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!
If you like Reece’s pieces, absolutely use this recipe. So smooth. So quick and easy to make and frost a cake with. Try this now! Thanks for the recipe and save.
Hi there! Once on the cake, should it be refrigerated?
It’s delicious!!!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Lindsay! It will be good at room temperature for 2 days. 🙂
Tastes wonderful!
delicious 😋
I don’t typically like frosting, but this peanut butter frosting is absolutely delightful!! Could eat it by the spoonful. I spread it on a scratch Chocolate Mayonaise cake! Will make again for the holidays because, who doesn’t like chocolate and peanut butter!
LOVE that combination, Camille! We’re so happy you gave this one a try 🩷
Delish! I halved everything for a smaller batch and it turned out great. Spread half on top of a batch of brownies and my family dipped Oreos in the other half. Everyone loved it!
We’re so happy it was a hit, Kristle! 🙂
Can I use salted butter with this recipe? Or should I just omit the 1/2 teaspoon salt?
Hi Catie! You can use salted butter, just omit the salt. 🙂
looks good, going to make it.
I made a devil’s food cake with this peanut butter frosting. W don’t liik
Made this for my brother’s birthday, but upped the volumes a bit so I’d have enough to do extra decorations on a 2-layer round cake. Used a dribble of heavy cream instead of regular milk, and it came out amazing! Will be adding these ingredient proportions to my usual frosting recipes.
I am excited to try this!!! I plan on making a white chocolate cake next month for my birthday so this will be perfect!
Delicious and easy to make by hand!! Tastes like the inside of a Reeses, love it!!
Delicious! I used erythritol powdered sugar to make it keto friendly and it was very good!
can this frosting be frozen?
Hi Rachel! That shouldn’t be an issue. 🙂
This recipe is INCREDIBLE!!! I added slightly less powedered sugar to my own tastes (around 2 1/2 cups), and used it to ice a two-layer 8” chocolate cake which I then covered with chocolate ganache. Best cake EVER!!!!! Next I would like to try it with a banana cake!
I’ve been struggling to find a great peanut butter frosting recipe for YEARS! They always seem so similar, comparable amounts of the same ingredients, but always disappointment. Too dry, too sticky, too gooey, never right.
UNTIL NOW!!!! This is exactly the frosting I’ve been dreaming of. Balanced flavor, perfect creamy yet stable texture! I dont know if its your ratios, your method, or a combination of both, but this is my go-to recipe from here on out.
I have never made a single one of your recipes that disappoints, but this one blew me away!
Thank you Sam, for all the time and effort you put into developing your recipes! Its so refreshing to know that whatever recipe I find to try next will work out wonderfully!
I’m so glad this was such a hit! I love hearing that you trust my recipes so much. I do test them many, many, many times so I love hearing that the results are replicable. 🙂
Easy and yummy. Thanks for sharing.
silky smooth and not overly sweet
Thank you for recipe my husband said his mother always made him a white c as me with peanut butter frosting and since she passed around our 20th anniversary and I had b never tried one of his birthday cakes because he comes from such a large f as moly that there was V never any left by the time I would get done work and get there too have some!