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
Can I use this inside of an eclair/cream puff?
Hi Lauren, You can! But you may love the peanut butter mousse that we use to fill our Homemade Eclairs. It’s even lighter and fluffier!
Any chance I could still use my natural peanut butter and add something else to help thicken the frosting mixture while keeping the sugar to a minimum?
Hi David, Unfortunately we have never had any luck with natural peanut butters as ours are just too oily. If you try anything (or any natural creamy brands that work!) let us know!
Wondered if this frosting would be thick enough to use as the filling for a chocolate cake roll?
Hi Courtney, This would work well in the chocolate cake roll, or you can gently fold creamy peanut butter into the whipped cream filling from the cake roll recipe. Enjoy!
Gorgeous, fluffy, peanuttery magic.
Hello I was just wondering do you have to keep this frosting refrigerated at all? Or is it fine not refrigerated
Hi Katelynn, It’s fine at room temperature for one day. After that we recommend storing for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
Don’t laugh, but I am assembling a Halloween wedding cake with tasty cakes and little Debbie cakes.
There will be two distinct “tiers”
I am going to do an outside layer of dripped dark chocolate ganache, but I need a frosting on the inside to “glue” the separate cakes together.
I def want to use a peanut butter frosting and this looks yummy. I’m wondering if it will be too soft?
Could I sub in some cream cheese somewhere, if so?
Hi Michelle, What a fun dessert! We honestly have never tested this frosting as a “glue” like this. It would really depend on how you stack them and what other supports you have. If you have time you can test it out before the wedding! You could replace some of the butter with cream cheese but yes, that will make a softer frosting.
WOW this frosting was delicious and very easy to make. I got rave reviews from multiple people who are not easy to please! One question – I noticed my frosting was smoother and creamier the day after I made it. My cupcakes were placed in a cake stand and were not refrigerated. Was this because it sat out at room temperature and probably warmed up a little bit?
Hi Sara, yes – I would guess that would be the explanation. So glad they were a hit!
Made it tonight and will assemble the chocolate layer cake tomorrow. This recipe was easy and tastes incredible ( I licked the spatula). The texture seems perfect to spread and pipe!!!
Oh. My. God. In love with this frosting!
This was really good! My only note would be I found it a little too salty. I think between the extra salt from the peanut butter and with adding the 1/4 tsp salt – it seemed to tip it a little too far salty. Next time I will omit the added salt or only do 1/8 tsp like your plain vanilla buttercream recipe. Thanks!
Hi!
Would this be enough for a two layer 9 inch cake? And a little pipework on the top?
Hi Tiana, we recommend using this frosting recipe for a cake that large. Enjoy!
Hi Sally, I regularly use this recipe in a vegan version with vegan butter, natural pnb and soy whipping cream. It is perfect every time!, thanks so much for this!
Let’s just say that this almost didn’t make it on the cake because I wanted to just eat it all! I didn’t have any heavy cream, so I used milk, but was still delicious. Definitely will make it again!
I’ve made this a tin of times, we love it. I don’t have heavy cream right now, does milk make it taste different. Thought if substituting.
Hi Michelle! The frosting will be thinner if using milk.
Hi, is this frosting recipe large enough to frost a 6 inch 3 layer cake?
Hi Mary! Yes, this should be enough to fill and lightly frost a 6 inch cake. If you want to do a thicker layer or more decorations, we suggest making 1.5x this recipe. Hope it’s a hit!
Hi, Sally. As a fellow baking addict and lover of all things peanut butter, I was so excited to make your peanut butter cupcakes with this peanut butter frosting. I followed the recipe except I used half and half instead of heavy cream, and I used the regular Jif peanut butter like you said. Only the frosting curdled and turned into a gloppy mess. Was it the lack of cream? I will try again, but I am a little wary now after wasting so many ingredients. Do you have any suggestions for what I can do with the curdled frosting? It tastes great, but is not a nice texture, and certainly could not be used as a frosting.
Hi Mandi, 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. Half and half should be ok but make sure it’s not cold. Try room temperature half and half or cream if you try it again.
So I discovered after watching your very informative video about the importance of room temperature butter that what probably happened was the butter was too warm. I had let it sit for about three hours and it was super soft. I also may not have let the half and half sit out long enough. No worries, I refrigerated the curdled frosting, then we made peanut butter balls out of it the next day, and they were delicious! I will try the recipe again.
Hi Sally, thank you for this peanut butter frosting, I can’t wait to try them! May I check whether this frosting works on chiffon cakes?
Hi Dawn, we can’t see why not. Let us know if you give it a try!
Are Skippy Natural or Jif Natural ok to use or is it recommended to stay away from those “natural” ones as well?
Hi Nina! It depends on how greasy they are – natural peanut butters tend to be more oily, but some peanut butters that are marketed as natural really are still the processed versions of peanut butter. If it seems to have the consistency of a regular processed peanut butter (not oily), they should be fine to use!
I simply loved this recipe!
Mine did split slightly although my cream wasn’t cold. However, I added the cream in two batches. It didn’t split when the first half was added. Maybe stop with half? Will try it again next time.
I kept it in the fridge overnight and used it the next day. It was creamy and still tasted absolutely divine! It truly is a peanut butter lover’s dream.
Paired it with a Chocolate cake; filled with this frosting and sprinkled some salted peanuts. Good stuff! Thanks Sally!
The peanut butter frosting recipe seems delicious; but the specific amount of tablespoons of peanut butter was left out! Help I want to make this for some chocolate cupcakes.
Hi Julie, You’ll find the full recipe at the bottom of the post. You need 1 cup of peanut butter for this frosting recipe!
Peanut butter recipe is so simple made it for our card nite at my club, on a chocolate cake, guys loved it and they were drinking beer no less, no cake left darn, so ot was a hit, thanks so much for sharing.
Everything turned out amazing as usual! This is my new go to website for recipes. ❤️ Is there any way to make this a more subtle peanut butter icing? The flavor was good, but a bit much for what I wanted.
Hi Katlyn, thank you so much for making our recipes! We haven’t tested it, but you could try playing with the ratios of butter and peanut butter – adding more butter and less peanut butter. You may also enjoy this chocolate peanut butter frosting instead.
Tried this recipe for the first time and got excellent results. Thanks!
Hi Sally,
As this recipe uses cream, does the finished cake need to be stored in the fridge?
Thanks
Hi Nia, 1-2 days at room temperature would be OK. After that, we recommend the refrigerator.
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!
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!!
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!)
Super runny. Needed a brick of cream cheese , corn starch and the freezer to save it.
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.
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! 🙂
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