty of frosting, just like I like them…
Made a double batch for 2 cakes and it was a hit! So fluffy and not heavy at all
This is the best peanut butter frosting ever. so creamy.
I’m not sure why every peanut butter frosting recipe online says not to use natural peanut butter, without even testing it. Peanut butter is often stabilized with solid fats like palm oil, so you’re basically making a stabilized peanut butter when you mix it with the butter. And yes, it works just fine. And tastes amazing!!
Thanks Kass! I tested the recipe with two different kinds of natural peanut butter today and it did work just fine. In my past experience, natural peanut butter has not worked well in many of my other baked goods so I always advise people that I haven’t tried it and can make no guarantees. I will add a note to the recipe.
How can I tweak this for high heat piping using high ratio shortening? Sweetex
Hi Bec! Unfortunately I don’t know how it will work. Maybe someone else can chime in with some help.
Simply replace the butter with the Sweetex. ☺️
Extra creamy and tastes delicious. Can add more confectionery sugar(powder sugar) to make it firmer and set up. I spread mine on chocolate brownies. Yummy!!
Would this recipe keep in the fridge for 2 weeks?
Hi Danielle! We recommend storing for a week 😊
Delicious
This frosting was east and taste good but for some reason mine turned out to be thin.
Hi Deven! Was your butter very soft? That could have been the issue. You can always add a little more powdered sugar to help thicken it up. Hope this helps 😊
One stick might have been. I ended up sticking it in the fridge for a little while after I frosted my cake and it helped.
This is delicious! I had no unsalted butter, so just used the lightly salted that I had & omitted the other salt. I’ll definitely be making again, just not too often as I suspect it’s dangerous to have around! 😋
It certainly is, Elizabeth! 😉 Enjoy!
Hey thanks for the recipe!! If I make cupcakes with the frosting can I leave them out overnight or do they require refrigeration?
Hi AP! This frosting does not need to be refrigerated, but we’re not sure about the cupcakes as we don’t know what recipe you’d be using. Hope that helps! 🙂
This does help 🙂 Topped off my chocolate/chocolate chip cupcakes with this frosting and wow it’s stunning. Thank you!!
Wonderful! Those sound amazing, Arti 😍
Sooooooo good. Perfect with chocolate cake and m&m’s on top for garnish.
I used Crazy Richard creamy which is a natural peanut butter (the kind you have to stir) and only used 1/2 c because it is much more peanutty tasting than the normal peanut butter. It was amazing…truly amazing! I used it as filling in a homemade peanut butter cake with fudge frosting and all of the components were delicious but this peanut butter frosting was what got all of the raves!
Fantastic! Not too sweet, not to oily!
Can you use shortening in place of butter?
Hi Marisa! We haven’t tried it but think it could work here 😊
I’ve had peanut butter frosting that has a more peanut butter flavor. But this frosting is very fluffy and it is a lot of frosting it leaves a very thick layer of frosting on a 9×13 pan
Marisa, that is what I do. I use the Wilton’s buttercream frosting recipe and instead of the butter I use the same butter measurement and substitute shortening. Also, if you use water instead of milk you do not have to refrigerate it.
How long does this frosting stay good in the refrigerator?
Hi Andrea! We recommend storing for a week 😊