Peanut Butter Buttercream
A rich and creamy peanut butter frosting, perfect for icing cakes, cupcakes and cookies.
Yesterday was my husband’s birthday and despite all of my planning and effort to make the day special, it all fell apart. Breakfast was a disaster, his birthday cake literally crumbled while I frosted it, and not only was dinner not ready when he got home, but he caught me in the act of hanging streamers and balloons. I may or may not have childishly slammed a door and cried into my pillow.
I don’t know why I tried a new chocolate cake recipe, I already have one that I know and love. I could tell almost immediately that it was going to be a dud structurally, but still I hoped that I could salvage it with a little time in the fridge and a heavy-handed coating of peanut butter buttercream.
Nope. No such luck, and I was left with a messy pile of cake and frosting. A delicious mess, to be sure, but not the birthday cake I was hoping for. Nobody bursts into song over, or blows out candles tucked into a plateful of crumbs.
I debated whether or not to even tell you about this, but in end I thought you deserve to know about this peanut butter buttercream. Because it is amazing. It’s butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and creamy peanut butter, and when it all comes together magical things happen.
It’s so magical that I’ve almost forgotten that I baked a cake that completely fell apart. I better go eat the rest of it to hide the evidence.
baking tip:The importance of sifting powdered sugar
In my tutorial on How to Build a Layer Cake, I share several ways to give your cake that professional look. One sure bet to give yourself away as an amateur cake baker is lumpy frosting.
Powdered sugar is prone to clumping, and that can make your frosting lumpy. To get super smooth silky smooth frosting, simply sift the powdered sugar with a sieve/sifter or mesh strainer before adding it to your recipe.
Peanut Butter Buttercream
Ingredients
- 10 ounces cream cheese , at room temperature (295 grams)
- ½ cup unsalted butter , at room temperature (115 grams)
- 5 cups powdered sugar , sifted (500 grams)
- â…” cup creamy peanut butter (200 grams)
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. With the mixture on low, slowly add the powdered sugar until incorporated. Mix in the peanut butter.
- Use immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge to later use.
Notes
I made this and it was amazing! I only used 8 ounces of cream cheese and it was still very good!
Just stopped in to tell you I found your recipe (the Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting) on Pinterest months ago and just recently tried it on a boxed mix chocolate cake. It was heavenly! Tonight I put it on brownies and oh my! I have enough leftover frosting to make another batch of brownies. It’s a good thing 🙂
Thanks so much for the comment Judith! So happy to hear you like the recipe, love the idea of putting it on brownies!
Hi Annalise. :0)
I was wondering which cake recipe you used? I’m about to make one that uses the exact same icing recipe with a peanut butter chocolate ganache. The blogger warned that the layers were extremely tender and I’m wondering if it is the same recipe. I have to make this cake for a birthday party tomorrow and I would be horrified if it fell apart. What do you think caused it to happen?
The cake recipe I used came from the Sky High Cakes cookbook. Since I made it so long ago I can’t say what went wrong, it may have just been an unfortunate fluke. If I were to attempt it again in the future, I would use the frosting recipe from this post and my chocolate sour cream cake: https://www.completelydelicious.com/2012/07/chocolate-sour-cream-cake.html. Hope this helps!
This buttercream looks absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to try it!
I used the frosting recipe to make cupcakes… I put a peanut butter cup in each tin with the cupcake batter before cooking it… It turned out amazing. Peanut butter/chocolate cupcakes.
Sounds fantastic, thanks for sharing!
That sour cream cake is the best cake I have ever made. Delicious and moist. I’m about to make the frosting, but I’m disappointed that I didn’t buy enough cream cheese. I guess I’ll see what happens using only 8 ounces!
I was looking for a good, moist chocolate cake recipe and went to your link for sour cream chocolate cake. You are so right. It is the best. I made one and a half recipes and baked it in my new 2 inch deep half sheet pan. It came out perfectly for a church luncheon. If you don’t have one of these pans in your collection, consider adding one. Mine even came with a plastic snap-on cover. Standard half sheet pans are barely an inch deep and I’ve had lots of batter and fillings spill over the sides and burn on the bottom of the oven. By the way, the frosting was delicious, too. Thank you for sharing another great recipe. I’m very curious to know what the tip off was in your failed cake, that the recipe might not work?
There were just little clues, it didn’t rise well and seemed super crumbly. I should have chilled the cake layers before frosting them, as that usually holds a crumbly cake together. But I didn’t. Glad you liked the sour cream chocolate cake and that it worked so well as a sheet cake! I will have to try that sometime.