And yes, this truly is the creamiest peanut butter frosting you’ll ever taste.
This peanut butter frosting delivers BIG flavor. The base of the recipe is just a little bit of butter and a massive amount of peanut butter. Heavy cream adds to its creamy texture. And unlike most frostings, it’s not loaded with confectioners’ sugar. There’s only 1 cup, so don’t expect a cloyingly sweet frosting. All you taste is peanut butter. Pure peanut butter with a creamier, silkier texture.
What Peanut Butter is Best for Frosting?
For the best texture, use processed creamy peanut butter such as Jif or Skippy, the same kind I recommend for peanut butter blossoms and peanut butter eggs. Natural-style peanut butter is wonderful for eating and cooking, but I do not recommend it for this recipe as the oily consistency will cause this frosting to separate and curdle. You can, however, use natural peanut butter in my peanut butter cookies if you have a jar that needs using!
Can you Pipe This Frosting?
Despite the creamy texture, this peanut butter frosting pipes beautifully onto cakes and cupcakes. It won’t keep any super intricate piped designs, but a simple swirl from the Wilton 1M piping tip stays intact!
You’ll LOVE this stuff and find any excuse to whip it up. If you need inspiration, don’t miss this chocolate peanut butter cake or these chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.
Need some pairing inspiration? Try this peanut butter frosting with:
- Chocolate cupcakes
- Homemade brownies
- Banana cupcakes (yum!!)
- Cookies and cream cupcakes
- Chocolate cake
Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 2.5 cups
- Category: Frosting
- Method: No Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
This is the creamiest peanut butter frosting and tastes unbelievable on chocolate cupcakes, chocolate cake, or fudge brownies!
Ingredients
- 5 Tablespoons (71g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (250g) creamy peanut butter*
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1/3 cup (80ml) heavy cream, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ยผย teaspoon salt
Instructions
- With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and salt with the mixer running on low. Increase to high speed and beat for 3 full minutes. Add up to 1/4 cup more confectioners’ย sugar if frosting is too thin or another Tablespoon ofย cream if frosting is too thick.
- Cover tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand)
- Peanut Butter: Use a commercial brand peanut butter such Skippy or Jif. Avoid natural, oily, or homemade peanut butters as the consistency will cause this frosting to separate and curdle.
- Quantity: This recipe is enough to frost 12-16 cupcakes, one 9-inch square or round cake, or one 9×13-inch quarter sheet cake with a thin layer of frosting. Follow the peanut butter frosting recipe from this chocolate sheet cakeย for any cake larger than that. Just as rich and creamy!
Reader Comments and Reviews
The best PB frosting out there!!
Can I use this as a filling for sandwich cookies?
Absolutely!
What could you sub for the heavy cream? Milk? Equal ratios or less?
Hi Morgan, if you want to sub whole milk for the heavy cream, start with a little less, as the milk is thinner. Enjoy!
How long does this frosting keep? Say I want to make in advance?
Hi Oren! Cover tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
I made this this peanut butter frosting yesterday and used on my homemade banana cupcakes and drizzled milk chocolate ganache over the peanut butter frosting. I gave the cupcakes to my brother-in-law as part of his birthday gift. He said they were amazing! This is the best peanut butter frosting Iโve ever made (or tasted). Thank you, Sally!
Made this for my buttermilk chocolate cake. Love the texture and flavor. Happy that it has less butter and MORE peanutbutter! Very easy to make.
Amazing frosting. My only sadness comes from my own lack of reading… it doesn’t yield quite enough for the cake I’m baking, so I am going to make another batch. There are worse things in life. ๐ Thank you Sally, for yet another house favorite.
Just wanted to share a different variation with you; feel free to use it. Iโm sure I got the basic ratios from somewhere, but Iโve since made it my own. I like this version because it allows for a stiff and smooth buttercream that doesnโt need heavy cream and isnโt super sweet. Ingredients: 1 stick unsalted butter, 1 cup reduced fat PB (usually Jif is available for me), 1 cup powdered sugar (sifted), 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp salt. In a stand mixer, you cream the butter, then add PB and mix well. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well on medium speed until creamy, 2-3 minutes. Depending on taste, you can add more salt, but for me this amount balances the sweet and salty thatโs so good in peanut butter.
I regularly keep some chocolate cakes frozen so that when I have an unexpected need/company, I can whip out the cake to defrost and make a batch of frosting. Since I also had some salted caramel made in the fridge, I decided to try making this peanut butter frosting for a snickers inspired cake. I threw all the ingredients into my stand mixer while I was getting ready for work this morning. My partner had a taste and was FLOORED! He said it is the PERFECT quintessential peanut butter flavour without that annoying dry mouth feeling- and he’s right! The only substitution I made was regular milk for heavy cream (didn’t have any). It’s so light and fluffy, I can’t wait to see how it goes with the dark chocolate cake and caramel. Thank you for another perfect recipe! BTW I know Sally doesn’t recommend natural peanut butter, but that’s all I buy and I used the one from Costco- turned out perfect and didn’t separate.
I made this recipe as is and it was fabulous. I decided I didnโt have enough and I wanted a little more peanut butter taste so I added more peanut butter. Do not do this. I ended up with a greasy mess. Either make a second batch or plan ahead and double it from the beginning do not tinker with it! Lesson learned.
This is a fantastic cake–moist and delicious. Thank you, Sally, for the recipe and the helpful video. The recipe is not complicated at all, but you’ve got 3 things going on: the cake, the peanut butter filling/frosting, and the ganache, so there are a lot of ingredients to gather and keep track of. And although the recipe calls for the use of a mixer, I mixed everything by hand.