Peanut Butter Frosting
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This peanut butter frosting is thick and creamy with the perfect peanut butter flavor. It’s an easy, American- style buttercream recipe that’s perfect for cupcakes, brownies, birthday cake or cookies. It pipes beautifully and you’ll love the salty/sweet flavor.
**This recipe was updated February 27, 2026 with slightly adapted ingredients, updated photos & new recipe tips**
This peanut butter buttercream frosting is the perfect topping for brownies, cakes and cupcakes. It’s creamy, filled with peanut butter, not too sweet, and pipes beautifully. It has a fluffy texture that’s not too dense, and unlike so many frosting recipes, it’s not too sweet. In my opinion – it almost tastes like peanut butter soft serve ice cream.
It’s super simple to make and really takes desserts to the next level.
Ingredients
I played around a lot with the ratio of butter to peanut butter for this recipe. Using a 2:1 ratio of butter to peanut butter didn’t provide enough peanut butter flavor in my opinion. But using equal amounts of butter and peanut butter made the frosting too thick and the consistency wasn’t smooth and creamy enough.
So using a 2:1.5 ratio (or 1 cup butter and 3/4 cup peanut butter) was the perfect ratio – big peanut butter flavor, but still creamy and fluffy. So in total, you’ll need:
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup peanut butter
- 2-3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2-4 tablespoons milk or cream
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter powder – optional
Recipe Tip
Peanut butter powder is made from removing most of the oil from peanuts. It’s typically found in the health food section of grocery stores. While it isn’t 100% necessary in this recipe – it increases the peanut butter flavor without compromising the creamy, silky smooth texture of the frosting. I also love using it in this recipe because by increasing the peanut butter flavor, the frosting is less sweet.
Baking Tips & Questions
- Can I use salted butter? Yes, but remove the salt from the recipe.
- Can I use natural peanut butter to make the frosting? No. Natural peanut butter can separate and cause the frosting to get oily or lump, and also separate.
- How do I make the frosting ahead of time? You can make the frosting a day or two in advance and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. Take it out of the fridge to soften about 1-2 hours before you want to frost your cake or cupcakes. If it isn’t quite soft enough yet, you can beat it again with your electric mixer.
How Much Frosting Does it Make?
- 12-16 cupcakes, frosted with a piping bag
- 18-24 cupcakes, frosted with a thin layer using a knife
- one 9×13 inch, single-layer cake
- for an 8×8 or 9×9 inch pan of brownies or single layer cake, half the recipe (see recipe notes)
- for an 8-inch 3 layer cake (between the layers, sides and top frosted), double the recipe – you will likely have some frosting leftover
What Does this Peanut Butter Frosting Taste Delicious On?
This peanut butter buttercream is so delicious on chocolate cupcakes, brownies, birthday cake, or just about anything that you eat for dessert.
Try this peanut butter frosting with these tasty treats:
Or for more frosting recipes, try these other favorites:
Peanut Butter Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (226 grams), softened
- 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (190 grams)
- 2-3 cups powdered sugar (220-330 grams), plus more if needed
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter powder, optional
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2-4 tablespoons cream (30-60 ml), or milk
Instructions
- Beat the butter until fluffy.
- Beat in the peanut butter.
- Sift in 2 cups powdered sugar and the optional peanut butter powder. Add in the vanilla and salt. Beat together, starting with the mixer on a low speed.
- Beat in the milk/cream 1 tablespoon at a time, alternating with a little extra powdered sugar as needed until the desired sweetness and thickness is reached.
Notes
- Peanut Butter: Do not use natural, homemade or whipped peanut butter. The frosting can end up separating or with chunks.
- Storage: Store frosted cakes and cupcakes covered at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Quantity: Makes enough for 12-16 cupcakes frosted with a piping bag, or 18-24 cupcakes if frosting with a knife. Will frost a single layer 9×13 inch cake or pan of brownies. For an 8×8 inch pan of brownies, half the recipe (see below). For an 8-inch layer cake, double the recipe
- For A Smaller Batch: To half the recipe, use:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 6 tablespoons peanut butter
- 1 – 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1-2 tablespoons milk or cream
- Nutrition: Nutrition information is based on the recipe frosting 18 cupcakes, not including the cupcake.
So very good on chocolate brownies. Using a large frosting tip on brownies that I’ve already been cut up makes for a very classy finish. Just a little delicious pile of peanut butter frosting!
I made this for my husband. He had been requesting a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing forever, so i finally gave in and made it. He loved it! I will use this recipe again.
Can you freeze the leftover frosting? I made too much
Yup – that works. Then thaw in the fridge overnight, and bring to room temperature before using. You may need to beat it again with a mixer before using.
Can i use cream chees in place of the butter? If so, do i use the same amount as the butter in the recipe?
I haven’t tried it, so I can’t be sure. But my concern would be that it might be too thin if you used entirely cream cheese. If you wanted more of a cream cheese flavor, I’d try using 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup cream cheese. You’ll want to use full fat, brick-style cream cheese (not spreadable or lite).
I have made this with cream and milk and the frosting separated both times. I used regular peanut butter not natural. What did I do wrong and how can I did this? Adding more confectioner’s sugar did not help
Hi Carol, I’m sorry the frosting didn’t turn out for you. Typically if frosting separates it’s because the butter was either too soft, or the mixture was beaten too much. Basically – in the summer especially the butter can start to melt and then the frosting can separate.
Not my recipe but just a thought. When you added the milk/cream was it cold? Adding cold liquid to room temp butter can cause it to seize up. Make sure your liquid is at room temp, I did this one time and the same thing happened. This was a different recipe tho but very similar.
On a different note this recipe looks awesome and I have a really good chocolate cake recipe I’m gonna have to try it on. Thank u so much for including the amounts for halving the recipe. Nobody ever seems to do this. If it’s in grams it’s not a big deal but when it’s in cup measurements it gets confusing trying to halve so that’s awesome you included that! Will let you know how it goes! 🙂
I look forward to making this recipe! Under the Notes section in number 4, for halving the recipe, number 3 states use 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and number 4 states use 1 1/2 cups powder sugar. Is this correct?
Thanks so much!
Eileen
Looks like the perfect peanut butter frosting!!