fluffy peanut butter frosting
Cakes & Cupcakes —
August 28, 2020

Peanut Butter Frosting

  • Prep time: 5 min
  • Cook time: 0 min
  • Total time: 5 min

This creamy peanut butter frosting is fluffy, light and the perfect salty-sweet topping for all your cakes and confections! Made with just 5 ingredients, you’ll love this homemade peanut butter icing.

Cakes & Cupcakes —
August 28, 2020
Peanut Butter Frosting
  • Prep time: 5 min
  • Cook time: 0 min
  • Total time: 5 min
fluffy peanut butter frosting

This creamy peanut butter frosting is fluffy, light and the perfect salty-sweet topping for all your cakes and confections! Made with just 5 ingredients, you’ll love this homemade peanut butter icing.

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Peanut Butter Frosting

This creamy peanut butter frosting is fluffy, light and the perfect salty-sweet topping for all your cakes and confections! Made with just 5 ingredients, you’ll love this homemade peanut butter icing.

peanut butter frosting on a chocolate cupcake

Peanut Butter Frosting

Happy frosting Friday everyone! We’re finishing off this month of frosting recipes with this creamy, dreamy peanut butter icing. I always like to save the best for last and that’s exactly what we did here. This pb frosting is light, creamy, subtley sweet, and the perfect topping for any cupcake, cookie bar, brownie, or cake you’re making. Plus it’s lower in sugar and boasts a protein packed punch compared to traditional buttercream while still being every bit as delicious. A win-win in our book.

Ingredients for peanut butter icing:

  • Peanut Butter
  • Unsalted Butter
  • Confectioners Sugar
  • Vanilla
  • Heavy Whipping Cream

What kind of peanut butter should you use for peanut butter frosting

We recommend using a traditional creamy peanut butter like Jiff, Skippy, or Peter Pan in this homemade peanut butter frosting. Natural peanut butters that need to be stirred tend to have a higher oil content and are a little more volatile in frosting. Some of them work, but more often than not we found they led to split icing.

How to make peanut butter frosting

Peanut butter frosting is super simple to make, but we’ll break it down step by step to take any and all guess work out, so you’re guaranteed perfect frosting every darn time.

1. Combine the peanut butter and butter in a stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment.

peanut butter going into stand mixer   peanut butter and butter in a stand mixer

2. Beat together until creamy and homogenous.

Peanut butter frosting

3. Scrape down the bowl and add the powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Mix well.

powdered sugar going into peanut butter frosting bowl

peanut butter frosting bowl scraped down

4. Scrape down the bowl to make sure everything is mixed together. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes or until light, fluffy and creamy.

fluffy peanut butter frosting

Et voila! PB frosting for all your peanut butter-y dessert needs!

How to prevent peanut butter frosting from splitting

Now if you’d ever tried to make peanut butter frosting before you might have found it be just a smidge finickier than other frosting recipes. This is because peanut butter frosting calls for two different fats and peanut butter can vary a lot by brand. Sometimes this can lead to your frosting splitting. Which is, like, a day ruiner in my opinion. Lucky for you we tested the sh*t out of this peanut butter frosting, so you can rest easy, knowing it’s going to turn out creamy and silky smooth every time.

  1. Make sure your peanut butter and butter are the same temperature: Room temperature butter and room temperature peanut butter will mix together seamlessly without any weird chunks of cold butter or melted peanut butter.
  2. Use heavy whipping cream: Milk, water, or any other liquid simply won’t cut it in this recipe. Just two Tablespoons of cream will keep your frosting light, fluffy, and extra creamy.
  3. Use the paddle not the whisk: We found the amount of air that the whisk attachment beats into the frosting led to split frosting. The paddle will consistently beat up a fluffy frosting that still holds it shape.

peanut butter frosted chocolate cupcakes

Perfect pairings for peanut butter icing:

  • Chocolate Cake: While I’ll always be a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting girl, there’s a special place in my heart for chocolate cake with pb frosting. Want both? Fill the inside of the cake with peanut butter frosting and frost the outside with chocolate for a fun and nutty surprise!
  • Vanilla Cake: Fill and frost this scrumptious vanilla cake with this salty-sweet peanut butter frosting.
  • Peanut Butter Cookies: Make these chewy peanut butter cookies into peanut butter sandwich cookies with a dollop of pb icing in the middle!
  • Fudgy Chocolate Brownies: The only thing better than brownie are brownies with peanut butter frosting AKA the perfect flavor combo.

Enjoy this finger looking good peanut butter frosting.

XX

Print
fluffy peanut butter frosting
  • Author: Sofi | Broma Bakery
  • Prep Time: 5 min
  • Cook Time: 0 min
  • Total Time: 5 min
  • Yield: 4 cups frosting
  • Category: dessert
  • Method: stand mixer
  • Cuisine: american

Peanut Butter Frosting

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 1 review

This creamy peanut butter frosting is fluffy, light and the perfect salty-sweet topping for all your cakes and confections! Made with just 5 ingredients, you’ll love this homemade peanut butter icing.

  • Author: Sofi | Broma Bakery
  • Prep Time: 5 min
  • Cook Time: 0 min
  • Total Time: 5 min
  • Yield: 4 cups frosting
  • Category: dessert
  • Method: stand mixer
  • Cuisine: american
Units:

Ingredients

  • 2 cups peanut butter
  • 12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons cream
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt (to taste)

Instructions

    1. In a stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment, combine the peanut butter and room temperature butter. Beat until creamy and completely combined, about 1 minute.
    2. Add the powdered sugar, cream, vanilla extract, and salt and beat on low speed until combined.
    3. Scrape down the bowl and beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
    4. Transfer the frosting to a piping bag or use an offset spatula to frost your cakes, cookies, and cupcakes! Enjoy 🙂

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  1. I made this frosting yesterday to be paired with chocolate cupcakes I made for my 3 grandchildren. Okay, for me and their parents too! Your recipe was going to be up against a decades-old peanut butter frosting my mom has been making for as long as I can remember in my 64 years of life. Hers came from a cookbook from a company that made Spry shortening- a competitor of Crisco back in the day. While your recipe is very good (hence the 5 stars!), it just didn’t beat the Spry one in taste- sorry! Yours is definitely smooth, creamy and soooo spreadable, there was a lack of saltiness that makes my mom’s frosting so good. I’m keeping your recipe on file though, because I think it would be luscious as a filling for cookies! Thank you for the recipe!






    • Hi Donna! Thank you so much for this sweet comment. It’s always hard to beat a classic family recipe. We’ll definitely have to check that one out 🙂