The Best Peanut Butter Frosting
Our delicious The Best Peanut Butter Frosting is fluffy, creamy, and chock full of peanut butter flavor. Perfect for chocolate cakes, cupcakes, and brownies!
Our Best Peanut Butter Frosting is the perfect icing recipe for your next baking project. It tastes great on chocolate cake or chocolate cupcakes and it is out of this world on Brownies! It is also amazing as a filling in a layered cake! However you use it, this homemade icing is super delicious and it could not be easier to make. Sweet, creamy, peanutty and so very yummy, your family will beg you to make this Peanut Butter Buttercream again and again.
How to Make
Step 1: First, add 1 heaping cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup of softened butter, and the vanilla to a mixing bowl. The butter should be “slightly softened” which means it is still cold but has warmed up enough so you can press your thumb down into the stick of butter.
Step 2: Mix the butter, peanut butter, and vanilla together until they are fully combined (about 2 minutes). Use a spatula to scrape the peanut butter mixture down from the sides of the bowl before moving on to the next step.
Step 3: In a separate bowl, use a food scale to measure 1 Pound of Powdered Sugar. If you don’t have a food scale, measure 4 cups instead. We normally do not sift the powdered sugar and instead rely on the mixer to do that work for us.
Step 4: Pour the Powdered Sugar into the mixing bowl with the peanut butter mixture.
Step 5: To keep the powdered sugar from flying out of the mixer we cover it with a towel during this part of the mixing process.
Step 6: Start your mixer (or electric beater) on the lowest setting and keep it on low until the butter and sugar are incorporated (about 30 seconds). Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and then increase the speed to medium-high and mix for another 30-45 seconds so the frosting starts coming together. The frosting will be thick and crumbly.
Steps 7-8: This is the fun part of the recipe where you get to taste your frosting. You are trying to determine how much milk you need to add and if it needs a little more vanilla extract. If it tastes great, no need to add more vanilla. Most likely the frosting will be too thick at this point. Start adding milk, a tablespoon at a time, and mix again to check the consistency. The amount of milk to add depends on the state of your frosting and sometimes the time of year (if it is a hot humid day, you might need to just a little bit of milk.) You can check out our FAQ section below to see some other advice on making the perfect batch of frosting.
How to Serve
How much frosting will you need? That always depends on how thick or thin you apply the frosting or how much decorating you do but here are a couple of guidelines. Our recipe should make enough Best Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting to cover a 9″ x 13″ sheet cake or a two-layer 8″ cake. If you are making cupcakes, you should be able to frost 24 cupcakes if you apply the frosting with a knife. If you swirl on the frosting with a pastry bag like we have done here, you should be able to frost 15-18 cupcakes depending on the size of the swirl
Expert Tips and FAQs
We like to use Creamy style Peanut Butter but you definitely can use whatever type of Peanut Butter you have on hand. Crunchy-style peanut butter will add a nice texture to the frosting but it also might make it a little harder to pipe through a decorating bag.
No, the frosting does not need to be refrigerated. For example, brownies frosted with this Peanut Butter Buttercream would be fine left out on the counter for 2-3 days if the pan was tightly covered with aluminum foil. That said, we usually refrigerate our frosted desserts to keep the baked good from going stale even if the frosting would be fine. We think frosting tastes best at room temperature so we will then remove the item from the refrigerator a couple of hours before we will serve them.
Frosting stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator should be good for up to a week. If you carefully wrap the frosting in order to avoid freezer burn, the frosting should be fine in the freezer for 3-4 months.
One thing you can do if it seems too sweet for your palette is to add a pinch of salt to the frosting. But please note that a little salt goes a long way. We cannot stress enough that a pinch (10-15 granules of regular table salt) is all you usually need. Even 1/4 a teaspoon of salt would probably ruin the frosting. Add the salt and mix again and see if that has cut down on the sweetness level.
Add another teaspoon of milk and mix again. Continue to add the milk, a teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is the consistency that you like it.
Yes. You can use Half n’ Half or Whipping Cream or even almond milk or another milk substitute.
IIf you are looking for dessert ideas, don’t miss these yummy recipes that would taste great frosted with our Peanut Butter Frosting: Homemade Chocolate Cupcakes, Peanut Butter Brownie Bars, and Chocolate Cake Bites.
Other Peanut Butter Frosting Recipes You Will Love
Did you Make This Recipe? Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @twosisterscrafting on Instagram so we can see it!
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The Best Peanut Butter Frosting
Our delicious The Best Peanut Butter Frosting is fluffy, creamy, and chock full of peanut butter flavor. Perfect for chocolate cakes, cupcakes, and brownies!
Ingredients
- ½ cup Butter (Slightly Softened) (We use Salted Sweet Cream Butter)
- 1 heaping cup Peanut Butter (Creamy)
- 1 pound Powdered Sugar (or 4 cups)
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1/3 cup Milk (approximately)
Instructions
- Add 1 heaping cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup of softened butter, and the vanilla to a mixing bowl. The butter should be “slightly softened” which means it is still cold but has warmed up enough so you can press your thumb down into the stick of butter.
- Mix the butter, peanut butter, and vanilla together until they are fully combined (about 2 minutes).
- Use a spatula to scrape the peanut butter mixture down from the sides of the bowl before moving on to the next step.
- In a separate bowl, use a food scale to measure 1 Pound of Powdered Sugar. If you don’t have a food scale, measure 4 cups instead. We normally do not sift the powdered sugar and instead rely on the mixer to do that work for us.
- Pour the Powdered Sugar into the mixing bowl with the peanut butter mixture.
- Start your mixer (or electric beater) on the lowest setting and keep it on low until the butter and sugar are incorporated (about 30 seconds).
- Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and then increase the speed to medium-high and mix for another 30-45 seconds so the frosting starts coming together. The frosting will be thick and crumbly.
- Taste your frosting. You are trying to determine how much milk you need to add and if it needs a little more vanilla extract. If it tastes great, no need to add more vanilla. Most likely the frosting will be too thick at this point. Start adding milk, a tablespoon at a time, and mix again to check the consistency. The amount of milk to add depends on the state of your frosting and sometimes the time of year (if it is a hot humid day, you might need to just a little bit of milk.)
Notes
How much frosting will you need?
That always depends on how thick or thin you apply the frosting or how much decorating you do but here are a couple of guidelines. Our recipe should make enough Best Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting to cover a 9" x 13" sheet cake or a two-layer 8" cake. If you are making cupcakes, you should be able to frost 24 cupcakes if you apply the frosting with a knife. If you swirl on the frosting with a pastry bag like we have done here, you should be able to frost 15-18 cupcakes depending on the size of the swirl.
Did you Make this Recipe? Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @twosisterscrafting on Instagram so we can see it!
If you are looking for more tips and tricks for making that perfect batch of homemade frosting we have a few other posts you might want to check out:
