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:
Print
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
- 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
- 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 cake for any cake larger than that. Just as rich and creamy!
Reader Comments and Reviews
Will this be enough frosting for a two layer 8×10 cake?
Hi Debbie, This recipe is enough to frost 12-16 cupcakes or one 9×13 quarter sheet cake. See the recipe notes if making a larger cake!
This is the BEST peanut butter frosting on the planet. I made a bunch of it today (12/01/19) IT TASTE AMAZING
The best peanut butter frosting I have ever eaten! When chilled in the refrigerator, it is like a peanut butter fudge, a little soft but delicious!
I’ve been a fan for a bit, and have the 1st book. But this was the first recipe I tried. WOW. It’s perfect. I loved it, my family and co-workers had nothing but praise.
I’ve tried your cake pop recipes for my daughter’s birthday last week and everyone LOVED them!!! I will definitely be making them for every birthday or holiday party from now on and have some in the freezer at all times so thank you 🙂
I was wondering if I can make chocolate peanut butter cake pops by combining your delicious chocolate cake with this frosting? Would the amount of this recipe work or would I have to add/take away some?
Hi Sabrina! Chocolate peanut butter cake pops sound great! Use my chocolate cake pops recipe and you’ll need about 1 cup of peanut butter frosting. I recommend halving this recipe for it.
Can I use whole milk instead of the heavy cream?
Yes, whole milk will work!
My kitchen smells like peanut butter! I am so loving this recipe! It was soo easy and tastes fantastic! Like professional icing from a bakery! I am never using store bought frosting again! Thank you for sharing!
What brand of peanut butter works best?
For best results, I recommend creamy peanut butter such as Jif or Skippy.
THE absolute most perfect peanut butter frosting! It is always a huge hit when I make it and I can’t help but eat it by the spoonfuls! I love that it always brings happiness to those that I bake for.
Will this frosting hold up sitting out for hours at a party? I usually make Swiss merengue buttercream but was wondering if I can make this recipe as is without the extra step of making a merengue?
Hi Natalie! You can use this frosting for a dessert and keep it out at room temperature for a few hours, yes.
I made and used 1/4 cup of cream. So yummy!
I made it sugar free with swerve and it turned out great. Huge hit!!
Best peanut butter recipe I’ve ever made hands down!
What happened?
After spending the better part of 2 hrs searching g for the best recipe, I decided this was it. Grew up with PB frosting but after a dozen moves, lost my grams delicious recipe. Followed all the directions, using all the secrets from others, and ended up with a ball, looked like pie crust before rolled out, that was filled with oil (probably from the PB?). Took a 1/3 to try magic on. Added extra milk to one, extra powdered sugar to another. Neither improved to the point that they were spreadable. Ended up trashing all of it and making a basic buttercream. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I do want to try this again, as I still think Sally has had many other great recipes. Her site is one of my favorites.
I made this today 9-29-19 it came out amazing .
Do you think this would dye to a green color with gel food coloring? I am making a Yoda cake but want to make PB frosting instead of vanilla.
I haven’t tested it – I’d imagine it would be a greenish brown color which would be perfect for Yoda!
I just made this with a cup of PBFit Peanut Butter, plant butter and coconut cream! It is to die for!! This will be my go to PB icing now!
Very good! Made exactly to your recipe and we love it.
Now the self control not to make it every week! Thank you.
This peanut butter frosting was absolutely delicious!! I loved how light it was. I used Jif extra crunchy peanut butter instead of the smooth peanut butter and loved the crunch it gave!!
Frustratingly, this recipe doesn’t appear to work with British peanut butter – I’ve tried 5 different brands, all of which aren’t oily when they’re in the jar or on toast! If any Brits have any brands that have worked, please let me know. In the meantime, I’m going back to Sally’s trusty chocolate frosting!
If your hand held mixer doesn’t have a paddle or whisk attachment, can you just use the mixer beaters that came with it?
Yep!
What a winner! I searched for a peanut butter frosting that was not too sweet and landed on this one. Just finished it and it’s amazing! I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfectly.
Sally!
Hello! I want to thank you for this wonderful recipe. My husband loves it and I have been looking for one he would love. I am wanting to make another batch to surprise him (he works away) and take it too him but I only have salted butter (will it be an issue if I use salted butter instead of unsalted)? Once again, thank you very much!!!!! April H
Hey April! It won’t be an issue at all. The frosting is sweet enough that it won’t make a difference if you use salted vs unsalted butter.
This frosting is AMAZING. I love how it’s not that sweet, so it’s basically just the creamiest, fluffiest frosting ever. I made it to put on a chocolate cake, but I think I’d rather just eat it by the spoonful…
So delicious. I made a half batch of the recipe and added two tablespoons of peanut butter powder to make it a bit stiffer. It came out perfect and wonderfully creamy. It made just enough to frost 6-7 cupcakes. Sally, thanks for all of your great recipes.
Hello Sally, I made your homemade chocolate cupcakes with this peanut butter frosting. Wow! I had company over for dinner and made the cupcakes and frosting. Very good! I had no problems with anything. I highly recommend this recipe. Another winner! Thank you. Right this moment I making the cream cheese pound cake. I just popped it in oven. I going to make strawberry shortcake this evening. Only husband and I. I will leave some cake out, and will freeze the rest. Thanks again
This was delicious in my sons birthday cake! Now I am making vegan chocolate cupcakes for Easter and wonder if this could be adapted to frost them with. Any suggestions would be welcome!
This worked perfectly on the brownies! Everybody loved, this is a keeper. Thank you!
This frosting is an absolute game changer! Amazing!
This icing separated and became an oily grainy mess. I tried adding more cream and then more icing sugar but it just seemed to get worse and worse. Almost like the peanut proteins separated from the oil that was in the peanut butter? I used kraft light peanut butter I wonder if it being light was the problem? Next time I have better quality regular peanut butter on hand I will give it another try.