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Learning how to make buttercream frosting is an important life skill! It is perfect on cakes cupcakes, brownies or cookies. Nothing beats a delicious homemade frosting.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe!
I love frosting, in fact I eat cake so I can have frosting. The trick to the best buttercream frosting is the right ratio of butter to sugar and this recipe has that perfect ratio.
There is NO reason to use canned frosting from the store when homemade buttercream is so easy to make and there is no comparison in taste. I remember as a little girl one of my favorite things to do with leftover buttercream frosting was to make a graham cracker sandwich, just spread a layer of frosting on a graham cracker and then top it with another cracker. It is especially good with chocolate buttercream.
Ingredients Needed
- Butter. Use salted butter, if using unsalted butter add in 1/8 tsp salt
- Powdered Sugar or confectioners sugar
- Pure Vanilla Extract. Can use any flavor extract or flavorings you prefer.
- Whipping Cream. You can also use half and half or milk. If using milk, try and use whole milk for the best results.
- Food coloring. This is optional. I prefer a gel food coloring for the best color. If using a liquid food coloring you may need to add in a bit more powdered sugar as the food coloring adds addition liquid.
Tip from Leigh Anne
- Use room temperature butter. The butter will give a little when you press your finger into it but it will still hold its shape. You don’t want your butter too soft or melted.
- Sift your powdered sugar with a fine mesh sifter If your powdered sugar is lumpy.
How to Make Buttercream Frosting
- Cream butter using the whisk attachment in the bowl of a stand mixer or a hand mixer. Mix on medium high for 2-3 minutes or until pale and creamy
- Reduce speed to medium and add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time
- Beat well after each addition increasing speed to high after all sugar is added
- Add vanilla and food coloring if desired
- Beat until buttercream is smooth
Frosting Flavor Variations
- Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. Add in 1/2-3/4 cup of cocoa powder, depending on how chocolate you want it. You may need a little additional liquid because of the powder.
- Strawberry Buttercream Frosting. Add in 1/4-1/3 cup of crushed freeze dried strawberries. Use a blender or food process to crush them into a fine powder. Mix the freeze dried strawberry powder into the frosting until well combined.
How Much Frosting Do I Need?
This recipe makes about 3 cups of frosting which is plenty to frost 24 cupcakes or a 3 layer cake. I like to pipe the frosting on my cupcakes so I use more frosting than if you were just going to use a knife to spread it on the cupcake. If you are going to use a knife you will have enough frosting for 48 cupcakes.
How to Fill a Piping or Decorating Bag
The easiest way to fill your piping bag is to place it in a glass and spread the top open over the glass and just spoon the frosting into the bag.
Frequently Asked Questions
Buttercream frosting is safe to leave at room temperature unlike cream cheese frosting which you want to keep refrigerated. That said, I usually keep my leftover frosting or leftover cake in the refrigerator. I usually don’t refrigerate any leftover cookies or brownies with buttercream frosting though. I like my cake chilled better than room temperature. After refrigerating allow frosting to sit at room temperature for about an hour before using it to frost a cake or cupcakes.
Refrigerator: Stored in an airtight container it will last up to a month in the refrigerator.
Room temperature: It will last 2-3 days when kept at room temperature.
Freezer: It will last up to 3 months in the freezer. Allow to thaw in the refrigerator.
Things to Put Frosting On:
Try these other frostings:
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Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 2 lbs. powdered sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsp whipping cream, 1/2 and 1/2 or whole milk use 2-3 Tbs to get frosting to desired consistency
Instructions
- Beat butter in mixer on medium high for 2-3 minutes or until pale and creamy
- Reduce speed to medium and add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time
- Beat well after each addition increasing speed to high after all sugar is added
- Add vanilla and food coloring if desired
- Beat until buttercream is smooth
- Can be refrigerated for several days if covered
- If refrigerating, bring to room temperature before using and beat on low until smooth
Tips & Notes:
- Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. Add in 1/2-3/4 cup of cocoa powder, depending on how chocolate you want it. You may need a little additional liquid because of the powder.
- Strawberry Buttercream Frosting. Add in 1/4-1/3 cup of crushed freeze dried strawberries. Use a blender or food process to crush them into a fine powder. Mix the freeze dried strawberry powder into the frosting until well combined.
Nutrition Facts:
Alexandra says
Hi there – can you use this frosting for doing piping on top of a cake for decoration. I am baking the yellow cake and will use this for the frosting/assembly. But wondering if I can also use this to pipe some flower and decoration on top of the cake.
Leigh Anne says
You can you may just need to add some additional powdered sugar to stiffen it up a bit.
Julee says
I love this recipe! For my basic buttercream, I use your recipe and then add 1-2 tsp Wilton butter flavoring to enhance the butter flavor. I could drink this stuff!
Tonight, I made a batch for several different flavors of cupcakes and decided to tweak the buttercream flavors a bit. For the pink lemonade cupcakes, I just added lemon juice & zest to the frosting. For the yellow cupcakes, I added almond extract. For the devil’s food, I didn’t add anything additional. Triple yum! And love the versatility!
Heather says
I was just going to search for a frosting recipe when I read your blog. I have always struggled with making frosting for anything. I have tried several diffrent recipe’s in the past and they were just okay. I just made this recipe and found it to be very easy and full of flavor. My daughter will be having her 7th Birthday this weekend and I have made cupcakes which I have frosted with this recipe. It was so easy and came out to the perfect consistency! Thank you! Thank you!