Often the most beloved element of a cupcake is the frosting. A good frosting can elevate a simple cupcake to a delicious, rich dessert. Classic American buttercream is surprisingly easy to make, and can be adjusted to your personal preferences using added flavorings, and adjusting the ratio of the ingredients. American buttercream is simply a combination of butter, powdered sugar, vanilla (or other flavoring), and usually a bit of milk or cream- that’s pretty much it! The frosting I love to use the most often is my Cream Cheese Frosting, which is simply a variation on American Buttercream, with some cream cheese added. Free free to play with this recipe and adjust it to your palate. This is a very sweet, classic frosting that pairs well with most any flavor of cupcake.
American Buttercream Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) Challenge butter (salted, or unsalted)
1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (best quality available)
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream, half and half or milk.
*Optional- As mentioned above, I like a cream cheese version of this frosting best. The cream cheese adds to the creamy texture, and cuts down on the sweetness just a bit. If desired, for a very light cream cheese flavor add 1/2 block (4 oz). cream cheese, leaving the other ingredients (as listed above) the same. For a more traditional cream cheese flavor, reduce the butter to 1/2 cup, and add 1 block (8 oz.) of cream cheese. If using a full block of cream cheese, you can reduce the cream or milk to 1 tablespoon total.
Flavoring options– An almost unlimited number of flavoring options can be added in addition to, or instead of the vanilla. Orange and/or lemon zest, citrus extracts, mint extract, coconut extract or the seeds of a vanilla bean are all wonderful options. In most cases I’ll still add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, then 1/2 teaspoon of the other flavoring. For zest, add about 1 teaspoon fresh zest. For chocolate buttercream, add 1/2 cup (good quality) unsweetened cocoa powder.
Directions-
* In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute). (If you are adding cream cheese, add it now, then beat until smooth)
* Add salt (if needed).
* One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition.
* Add vanilla, or other flavorings and beat to combine.
* Add about 1 tablespoon of cream, and continue beating.
* Add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, one at a time.
* Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons cream until desired consistency is reached. If you want to pipe the frosting on cupcakes, the frosting should be nice and thick. Continue to beat another minute or so. The frosting should now be smooth and fluffy.
Troubleshooting-
* If your frosting is not smooth, it is likely because the butter was not fully smooth before adding the other ingredients.
* If your frosting will not hold up when piped on cupcakes, your frosting has too much liquid or is too warm. Put entire bowl of frosting in the fridge for 15-20 minutes and it will stiffen up. If it is still too thin, then add 1/4 to 1/2 cup powdered sugar, beat well.
Recipe Source- American buttercream first appeared in cookbooks in the early 1900’s (here’s a little buttercream history) Countless sources since then have included very similar versions, always using some combination of butter (or shortening), powdered sugar, milk and flavoring. The recipe above is simply the proportions I like to use.
Try this classic frosting on top of my favorite Vanilla Cupcakes or Chocolate Cupcakes.
Happy frosting!
How to Make American Buttercream Frosting
American Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter 2 sticks (salted, or unsalted)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract best quality available
- 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream half and half or milk.
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute).
- Add salt (if needed).
- One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition.
- Add vanilla, or other flavorings and beat to combine.
- Add about 1 tablespoon of cream, and continue beating.
- Add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, one at a time.
- Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons cream until desired consistency is reached. If you want to pipe the frosting on cupcakes, the frosting should be nice and thick. Continue to beat another minute or so. The frosting should now be smooth and fluffy.
Wow the cupcakes turned out perfect…even after whisking the eggs (no beater!) and a too-hot oven 😀 thank you for posting your amazing recipes!
Loved this frosting! 🙂
Thanks so much for posting this recipe and the how-to’s. I used a double batch of this recipe with one block of cream cheese and it came out awesome. It’s still quite sweet but the cream cheese cut it down a bit. This is my first time decorating cupcakes and this was very easy to pipe. Mine came out a lot shinier for some reason but it looks nice both ways. I used the Wilton 1M tip and this held its shape very well on all the colors I used gel coloring in. It did get less crisp looking with liquid food coloring so I’ll stick to gel. I got 42 cupcakes frosted with the double batch with leftover frosting so for me the double batch would do 4 dozen (if I hadn’t run out of cake batter !)
How long will this keep in fridge? Can you freeze it?
This is the BEST buttercream EVER!
Ansa
Ansa- So glad you are enjoying the recipe! This should keep well in the fridge for at least a week. Just make sure there are no strong odors in your fridge that might effect the flavor of your frosting. This can be frozen as well, but should be brought back to room temperature and re-whipped for best texture.
My butter cream NEVER turns out like this and it always tastes like butter! I’ve made butter cream twice and ended up throwing out the entire batch both times because it tasted too buttery and not sweet at all. I can’t get my butter cream to look like the picture above at all. HELP?
Jennifer- Have you tried this recipe, and followed my directions? This frosting is very sweet, in fact I usually add at least a 1/2 block of cream cheese to balance the sweetness. The most common mistake made when making frosting is using butter that is too warm, or adding too much liquid, so that the end result is too soft to pipe.
How many cupcakes will this cover??
If you pipe a swirl similar to what is pictured, you should be able to frost 22-24 cupcakes.
I just wanted to let you know that I made 75 cupcakes for my niece’s graduation and used the cream cheese variation of this icing and it got rave reviews! There were tons of treats there but everyone went out of their way to comment on how tasty the icing was. Thanks for such a great recipe!
I also would like to know how many cupcakes this will frost? I’m having a graduation party this Saturday for my son and will be using the perfectly chocolate and vanilla cupcake recipes. I’m planning on 48 cupcakes total.
I will be coloring 24 yellow-gold and 24 blue.
Lisa- It depend on how you frost the cupakes, but with an averal sized swirl (similar to what is pictured) you should be able to frost 18-24 cupcakes. You can always adjust the ingredients just a bit to make sure you have enough for 24 cupcakes in each color… maybe increase each ingredient amound by about 25% (you will likely end up with extra frosting this way… so you’ll have to use you best judgement). Happy Frosting!
Thank you so much for this recipe. My daughter's birthday cupcakes turned out perfect. I made the cream cheese icing and everyone is raving about it.
May I please ask what you use to color your frosting? I am very new at this and am going to be making cupcakes for my daughters 1st birthday and want to make my frosting colors match my polka dot theme…. Help please