Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting Recipe for Cake

This Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting is rich and indulgent, but it’s also light and creamy at the same time. It pipes and spreads like a dream, and it tastes ridiculously good. Seriously, the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter in frosting form? I literally can’t even. Pair it with my favorite Doctored Up Cake Mix recipe for a truly epic chocolate cake!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

Things to Love About This Chocolate Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

➀ The texture. I’m not kidding when I say it’s a dream to spread and pipe. This creamy peanut butter frosting hits that perfect spreadable consistency — smooth enough to glide over cake layers without pulling up crumbs, and stiff enough to pipe gorgeous swirls on top of cupcakes. Whether you’re doing a crumb coat on a layer cake or piling it high on chocolate cupcakes, this frosting is SO cooperative. You’ll want to use a rubber spatula or offset spatula for spreading, and your stand mixer’s paddle attachment (or a hand mixer!) for whipping it up.

➁ This chocolate peanut butter buttercream is bold, but not in an in-your-face kind of way. The peanut butter taste isn’t subtle, per se — but it’s beautifully balanced with that delicious chocolate flavor so neither one overwhelms you. It’s so light and fluffy that the flavor combination just keeps you coming back for more. Be still my heart, this is one of my all-time favorite cakes and frosting recipes combined. It’s honestly the perfect complement to so many bakes!

➂ Simple ingredients. Nothing crazy — unsalted butter at room temperature, creamy peanut butter (I prefer not using natural peanut butter here since it can get a little oily and separate), powdered sugar (also called confectioners’ sugar), vanilla extract, unsweetened cocoa powder, and a splash of heavy cream or hot water to adjust the consistency. That’s it! No trip to a specialty grocery store required. Check the recipe card below for all the volume measurements.

What Tastes Best With Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting?

Okay, can we talk about how this is truly one of the best flavor combinations on the planet?! This chocolate peanut butter frosting is such a good variety of options kind of frosting — it’s the preferred complementary frosting for SO many bakes. Here are my favorites:

• Peanut Butter Cup Banana Cupcakes (pictured!)
• Yellow Cupcakes and Yellow Cake
• Chocolate Cupcakes
• Banana Cake
• Chocolate Cake
• Sandwiched between two peanut butter cookies
• Or two chocolate chip cookies
• Or two brownie cookies!

Check out my cake recipes and cupcake recipes for more ideas!

Tips for Making the Best Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

If you’re using this as your go-to chocolate cake recipe pairing, here are my best tips! Start your cake batter by mixing wet ingredients (vegetable oil, sour cream, eggs, vanilla extract, melted butter) in a large mixing bowl or medium bowl, then add your dry ingredients (dutch-processed cocoa powder or Hershey’s cocoa works great!, flour, sugar) in a separate bowl first. Combine on low speed with an electric mixer, then bump to medium speed — don’t overmix or you’ll get air bubbles and lose that fudgy chocolate cake moist texture we all love. Divide batter evenly between greased cake pans and cool on a wire rack before frosting.

For the frosting itself: beat your butter on medium-high speed until fluffy, then add peanut butter and mix on low speed before slowly adding powdered sugar. Add hot water or heavy cream a little at a time to reach a pipeable peanut butter consistency. This chocolate peanut butter frosting is genuinely one of my all-time favorite cakes toppers — it’s incredible on birthday cakes, layer cakes, and dark chocolate cupcake recipes alike! If you love chocolate peanut butter combinations, you absolutely have to make this. Store leftovers in an airtight container or a freezer bag — it keeps beautifully the next day!

Yield

This recipe makes just enough to fill and cover a three-layer cake (including a thin layer crumb coat!) or to easily frost 2 dozen cupcakes — piped high on top of cupcakes with enough frosting left for a little extra. You’ll get more than enough for a thick layer on a 9×13 sheet cake too. Honestly, this creamy chocolate peanut butter icing is the kind of recipe that makes you want to skip the cardio sessions entirely. Worth. It. 😄 And if you’re into peanut butter cups, try crumbling a few on top of the entire cake for little bits of crunchy, chocolatey heaven — those little peanut pieces on top of the cake are *chef’s kiss*.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting Recipe

Yield: 12 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

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This Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting is rich and indulgent, but it's also light and creamy at the same time. It pipes and spreads like a dream, and it tastes ridiculously good.

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Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 4 to 4-1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 4-5 tbsp whole fat milk or half-and-half (but not heavy cream)

Instructions

1. Use the paddle attachment of a stand mixer to beat together the butter and peanut butter until mixed well.
2. Add 4 cups of the powdered sugar, one cup at a time and mixing well in between each addition. Add a tablespoon or two of milk as needed to keep the consistency smooth and creamy.
3. Mix in the cocoa powder and vanilla.
4. At this point do a taste test. If needed add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar to taste. Also add any remaining milk to achieve desired consistency.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 182Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 22mgSodium: 119mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 1gSugar: 10gProtein: 3g