This chocolate peanut butter buttercream is an extremely rich and tasty frosting that you won’t want to miss out on! This recipe is extremely simple and easy to make and will be ready in just under 20 minutes. Follow along step by step to make my easy chocolate peanut butter frosting.
Ingredients
This chocolate peanut butter icing recipe yields a dozen of cupcakes, however, feel free to adjust the recipe to the amount you need. To make this recipe you will need:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar (you can adjust the amount as desired)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- 2 tbsp full cream milk
You can easily adjust the amount of powdered sugar as desired until you reach the sweetness you like. Be careful when you add extra powdered sugar, as it can ruin the texture of your icing and make it too thick. If this does happen, you can add extra milk one tablespoon at a time until you reach the smooth and creamy consistency again.
How to make chocolate peanut butter frosting
This recipe doesn’t have many ingredients, which saves a lot of hassle and makes it easy and quick to make. Follow along step by step:
- Chop butter into smaller pieces and place in the bowl of an electric stand mixer, with a paddle attachment attached.
- Add peanut butter and beat together until fully combined and smooth.
- Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time. After adding each cup mix until combined, and then add the next cup. The mixture should be free of lumps, if it’s not then keep beating it until so.
- Add cocoa powder and vanilla
- While beating cocoa powder and vanilla into the mixture, add milk one tablespoon at a time
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and beat again to combine any bits on the edge
If you follow these steps, you will end up with the perfect chocolate peanut butter icing in less than 20 minutes!
What can I use chocolate peanut butter icing on?
This chocolate peanut butter butter cream is so delicious that it works with almost any sweet! There are many ways to get creative and use this icing, here are some of my favorite ones.
Use it on cupcakes
The most common way to use this buttercream or any other buttercream is for frosting cupcakes. This creamy frosting tastes amazing not only with chocolate cupcakes but also with many other flavors. I suggest trying it with different cupcake flavors to get an idea of what you personally like the most.
After frosting your cupcakes with this rich icing, you can decorate them with chopped peanuts or dark chocolate drizzle, to complete the chocolate and peanutty feeling.
Use it on birthday cakes
Similar to cupcakes, you can also use this frosting on birthday cakes. I find this a great idea because of how rich, creamy, and flavorful this buttercream is. If you like a full-on chocolate taste, you can use this frosting with a chocolate birthday cake. If you like more balanced flavors and color variety, try frosting a vanilla cake with this chocolate peanut butter frosting. Despite these two flavors, you can experiment with other flavors you may like.
Use it on chocolate brownies
My personal favorite way to use this frosting is to cover some delicious chocolate brownies with it. This combination is perfect for those who like a mouthful of chocolate and like the full-on rich chocolate taste. The extra flavor from the peanut butter also creates a nice contrast and balances the chocolate.
You can simply whip this icing on your brownies and top it off with some chopped peanuts or chocolate flakes.
Use it on cookies
There are two ways you can use chocolate peanut butter icing on cookies. You can top your cookies with it and finish with some nice decoration, or you can add some extra creativity, and make a cookie buttercream sandwich.
This is quite simple, all you have to do is get a cookie, put some chocolate peanut butter icing on it, and put another cookie on top, just like an ice cream sandwich! To make these sandwiches look nice and taste even better, I suggest melting some dark chocolate or white chocolate, and dipping half of the cookies into it before making the sandwich.
Use it on macarons
Another way to get creative with this icing is to use it on your macarons. This can add a lovely color as well as a creamy flavor to the macarons. I personally like to use this frosting with chocolate macarons to get the full brown look and chocolate peanut flavor, however, don’t be afraid to explore more flavors and see what you like most. Some decoration ideas can be chocolate drizzle or rolling the macaron in chopped peanuts to cover the buttercream filling.
I know you’re going to love this creamy chocolate peanut butter buttercream just as much as I do. Which one of these ideas will you be trying out with your icing? Let me know in the comment section, and as well as that share any thoughts or questions that I can help with too! If you found this guide useful, why not share it with somebody who you know will also find it useful?