Peanut Butter Frosting

This creamy, rich Peanut Butter Frosting is the perfect topping for any brownie, cookie, or cake (especially chocolate cake). It’s whipped to perfection with an electric mixer and can easily be piped or spread out with a knife.

 

Peanut Butter Frosting Ingredients

What I love most about this American peanut butter frosting recipe is that it only requires five ingredients and a few minutes of prep time.

Butter - I used salted butter, but I would recommend adding ¼ to ½ teaspoon of salt if you’re using unsalted butter. Be sure to allow the butter to come up to room temperature before trying to beat it, otherwise, you may end up with chunks of butter that won’t smooth out in your frosting.

Peanut Butter - Use your favorite creamy peanut butter in this recipe. My favorite is JIF, if you’re wondering.

Powdered sugar - When measuring powdered sugar be sure to not pack it into the measuring cup and always use the backside of a butter knife to scrape any powdered sugar that’s raised above the top of the measuring cup off.

Heavy whipping cream or milk - I always have heavy cream on hand and really enjoy the richness that it gives to the frosting, but milk will work great as well. I would start by adding 2 tablespoons less than the amount required for the heavy cream since it’s thinner.

Vanilla extract - vanilla is the perfect additional flavor to add to any frosting flavor.

How to make Peanut Butter Frosting

You can make this homemade peanut butter frosting in just a few short steps. Unlike Swiss meringue buttercream or german buttercream, this can be whipped up in minutes.

Step One - Add the butter and peanut butter to a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until the butter is completely smooth.

Step Two - Add in the powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. You can add the powdered sugar a little at a time if you’re afraid of the powdered sugar going everywhere. Beat on low until the powdered sugar is incorporated.

Step Three - Once the frosting is combined, turn the mixer to high and beat until light and fluffy.

That’s seriously it. You can then spread it on your cooled cakes or pop it in a piping bag with a tip and pipe it.

Tips for Making Peanut Butter Frosting

• Use your favorite peanut butter for this recipe unless it’s natural peanut butter. Since there is so much peanut butter in this recipe, it’s going to make a big difference. Natural peanut butter is very oily and will mess with the consistency and flavor of your recipe.
• If you want to use crunchy peanut butter, don’t plan on being able to pipe this frosting unless you’re using a large round tip. The bits of peanuts will plug your piping tip immediately.
• If you don’t have heavy cream, you can use milk, evaporated milk, half and half as a substitute.
• If you’re looking for a thicker or thinner frosting, tweak the amount of heavy cream you’re adding. For a thicker consistency, add less or no heavy cream. For a thinner consistency, add more heavy cream to the frosting.

How many cupcakes/cakes with this frosting cover?

This is a great question.

For cupcakes, it really depends on the amount of frosting you add to each cupcake. It can cover 12 to 18 cupcakes. If you like tall swirls, I would say it’s going to cover 12 cupcakes. If you’re not as generous, I would say you can get close to 18 cupcakes.

If you’re doing an 8 or 9-inch layered cake, I would recommend doubling the recipe.

If you’re doing a 9x13 cake, this is the perfect amount.

Frequently Asked Questions

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