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.
Tabitha
I used this recipe and sub’s homemade roasted almond butter. slightly over roasted my almonds, but this only seemed to enhance the flavor. amazingly creamy and light and oh I also added organic almond extract. Devine!!!!
Peters
easy recipe and makes a very flavorful frosting. Used a little more milk than called for to get the creaminess I was looking for. Very well received by 5he birthday boy
Sam
I’m so happy to hear it was such a hit, Peters! Thank you so much for trying my recipe, and for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Shelley Collins
Perfect! Used for chocolate cupcakes and it was sooo good!
Darla
Perfection. Period.
kymberly
so many compliments and so fluffy. definitely my new favorite recipe I will be using foe here on out.
Jess
Can I make this frosting in advance? How many days ahead and what is the best way to keep it?
Sam
Hi Jess! This can be made 3 days. I would probably cover it tightly and store in a container in the refrigerator. You will want to let it come to room temperature and maybe whip it again before using. 🙂
Shirley
It was a big hit.
Fran
It is good but if you like peanut butter you should definitely add extra (1/4 or slight heaping) be best. After making the recipe I had enough Frosting for 3-4 cakes. You’ll have plenty enough. Thanks for the recipe. Can hardly wait to try the cream cheese frosting! I do hope you’ll add to the recipes how many cups of Frosting you’ll end up with. You have many great recipes to try! Thank you. 😊
Mary
Made this for my daughter, who is allergic to dairy, with New Balance instead of butter and omitted the milk…still turned out great.
Thank you for this receipe.
Sam
Thank you for letting me know how it turned out with the substitutions, Mary! So glad it worked so well! 🙂
Shawnee Seese
Perfect Peanut Butter Frosting recipe! It’s everything anyone could possibly want. No need to look further! Thank you!
Laura Howard
Getting ready to try this as the filling for chocolate macaron shells! Thank you for a very easy recipe to follow!
Francine Westbrook
I’m baking double chocolate muffins this weekend and your peanut butter recipe sounds yummy. I will let you know what my grandchildren think.
Nita
I’m not a fan of peanut butter, but when I made this to frost brownies for a friend, I ate a couple of spoonsful. Everyone who has tasted it loves it.
Thank you for another stellar recipe.
jayde
hi when im done frosting the cake does the cake have to be stored in the refrigerator ?
Sam
Hi Jayde! I would recommend refrigeration after 2 days. 🙂
Vikki Flaherty
Great peanut butter frosting!
Lisa
do you think adding a little chocolate to it would be ok? chocolate pb frosting!
Sam
Yes! You can also see the frosting that I use for my peanut butter cupcakes, I do a peanut butter chocolate swirl there 🙂
HollyRae
WOW this was so delicious!! I *thought* I had a great pb frosting recipe, it calls for some cream cheese along with pb and such. But I was without that recipe and looked online and found yours. Like the other reviewer said, you cannot resist eating it by the spoonful! I’m going to frost my chocolate cupcakes with this, place a wrapped Mini Reese’s cup and holiday sprinkles on top. Thank you for this great recipe!
Katie
Omg this is the BEST peanut butter frosting. What I had leftover I ended up just eating by itself it was so good!