When I used to bake and decorate wedding and birthday cakes, I would use different types of frosting depending on who was eating the cake. Most wedding cakes were frosted in egg based recipes such as Italian or French meringue but for children’s cakes or cupcakes I usually frost cakes in American buttercream frosting. Made with powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk, this is a basic, easy recipe for classic vanilla buttercream frosting. This frosting works great for spreading on cakes, cupcakes, and/or for decorating. Some frosting recipes will call for shortening. Although you could easily substitute some of the butter for shortening, your frosting will taste greasy. But if you must have a true bright white frosting or need to stabilize it, shortening and clear vanilla extract flavoring would work fine. I prefer using all butter and occasionally substituting the vanilla extract for other flavors such as almond, coconut, milk, or lemon. The color of the buttercream is slightly off white but the taste of whipped buttery frosting makes it entirely worth it. Also, the frosting can be easily tinted with food paste gel or food coloring.
It’s important to note that when preparing a batch of frosting you adjust the consistency of the buttercream for what you plan on using it for. The easiest way to do this is by adjusting the amount of milk you use. The less milk you pour in, the more stiff your frosting will be. And if you pour in too much milk, you can always add more sifted powdered sugar to stiffen it right back up. I for one prefer a medium (somewhat soft but slightly stiff) consistency when spreading on a cake. But for piping and decorative work, I prefer a stiffer consistency so the different edges of my piping tips will show clearly. The tip I used in the picture above is a #32. As you can see, I piped it in 3 different styles using the same tip.
This recipe is very forgiving. The amounts of milk and powdered sugar you use can be adjusted for what you need. The only important suggestion I would recommend is to make sure you sift your powdered sugar before adding it to the butter. This will insure your frosting is smooth and without small sugar clumps.
If you’re looking for a classic vanilla buttercream recipe, look no further. Enjoy!
**I am also soliciting cake tutorial requests – just leave them in the comment section below**
* Many of you have asked about how much frosting you need to make for cakes and cupcakes. Here’s an informative link from Baking 911 with a useful chart giving approximate frosting amounts depending the cake size. Also, as far as cupcakes are concerned there is no standard answer. Some people like to decorate with very little frosting on the cupcakes and others like to pipe them skyscraper high which would require way more frosting per cupcake. For decorating cupcakes, the amount of frosting you need is according to how much frosting you would like to use.
**Someone emailed me wanting to know what tool I use to sift the powdered sugar. I just buy a round metal mesh strainer available at any grocery store and use a spoon to stir the sugar against the metal mesh. Hope this helps.**
*** Tips for success: Use unsalted butter. Different brands of butter have varied levels of salt content in salted butter. Some people have commented that their buttercream was too salty. This is due to the brand of butter you use. Some brands will be vary salty and others not so much. Therefore I have changed the recipe to reflect unsalted butter.
The texture of the butter makes a BIG difference. If your buttercream is runny or thin, this is due to the texture of the butter which I’m assuming some of you may have microwaved to get it softened. When you microwave butter like this, you run the risk of melting the butter which will make your frosting runny and grainy. Ideally you want your butter to be soft enough to whip with a mixer or beater but not so soft it will melt. The texture should be similar to ice cream, soft enough to scoop but firm enough to hold it’s shape.
Related post: How to Frost a Cake
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened (but not melted!) Ideal texture should be like ice cream.
- 3-4 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar, SIFTED
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- up to 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
- Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.
 |
SAVORY SWEET LIFE Book Trailer
|
{ 1099 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
If I wanted to flavor the icing to match the color (pink – strawberry, yellow – lemon) what would you recommend for best flavor and so I don’t ruin the texture of the frosting? Do you have any chocolate buttercream recipes too?
This recipe and the chocolate buttercream are my go-to recipes for birthday cupcakes for my 5
Wonderful and so easy to make too!!
girls
I followed the recipe exactly and it was going perfectly (and tastes delicious). However, I added a little milk to thin it a bit towards the end and now the whole bath is — not sure how to describe it — separated? I have no idea what’s happened. Did the butter get too warm?
Mine too. I’m going to have to almost double the sugar. Its 72 in my house, and I don’t think that should be too warm?
I visit everyday a few web pages and websites to read articles, but
this webpage presents quality based articles.
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I have really enjoyed surfing around your weblog posts.
