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.
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.
Need some pairing inspiration? Try this peanut butter frosting with:
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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 (75g) 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
- ¼ 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’ sugar if frosting is too thin or another Tablespoon of cream if frosting is too thick.
- Cover tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
Notes
- 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 9×9 inch cake, or one 9×13 quarter sheet cake with a thin layer of frosting. Follow this peanut butter frosting recipe for any cake larger than that. Just as rich and creamy!
I love this frosting. It’s really yummy.
★★★★★
I didn’t have any heavy whipping cream on hand, so I used half-and-half, and the frosting still came out delicious! Today’s my husband’s birthday, so I used it to frost some rich chocolate cupcakes. The combination is out of this world. Thanks for the great recipe!
★★★★★
Me too on the half and half
This frosting is perfect! Smooth, creamy, not too sweet… thank you for sharing!
★★★★★
My son requested a Reece’s peanut butter cup cake for his birthday so I’m planning to use this between two layers of yellow cake and putting your chocolate buttercream on the outside. Thanks for another great recipe!
This is really good on vanilla cupcakes!
This frosting is amazing.
Unfortunately I clicked on the link to make for a bigger cake, assuming the ratios were the same. Nope. The other recipe was not good and tasted like sugar with a hint of pb and was incredibly hard to pipe compared to this version!
★★★★★
I made the Peanut Butter Icing to use on the Banana Cake and it was amazing!
★★★★★
How hearty/thick is this frosting? I am doing a layer cake and wondering if this will be too soft? This looks like the best frosting as a ton other PB frostings out there always look broken so I want to give it a try. All your other recipes I have tried turned out great!
Maybe no heavy cream and sub in more butter to stabilize?
Hi Mary, You can see the photo of the cupcake above that this frosting is thick enough to pipe. Adding more butter will actual make it softer so I recommend sticking to the recipe. You can add less heavy cream, or increase the sugar, if you know you want your frosting extra thick.
Help Sally! I used the recipe for the larger quantity of PB frosting for a chocolate sheet cake. The taste was delicious but the frosting was not smooth and looked curdled. Butter was soft but maybe cream was too cold?
Hi Jocelyn! Thank you so much for trying this frosting recipe. I wonder if the butter wasn’t completely smooth? Do they look like chunks of butter? That’s happened to me before if the butter wasn’t smooth before adding the peanut butter. It could also have been cold heavy cream. Use room temperature if you can next time.
Also, the butter was definitely softer than room temp..it was really soft! The butter and peanut butter really were well creamed, with no chunks of butter, but the whole thing looked curdled..IDK
?
Very odd. Well, it must have been the heavy cream– see if you can bring it to room temperature next time!
I’m making this frosting right now (2nd batch as the 1st batch curdled – turns out my “Natural” Jif was the culprit for my case) Using regular peanut butter is key…Good luck!
★★★★★
Such an amazing recipe!! Everyone loves it and always wants more!
Quick question. I have been asked to make this frosting for cupcakes for a girl baby shower. Is this buttercream easy to add coloring too? Thanks!
★★★★★
Hi Danielle, This frosting is naturally brown (the color of peanut butter) so it won’t color as well as a vanilla buttercream. You can always top it with color sprinkles!
Hey sally! I want to use to recipe to decorate a 3 layer cake for my husbands birthday, would I need to double it to make enough for a 3 layer cake?! Thank you.
★★★★★
Hi Sarah, See the recipe notes for the link to the frosting for a larger cake. Enjoy!
So glad I chose this recipe!
I must say this is theeee best peanut butter frosting and I only made a smaller portion, (just to top off brownies).. I did used every ingredient. It’s perfectly yummy
★★★★★
I just made this frosting for the first time to decorate cupcakes with, I might have to eat it all with a spoon before I make the cupcakes tomorrow!!!
It’s DIVINE!!
Light and airy but still creamy, not overly sweet with pure peanut butter decadence!!
