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!
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)