How to make buttercream that is light, creamy, and fluffy using this homemade frosting recipe. This is the BEST Buttercream cupcake frosting recipe for cakes and cupcakes. It’s the perfect buttercream icing for decorative piping. You’ll love this EASY vanilla buttercream frosting recipe!
Learn how to make frosting that is light, creamy, delicious, and homemade. This frosting recipe is the best most versatile buttercream to spread on cake and cupcakes. You’ll love this buttercream frosting recipe! IT’S THE BEST BUTTERCREAM FROSTING RECIPE!
Store-bought frosting and buttercream frosting are on opposite ends of the spectrum in every way in flavor, texture, sweetness, spreadability, and versatility. But, if you would like to know how to make frosting, you’ve come to the right place! The buttercream frosting is made by creaming butter with powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and a little bit of heavy cream, then whipping it into the perfect buttercream frosting. The frosting should taste light, airy, and like sweetened whipped butter.
This is why it’s called buttercream frosting. It should definitely not taste greasy, artificial, or overly sweet. As a former professional wedding cake decorator, I’ve been using this buttercream recipe for over 25 years. Trust me when I say you want to have a go-to reliable best buttercream frosting recipe you can always count on.
Frankly, it’s the best buttercream frosting recipe because it is so versatile, adaptable, and easy to make. With so many buttercream icing recipes to choose from, this truly is the best frosting. Keep in mind, not all frosting recipes are alike. Most wedding cake frosting recipes are egg-based such as Italian, Swiss, or French. Is Homemade Frosting the Same as Grocery Store Bakery Frosting?
When you walk pass the bakery section at your local store you often see beautiful decorated cakes in bakery case. The bright white frosting they use is often not made with real butter and instead is made from shortening which allows cakes to be left out for long periods of time. Stabilizing the frosting is often the primary reason why white buttercream frosting recipes call for shortening or a mixture of shortening and butter. Although you could easily substitute some of the butter for shortening, your frosting will have a greasy mouthfeel and taste to it. However, there are times when using shortening is appropriate. The truth is, most grocery baking departments use pre-made shortening based buttercream frostings unless the bakery is in a high-end store like Whole Foods. The same is true for cupcake frosting.
Those brightly airbrushed colored frostings you see on cupcakes are made with all shortening or a non-dairy whipped topping that needs no refrigeration and never goes bad. Another reason to make your own frosting at home. As mentioned before, this buttercream frosting recipe is very adaptable. You can substitute the vanilla extract for other extract flavors such as almond, coconut, maple, orange, or lemon. Sometimes I’ll even mix in a few tablespoons of fruit jam to make strawberry frosting or raspberry buttercream. How can I change the stiffness of the buttercream frosting?
It’s worth noting when preparing a batch of frosting you should 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 cream you use. The less cream you pour in, the stiffer your frosting will be. And if you pour in too much cream, you can always add more sifted powdered sugar to stiffen it right back up.
For piping and decorative work, I always go with a stiffer consistency, so the detailed edges of my piping tips show clearly. As you can see, I piped it in 3 different styles using the same tip. This buttercream frosting recipe is the best because it’s so flexible and very forgiving. Changing the amounts of heavy cream and powdered sugar makes it very easy to make the frosting how you want it. The only important suggestion I recommend is to make sure you sift your powdered sugar before adding it to the butter. This will ensure your frosting is smooth without small sugar clumps. How much frosting do I need for cake?