Peanut Butter Buttercream Recipe
This Peanut Butter Buttercream Recipe is one of my all-time FAVORITE frosting recipes.
It makes the most wonderful peanut butter filling and frosting for chocolate cakes and cupcakes. You will love the peanut butter flavor, the light and fluffy consistency, and how easily it pipes!
Not only does this peanut butter frosting taste fantastic, but the recipe is incredibly easy to throw together. Really, you're just minutes away from this deliciousness!!
Table of Contents
Favorite Frostings for Chocolate Cakes
Chocolate cake pairs amazingly well with so many frostings, but this peanut butter buttercream is definitely in my top three.
For me, it's a three-way tie between Chocolate & Peanut butter (Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cake Mix), Chocolate and Mint (Mint Chocolate Chip Cake) and chocolate & coconut (Almond Joy Cake) I could never pick a favorite, but I highly recommend making each combo as often as possible (for comparison & research purposes of course!)
When your peanut butter cravings strike, this is the frosting that you. need!
Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate are the Perfect Combination
Okay, let's get back to the star of our post. There are countless reasons to love this recipe. This peanut butter frosting is perfectly peanut buttery, has a delightfully silky texture, and if you are a fan of the Viva Paper Towel Method of smoothing, it smooths exceptionally well.
There's no better match for peanut butter frosting than a delicious chocolate cake, is there? You have the sweet and salty flavors from the peanut butter buttercream, and the rich decadence of the chocolate cake. Perfection!
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.
You can frost entire cakes with this recipe also, as we did in our AMAZING Peanut Butter Cake Recipe!
How to Inject buttercream filling into cupcakes
When I make cupcakes, I often fill the centers with a filling--sometime's it's the same as the swirled frosting on top, and other times I go with a different flavor.
I love this peanut butter buttercream frosting so much that I try to incorporate as much as possible!
To inject our peanut butter buttercream 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 trial 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)
How to Make peanut butter chocolate chip frosting
For a little variation (especially when using this as a filling for a chocolate layer cake) I love to stir in mini chocolate chips! Keep in mind that mini chips won't fit through small or closed star piping tips if you are planning to do any piping.
I will warn you that this frosting is HIGHLY addictive...and you may have to hide the bowl immediately after mixing up a batch.
The peanut butter frosting is a much lighter consistency than straight peanut butter, so you can easily get carried away with sampling. I know that I always do. Make it once and it'll be your go-to peanut butter buttercream frosting for life! YUM.
Step away from the All Natural Peanut Butter!
*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. You can still use it if you must, the taste is still good, but the consistency isn't nearly as smooth.
I recommend peanut butter brands like JIF, Peter Pan, etc. (Oh, and buy creamy not crunchy- haha)
Peanut Butter Buttercream with Chocolate Cake is the BEST! Here are our favorite Chocolate Cake & Cupcake Recipes!
Looking for the BEST chocolate cake or cupcake recipe? Make sure to save these tried and true favorites! We love our
Scratch Classic Chocolate Cake
Scratch Chocolate Cupcake recipe,
Homemade Devil's Food Cake Recipe
Scratch Chocolate Sour Cream Cake
Chocolate Sour Cream Cake from a Mix
Enjoy!
How to Make Peanut Butter Frosting
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the 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!
Another Peanut Butter Frosting to Love
Update! We now have another Peanut Butter Frosting to love. Add this creamy Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting to your must-try recipe list also! You need both of these recipes in your life ;0) We used it with our Peanut Butter Cake (doctored cake mix) Recipe!
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!
Here is the cake version of our peanut butter cupcakes pictured above! Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cake is ALWAYS a crowd pleaser!
If you like Peanut Butter recipes, you MUST try our amazing Peanut Butter Cake recipe! Moist and flavorful peanut butter cake layers with this amazing peanut butter frosting (and ganache drip). It's one of our favorites!: Peanut Butter Cake Recipe
Don't miss our full roundup of our popular cake and frosting recipes in our Cake Recipes and Tutorials Section!
Hi Melissa, I am planning on making the PB buttercream within the next week. This may be a silly question, but, what type of milk are you using? We drink skim and 1%. Should I be using something else? Thank you
Hi Anne, We use whole milk and 2% when we make this......I think it would still be fine using 1% . The peanut butter buttercream does not become as smooth as typical buttercream. We most often use it as a filling or to frost the top of a cake with chocolate frosting being on the outside of the cake. Be sure to use a Creamy peanut butter, we usually use Jif brand.
Hope you like it.
Hi. Just wondering if you have a hazelnut filling recipe. For some reason I cannot find one. Thx :)
I'm sorry, we do not have one
Hi Nadeen, I would just replace the peanut butter in this recipe with Nutella and follow the same directions for the peanut butter buttercream to make the hazelnut flavor buttercream. Hope this helps.
Melissa this really is to die for! I'm new to the site and just now trying your recipes. I also made the Chocolate Buttercream and it is the best I've ever had. Thank you for sharing!!
What is Viva/viva method?
Hi Shona, Viva is the brand name for a paper towel that is very smooth without impressions. It is used to give a smooth look to buttercream.
Here is a link to a video showing Melissa using the Viva towel method, https://www.mycakeschool.com/video-tutorials/viva-method-of-smoothing/
Looking forward to making this. I usually use Jif or Skippy Natural PB. Do you think this would change the recipe outcome at all? Peanuts, sugar, palm oil and salt. That's it.
Hi, The Natural peanut butter will not work as well. Use the standard peanut butter, it usually says Creamy on the container. We most often use Jif brand.
Has anyone made the this recipe, wrapping the cake in modeling chocolate? What do you think? Would it be just too much or.....mmmmm perfect combination.
Thank you.
Never tried it, but sounds perfect to me ;0)