Peanut Butter Frosting: This is the creamiest, fluffiest peanut butter frosting you’ll ever eat! It’s a buttercream recipe that’s heavy on the peanut butter flavor and it’s absolutely perfect for your next chocolate cake.

I’ll come right out and say it: I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER.

Unless you’re allergic and can’t physically eat peanut butter, I just cannot understand people who don’t like it. There ARE people out there who don’t like peanut butter! Can you imagine?!

My cousin, Brian, is one of them. He’s been a peanut butter hater for as long as I can remember, which is a really, really long time now.

We went to pre-school together and I remember the day we made peanut butter in our classroom. He wouldn’t eat what we made so I ate his too.

And I suppose this memory totally points to me being an old lady since HELLO! We MADE PEANUT BUTTER in our pre-school classroom. What can I say? It was 1982 and things were different back then.

Anywho! Back to my love for peanut butter.

If it hasn’t already been made evident from the oodles of peanut butter dessert recipes I have in the archives of this site (see: pie, brownies, cookies, ice cream, cupcakes, truffles, and cookie bars (plus multiple version of some of those)), I’m bringing you this creamy peanut butter frosting today.

It’s the frosting I made to go on the fudgy chocolate peanut butter cake that I made for Kyle’s birthday a few years ago. And it’s the only peanut butter frosting recipe I keep coming back to anytime I feel peanut butter frosting is warranted on a cake or cupcakes.

I know I’m a creature of habit in some ways but it’s also true that this really is the best peanut butter frosting ever. So I don’t feel the need to find another frosting recipe to try.

How to Make Peanut Butter Frosting

It might seem pretty obvious that the main ingredient in this frosting is peanut butter. But you also need some butter. This is a peanut butter buttercream frosting and the butter is needed to give the frosting some stability.

And this frosting recipe is so much easier than you would think! You’ll simply beat the peanut butter, butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract, and salt together in a bowl until it’s thick and creamy.

Then you’ll add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat the frosting up until it’s light and a little airy.

So easy, right? Then you can swirl onto your cakes and brownies or pipe it onto your cupcakes. It’s really easy to work with and it spreads out like a dream.

I also need to tell you something else: hide your spoons.

Seriously, friends! You’re going to want to sit down with a bowl of this frosting and just go to town with it.

But I urge you to have some restraint, too. Because you need this frosting for your next cake! Or batch of cupcakes. Whichever.

Ideas for Using Peanut Butter Frosting

If you want to make cupcakes, this frosting would be outstanding sitting atop these devil’s food cupcakes or these café mocha cupcakes.

For cake, there are just so many options! My first choice is the fudgy chocolate cake I mentioned above.

You could also go with this yellow butter cake for a layer cake or this indescribably delicious chocolate snack cake for a single layer cake.

A more unconventional option might be a peanut butter cannoli cake where you sandwich cannoli filling between the cake layers and smooth this frosting on the outside. Totally different but worth a try nonetheless!

Basically, any chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting is a winner in my book so if you’re a peanut butter cup fan, that would be the way to go!

OR!! Maybe you want to use this peanut butter frosting for brownies? Not a bad idea, right??

My go-to brownie recipe, in all its fudgy and chewy ways, would be just the one for this frosting!

Nevertheless, choosing how to use this peanut butter frosting will be difficult, for sure!

What We Love About this Peanut Butter Frosting

Hands down, this is the best peanut butter frosting we’ve ever tried. I’ve been making it for years and I’ve tweaked it along the way from an Ina Garten recipe into exactly the perfect recipe you see here today.

It’s so incredibly creamy but it’s also sturdy enough to hold a 3-layer cake together. And as you can see from the photos above, it makes beautiful loopy swirls too!

It’s an easy peanut butter frosting to make, too! Mixing everything together and then adding some cream at the end to loosen it up adds to the allure of making a quick frosting for cake or cupcakes.

There’s no BS going on here with this frosting. The peanut butter flavor is right there in your face and because of that, it’s the only peanut butter frosting recipe you’ll ever need for your chocolate cakes and cupcakes. (And heck, for your yellow and white cakes as well!)

Add a few chopped peanut butter cups to the top of the cake and prepare to be absolutely blown away!

More Excellent Frosting Recipes:

• chocolate cream cheese frosting
• white chocolate buttercream frosting
• vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream frosting
• cream cheese frosting
• Baileys buttercream frosting
• coffee buttercream frosting
• salted caramel buttercream frosting

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Peanut Butter Frosting

Yield: Enough to liberally frost a 9-inch, 2-layer cake or 24 cupcakes

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Peanut butter frosting is a necessary recipe for every home baker. It's the creamiest and fluffiest peanut butter frosting you'll ever eat! It's a buttercream recipe that's heavy on the peanut butter flavor and it's absolutely perfect for your next chocolate cake. Reese's peanut butter cup cake, anyone?

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Ingredients

• 2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 tbsp plus 1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• ¾ tsp Kosher salt
• ½ cup heavy cream or heavy whipping cream

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place the peanut butter and butter. Sift the sugar into the bowl. Add the vanilla extract and salt. 
2. Starting on low and gradually increasing (to prevent the sugar from covering your kitchen) the speed to medium-high, beat the ingredients until light and fluffy, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed, about 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the heavy whipping cream until it is fully incorporated, about 30 seconds.

Storage: This frosting can be kept in the an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or in the freezer for up to 1 month. Bring it to room temperature and stir it up before using. On a cake, cupcakes, or brownies, the frosting is ok and safe to keep at room temperature until your dessert has disappeared (or up to 1 week).

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• 
  KitchenAid 6 Qt. Professional 600 Series Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer
• 
  Winco MS3A-8S Strainer with Single Fine Mesh, 8-Inch Diameter

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