Thank you!!! ❤️
★★★★★
Why doesn’t homemade peanut butter work here? PB is super expensive where I live so I always make my own – just curious if there’s something I can do to my homemade to make it work in this recipe. Also, can I use milk or buttermilk instead of cream? (Again this is a cost issue 🙁 )
Hi Jess! An oily or thin natural peanut butter won’t blend well with the butter. If the natural peanut butter you use is on the thicker side and isn’t too oily, it should be ok! You can use milk instead of cream. Same amount.
Thank you! I use very very little oil in my PB so I think it should be ok. I’m going to make this as the filling for the chocolate whoopie pies (as I can’t make the salted caramel frosting without cream). I’ll let you know how it goes!
Made this for the second time today – it’s the best peanut butter frosting hands down – perfect texture, nutty buttery flavor and it spreads like silk. I dialed down the PB by 20 grams because I didn’t want it overwhelmingly
nutty.
★★★★★
Can you use whole milk?
Yes, whole milk will work!
Hi! I want to make a snickers inspired cake for my birthday in two weeks and was comparing this recipe with you chocolate peanut butter frosting. This one has a lot less butter and a lot more peanut butter than the other one, which I love, do you know if I could I add cocoa powder or melted chocolate to this one and get similar results? Thank you!
Hi Luiza, I would replace 1/2 of the confectioners’ sugar with unsweetened cocoa powder. Taste, then add more confectioners’ sugar and/or cocoa powder if desired.
Hi Sally, I love all your recipes! I was wondering how long does this store for in the fridge? And can I freeze it? Thanks
Hi Joanne, You can cover this frosting tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator, or freeze for up to 3 months. If frozen, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and you may need to re-mix it before using.
I used this recipe to make peanut butter cake balls for Halloween 2020 yesterday! It was a fun activity for the kids to make eyeballs ot add sprinkles to them since we are social distancing this year! This is THE BEST peanut butter frosting I have ever tasted!! I will be baking a chocolate cake next week and this will be my go to peanut butter frosting recipe from now on!!
Thank you!!
★★★★★
Hi Sally, this frosting looks yummm! Had to clear this doubt before trying it though. Can i increase the butter by 25gms and reduce the same amount of peanut butter ? Would it be okay?
Hi Niths, That should be fine. Enjoy!
Excellent frosting!! What sold me was the lower amount of sugar used. Other recipes call for two cups (too sweet). This one was just right. Thank you
★★★★★
This frosting is fantastic! Just what a peanut butter addict like me needed. I love the smooth, spreadable texture and that it tastes first and foremost like peanut butter. It’s not too sweet. I added a few shakes of cinnamon into it, and IMO that really gives it something extra special. Thanks again for another winner! 🙂
★★★★★
Hi Sally,
I want to use this frosting for peanut butter sandwich cookies. Do you think the frosting will be thick enough? I would like to do half with this frosting and half with your chocolate peanut butter frosting.
Hi Christina, You can use this in cookies for a softer filling. Or for a different option you can see the filling we use for these Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches.
Super runny. Needed a brick of cream cheese , corn starch and the freezer to save it.
So easy & delicious! I topped your “small chocolate cake” with this frosting & it was perfection. (The recipe made a bit too much frosting for the 6” cake, so I felt compelled to make the frosting as tall as the cake & eat up the rest!)
★★★★★
Hello Sally!
Thank you so much for your desire to share your recipes and make us all better bakers! My friend asked me today if I could make chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and I looked up…and TA-DA! Here you are with an amazing recipe again! BTW, your lemon cupcakes with blackberry cream cheese frosting are THE BOMB!! So good!!
★★★★★
I made this today everything at room temp including the cream. butter was whipped 1st then PB added and it was smooth ,but its not smooth . It tastes good but not smooth .I tried using the paddle instead of the whisk attachment, I can’t get it smooth . I put it in the fridge as I don’t need it until tomorrow and I will rewhip and see what happens
Hi Vicki! Sometimes texture can depend on the brand of confectioners sugar you are using. If you find yours is gritty try sifting the sugar after measuring it next time. That should help!