In any case I’ll be subscribing for your rss feed and I hope you write again very soon!
I’m not sure where you are getting your info, but good topic. I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more. Thanks for fantastic information I was looking for this info for my mission.
Remarkable! Its truly awesome post, I have got much clear idea on the topic of
from this piece of writing.
If some one desires to be updated with newest technologies after that he
must be pay a quick visit this web site and be up
to date every day.
This is the best butter cream frosting recipe I have ever tasted. I am not usually a fan of the icing part of a cupcake or cake but I couldn’t stop myself from eating this right out of the mixing bowl. Your chocolate butter cream recipe is being made up right now. Can’t wait to try it.
Liz: Try adding more powdered sugar at a quarter cup until you get your desired consistency. The opposite stands true as well…if the icing is too thick add more milk/heavy cream, but only a little at a time. I hope this helps:)
It’s in reality a great and helpful piece of info. I’m
satisfied that you simply shared this useful
information with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for
sharing.
I almost never leave a response, however I browsed a bunch of
And, if you are writing at other places, I’d like to keep up with everything fresh you have to post. Would you list of all of all your social pages like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?
remarks on this page Classic Buttercream Frosting Recipe | Savory Sweet Life
- Easy Recipes from an Everyday Home Cook. I actually do have a couple of
questions for you if you do not mind. Is it simply me or
do a few of the comments appear as if they are written by brain dead
visitors?
I made this Buttercream Frosting to use on cupcakes that I made for our daughter’s college grad party. It was fantastic! Many people said it was the BEST frosting ever! I’m making the same thing again today for her birthday. Thanks for such a great recipe!
great recipe, however my moms recipe is much better. Almost addicting!
What is your Mom’s recipe, i would love to try it…. Please email me
I blog frequently and I seriously thank you for
your content. The article has really peaked
my interest. I’m going to bookmark your website and keep checking for new information about once a week. I subscribed to your RSS feed too.
Have you ever thought about writing an e-book or guest authoring on other sites?
I have a blog based on the same topics you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information.
I know my audience would enjoy your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel
free to shoot me an e mail.
For the reason that the admin of this web page is
working, no hesitation very quickly it will be renowned, due
to its feature contents.
Hi, may I know what kind of milk I should use for the buttercream recipe?
I’m with Dienos Horoskopas. Are you communicating with zombies? Maybe your anti-spam question needs to be a little more challenging!
I am in the throes of finishing graduation cakes (due this Sat.) for 250. I am choosing frosting now and thinking yours sounds like it would hold up, be good to decorate with, and not too terribly sweet.
I’ll let you know how it goes! The cakes are chocolate and coconut. The coconut recipe calls for cream of coconut in the frosting; I’m wondering if just using coconut extract in your recipe will be strong enough flavoring?
Does butter cream frosting need to be refrigerated? The recipe didn’t say anything about refrigeration, so I’m hoping that the bakery from which I’m getting cakes for a big party does NOT insist on refrigerating everything. I was brought up in Illinois, where cakes were moist for at least 3 days with that lovely old-fashioned 7-minute icing! This particular bakery: we went to a tasting there. Every sample had been frozen and not removed from the freezer soon enough to be completely defrosted. What a bummer! I was not impressed with their offerings. Horribly dry, and very little flavor. So the question: does butter cream frosting have to be refrigerated? Any frosting, not just this recipe.
Thanks.
Sandy S.
P.S.: to Dienos H. I don’t consider you to be brain-dead. You’re just plain rude, which is worse in my book.
Hi there, I wish for to subscribe for this web site to get newest updates,
therefore where can i do it please assist.
How can this be made into cream cheese frosting? thank you so much. By the way…Is is the most delicious buttercream I have ever had.
You’ve made some decent points there. I checked on the internet for additional information about the issue and found most individuals will go along with your views on this site.
Yes! Finally something about Make money online.
I have learn a few good stuff here. Definitely price
bookmarking for revisiting. I surprise how so much effort you put to make this kind of wonderful informative site.
Hi! I was looking to try making my own frosting and came upon this post… I just made it and it is delicious! Thank you sooooo much! My kids cupcakes won´t be naked or be decorated with store-bought frosting!
About how many cupcakes does this frost on average?
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back in the future. Cheers
What does it use?
← Previous Comments