Best Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Make Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting like a professional baker. It's fluffy, soft and creamy, and holds for piping. With just five simple ingredients, it's easy to make and perfect to make-ahead too. It has intense nut flavor and is delicious atop cakes, cupcakes, brownies, and cookies. 

If there's one thing I love, it's frosting. At age 4 I asked my mom, "What's the stuff that holds up the frosting?" Cake was inconsequential to the fluffy, sweet frosting on top.

I clearly knew at that point in life that cake takes second fiddle to delicious icing or frosting, and this easy peanut butter frosting is no exception!

With all of my years of baking experience, frosting is definitely my favorite category. This peanut butter flavor is delicious with chocolate, and vanilla and strawberry cake or cookies.

If you love frosting, you definitely need to try my Swiss meringue buttercream, milk chocolate frosting, and cream cheese frosting.

Jump to:

• Frosting vs. Icing
• Why This Recipe Works
• Ingredients
• How To Make Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
• Expert Tips for the Best Peanut Butter Frosting
• Ways to Use Whipped Peanut Butter Frosting
• FAQs
• More Easy Frosting Recipes To Try
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Frosting vs. Icing

What's the difference between frosting and icing? For most folks, the terms can be used interchangeably. We say "ice a cake," or "put icing on the cookies," and it is most often really frosting. 

In food terms, icing is typically a thinner, more sugary, and often used as a glaze. Frosting is known for being fluffy, whipped, and thicker.

I like icing for certain kinds of brownies and cookies, as it's a thinner layer of deliciousness. Frosting is great for cupcakes and for building layered cakes.

If you are looking for a non-peanut butter frosting, try my vanilla buttercream frosting with confectioners' sugar and butter. It melts in your mouth.

Why This Recipe Works

Inherently peanut butter frosting or icing is not as smooth as other frostings. The peanut butter can create a stiff mixture that tastes great, but doesn't pipe or spread well. 

I use butter, as well as a bit of cream cheese, to create the smooth creaminess I want in a fluffy peanut butter frosting. That's right, this is technically a peanut butter cream cheese frosting!

There is a very slight tang to the frosting, but the sweetness and rich peanut flavor aren't overpowered. No one will notice, but they will know it's dang good frosting. 

The powdered sugar and a pinch of salt help balance everything out, so in the end, all you taste is pure peanut butter flavor.

Ingredients

• Smooth Peanut Butter: The key ingredient for the signature crowd-winning flavor that's just so good. Avoid natural peanut creamy butter, it changes the texture.
• Unsalted Butter: The base to any good frosting recipe that give's it shape and texture.
• Cream Cheese: Makes for a creamy and luscious flavory and texture every single time. Make sure it's room temperature before mixing.
• Salt: Brings out all the different flavors in the recipe making them extra delicious!
• Confectioners' Sugar: Is the sweetness for the recipe and also gives the frosting it's shape and structure.
• Milk: Keeps the texture fluffy but light. Add more milk if it's too thick or only add a little milk if it seems just right after initially mixing.

Pro Tip: For the best frosting texture, be sure that your ingredients are all room temperature prior to mixing!

How To Make Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

This is such an easy peanut butter frosting recipe! Here are the steps:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a hand mixer with a large bowl, beat together the peanut butter, cream cheese, butter, and salt.
2. Reduce the speed to low and gradually mix in the confectioners' sugar. It will be quite thick at this stage, so you may need to thin it out with a little milk.
3. Once the milk is incorporated you should be left with whipped, fluffy peanut butter frosting!

Tip: Use a stand mixer or hand mixer to make this bakery-quality frosting fluffy and delicious. 

Expert Tips for the Best Peanut Butter Frosting

• Make sure the cream cheese is room temperature. Cream cheese, as I mentioned, helps the frosting with its silky texture. 
• Avoid Natural Peanut Butter. Use smooth peanut butter rather than natural peanut butter. Natural peanut butter hasn't been homogenized and isn't as creamy. It will make a more grainy, oily icing. 
• Don't over whip. I keep my mixer on medium speed as I add the confectioners' sugar, this is so I don't incorporate too much air. If there is too much air it will still taste good, but won't look as smooth. 
• Frosting too loose? Add more confectioner's sugar if you'd like it to be more stiff. 

Ways to Use Whipped Peanut Butter Frosting

I love using this as peanut butter cake frosting! It pairs especially well with chocolate cake. The combo is classic, and this whipped peanut butter frosting is perfect.

I took this combo a step further and used this as a peanut butter topping for brownies. My brownie cake is not only delicious but really beautiful. It is a bit of a show-stopper with the shortcut of boxed brownies. 

Or, keep things simple and sandwich the frosting between two graham crackers. I used to love making graham cracker cookie sandwiches as a kid!

FAQs

More Easy Frosting Recipes To Try

• Chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe is great for a classic yellow or chocolate cake. 
• For a milk chocolate flavor, try my fluffy chocolate frosting. 
• Learn how to make caramel frosting that's really good with spice cake. 

📖 Recipe

The Best Frosting Recipes

Recipe Tara Teaspoon. Photography Ty Mecham