Buttercream frosting recipe - perfectly sweet, light, fluffy frosting made from butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk.
Many readers have tried my eggless cakes and cupcakes. With those recipes, I usually share the frosting recipe that goes well with that particular cake
e.g. I shared carrot cake and to go with it I also shared cream cheese frosting recipe. But many wants to make frosting other than cream cheese. So I thought of making a separate post for simple, easy buttercream frosting that goes well with all cakes, cupcakes.
It is also known as confectioners’ frosting or butter frosting.
The real Swiss buttercream is made with eggs. As we do not eat eggs, I have made it this way. You can call this recipe American style buttercream frosting.
Here I have made the simple vanilla buttercream and mentioned many variations below.
How to make buttercream frosting (Step by Step Recipe with Photos):
1) Take soften butter in a large bowl, if using hand mixer. If using stand mixer then add butter into mixer bowl and use paddle attachment.
2) IMPORTANT: make sure that butter is softened at room temperature. You can see here, if I press with my finger, it will mash very easily. This is how we need. Also make sure that it is NOT melted at all otherwise the frosting will be runny. So plan ahead of time, remove the butter from the fridge and let it sit on counter top till it gets soft.
3) Now start beating the butter till it gets smooth.
4) Now add powdered sugar. If making bigger batch then add sugar in batches.
5) Again start beating with low speed and gradually increase the speed and continue beating. In between, as needed scrape down the sides of the bowl using spatula. And beat it till it is well combined and smooth.
6) Now add vanilla extract.
7) Also add milk.
8) Again beat it for approx 4-5 minutes or till it gets light, fluffy and smooth.
If not using this right away then cover it with plastic wrap or store in airtight container. Otherwise frosting will get dry out.
Storing the buttercream frosting: It stays good for 4-5 days in the refrigerator. Before using, bring it to a room temperature, beat it again for some time or till it becomes light and fluffy again and then use.
Serving suggestion: Use this vanilla buttercream frosting to frost the cupcakes or cakes e.g. vanilla cake, red velvet cupcakes, lemon cake, chocolate orange cupcakes and so on. You can use this in making cake pops.
Variations:
- Make any fruit flavored frosting - skip the milk and add 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam, mango jam or any other fruit jam. If needed add the food color that represents the particular fruit.
- To make chocolate buttercream, You can add 2-3 tablespoons of cocoa powder and with that add extra teaspoon or two of milk.
- To get the coffee or mocha flavor, Add a teaspoon of instant coffee or espresso powder to the above chocolate buttercream frosting .
- To make lemon flavored, skip the milk and add lemon juice instead. Also add zest from one lemon
- You can substitute the vanilla extract with other extract e.g. ¼ teaspoon of peppermint extract or pineapple or coconut or almond. Keep in mind that you will need very less quantity of extract if using other than vanilla since those have more strong flavor.
Buttercream frosting recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup (or 1 stick or 4 oz or 113 grams) Unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 2 cups Powdered sugar (Confectioner’s sugar or icing sugar)
- 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons Milk
Instructions
- Take soften butter in a large bowl, if using hand mixer. If using stand mixer then add butter into mixer bowl and use paddle attachment.
- Now start beating the butter till it gets smooth.
- Now add powdered sugar. If making bigger batch then add sugar in batches.
- Again start beating with low speed and gradually increase the speed and continue beating.
- In between, as needed scrape down the sides of the bowl using spatula. And beat it till it is well combined and smooth.
- Now add vanilla extract. Also add milk.
- Again beat it for approx 4-5 minutes or till it gets light, fluffy and smooth.
Nutrition
Recipe is from Joy of baking
I want it to be really sweet so can I somehow add condensed milk? If not, how can I make it sweet?
No you cannot use condensed milk.
To make it more sweet, add more powdered sugar and to get spreading consistency add little more milk
Can I use salted butter instead of unsalted for frosting ?
yes you can. it will have slight noticeable difference in taste.