Peanut Butter Buttercream Recipe
This Peanut Butter Buttercream is one of my all-time FAVORITE frostings. If you need a great peanut butter frosting that is easy to make, pipes perfectly, and tastes amazing, this is the one.
It makes the most wonderful peanut butter filling and frosting for chocolate cakes and cupcakes. You will love the light and fluffy consistency and fantastic flavor.
Table of Contents
Peanut Butter and Chocolate
I absolutely love peanut butter buttercream swirled high onto cupcakes, sandwiched in between layers of rich chocolate cake, or injected into the centers of chocolate cupcakes to make them even more irresistible.
Some of our favorite chocolate cakes to pair with this frosting are our Chocolate Cake from Scratch, Chocolate Sour Cream Cake, and homemade chocolate cupcakes. If you love cake mix recipes, give our Chocolate Cake from Cake Mix a try.
You can frost entire cakes with this recipe also, as we did in our Peanut Butter Cake Recipe!
How to fill Cupcakes with Frosting
When we make cupcakes, we often fill the centers with a filling--sometimes it's the same as the swirled frosting on top, and other times we go with a different flavor.
To inject our peanut butter frosting into chocolate cupcakes as a filling, simply load a disposable piping bag with peanut butter frosting, snip away the tip, and insert right into the center of the unfrosted cupcake (about halfway down).
Give the piping bag a squeeze for 2-3 seconds, and you're done! If you don't have a practice cupcake to practice on, you can do a quick practice run on a plate just to get an idea of how much buttercream comes out of the bag in 2-3 seconds, and adjust to your liking! ;0)
Which Peanut Butter is Best for Frosting?
*One important thing to remember when choosing your Peanut Butter for this recipe is that "natural" peanut butter doesn't work as well.
At least, the ones that we've experimented with over the years haven't worked as well. The consistency of natural peanut butter is much less creamy, and that comes through in the frosting.
Instead, try Creamy peanut butter. We have good results with JIF, Peter Pan, etc.
How to Make Peanut Butter Frosting
You can find the full, printable recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix on medium until butter is soft and smooth. Next, add the peanut butter and mix.
- Next, add the powdered sugar a little at a time, alternating with the milk. Add the vanilla, and mix for 4-5 minutes until nice and smooth!
- That's it! It doesn't get much simpler, but trust me, this recipe is the BEST!
More Peanut Butter Recipes
Here are a few more cake and frosting recipes with Peanut Butter for you to try!
Thanks so much for stopping by today. We hope that you enjoy the recipe. If you give it a try, we would love to know what you think! Make sure to check out our full collection of cake recipes and learn how to decorate cakes as well!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Peanut Butter Buttercream
This amazing peanut butter buttercream frosting tastes amazing and is SO easy to make! We love it with chocolate cakes and cupcakesQ!
Ingredients
- 1 cup ( 255 grams) Creamy Peanut Butter Do Not Use Natural or Reduced Fat. We have used Jif and Peter Pan Creamy brands.
- 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 4 c. (460g) powdered sugar
- ¼ cup (60g) milk plus 2 Tablespoon - use more if needed to reach the consistency you like
- 2 teaspoons ( 8 grams ) vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- In the bowl of your mixer add the butter and mix on medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth. Add the peanut butter and mix until blended.
- Gradually add the powdered sugar alternately with the milk. Add vanilla. Mix on medium speed 4 to 5 minutes until smooth.
- ***Peanut butter brands labeled "Natural" that I have tried do not work as well with this recipe because the consistency isn't as smooth & creamy. I've used Jif & Peter Pan (Creamy) with good results!
Do you use a stiff buttercream dam when using this PB buttercream as filling? If so, do you use a stiff plain buttercream or do you make some of the PB buttercream stiff to use as a dam? Would this filling stay inside the cake and not ooze out from underneath the fondant?
Yes, we do use a dam with this and you can stiffen up the PB buttercream or use stiff plain buttercream. Yes, it would be fine as a filling if covering your cake with fondant. Just treat this as you would your other buttercreams.......if you usually don't make a dam for your fillings it would be fine not to use one with this.....personal preference. Hope this helps.
In the past I've used my own PB buttercream (I adapted from a regular buttercream, no exact recipe)and got bumps and lumps under the fondant. I pricked the fondant with a pin, already in the cake, and worked it thinking it was an air bubble but oil came out. It tasted like peanut oil. I stopped filling my chocolate cakes with that and stopped offering it to my friends as a flavor option on big cakes. Everyone loved eating that cake and I called it my Reese's Cup Cake. (from Bake Me Joy)
I made this for the first time at the weekend, but im not sure it came out right? Although it tasted good, the texture didnt seem right. It didnt seem very smooth in the mixing bowl, and the peanut butter and butter didnt really seem to fluff much in the beginning; it was quite runny, and when i added the sugar, it looked really grainy and dry (even though it wasnt to the touch). The final outcome looked alomost as if it was curdled, if that makes sense? I wish i had taken a picture now to try and explain it better. I'm not sure what I did wrong? I did try to convert the recipe to grams, perhaps I shouldnt have? But im not used to working with american measurements (cups etc) as Im in the uk. Any advice?
Did you use a Creamy peanut butter? You will not have the same result if you use a peanut butter with Natural on the label. We usually use Jif or Peter Pan. It does have a different look in texture from buttercream.....just not sure without seeing yours. I'll add gram weight to the recipe for you.
I made this today and it is truly wonderful! I filled chocolate cupcakes with it and put it in my pastry bag along side chocolate buttercream for a soft serve yogurt swirl effect. Then topped off with half of a reeses peanut butter cup. Holy Moly!! I want to try these two buttercreams together like on the exterior of a 6" 3-4 layer cake where you "stripe" them horizontally and then use a spatula to smooth them around and together while the cake is on a wheel...like a watercolor effect...we shall see..:-)
Melissa, I made this for filling a chocolate cake this week, adding mini chocolate chips, and it was fantastic! Everyone said it was the best chocolate peanut butter cake they'd ever had. It was delicious! Thank you so much for the recipes!
Thank you Desiree & Paula M!!! This is one of my favorites too! Completely addictive ;0)
Hi, What brand of peanut butter do you usually use in this recipe?
Hi Anny--I guess that JIF is what I usually go with! That's the brand of PB I normally buy anyway ;0)
Hello!
I have a very big cake coming up, and the client requested a chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream filling. The catch is that they want it decorated as a green brontosaurus, which means that I need to cover it with vanilla buttercream. Is that way too many flavors in one bite? Any opinions would be hugely appreciated!!
Hi Kate--No, I think that will be fine! I've done many cakes with this same combination. ;0)