Perfect for beginner bakers, this simple American buttercream frosting is an easy, basic frosting recipe that works on any cake and tastes amazing. Just a few ingredients (no eggs!) and only 10 minutes to make, every baker should keep this one in their back pocket! This frosting pipes beautifully and you can even use it under fondant. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Classic American Buttercream
While there are a lot of different varieties of buttercream frosting out there, American buttercream is probably the one you’re most familiar with. It’s a sweet and simple icing that every baker should know how to make, and usually the first one most cake decorators learn.
I’ll admit it’s never been my favorite (my favorite will always be my less-sweet but equally pipe-able cream cheese frosting), but it’s a great frosting for beginner bakers and is essentially impossible to mess up! It’s also the frosting melt and I use to drape over my petit fours.
5 Things to Know About Buttercream
- Great for decorating: Buttercream crusts, meaning the exterior becomes firm and almost crisp. You can add even more sugar to the frosting to make a very stiff icing that’s great for piping into decorative shapes like flowers or roses.
- Very sweet: Much sweeter than a whipped cream frosting or ermine frosting. If you prefer less-sweet frostings, try one of those or go for my Swiss meringue buttercream instead.
- Colors well: I recommend gel food coloring for the most vibrant results with the least amount of food coloring.
- Customizable flavor: You can give this frosting pretty much any flavor by using your favorite extract; I include a few of my favorites below!
- Does NOT hold up to heat, like most frosting recipes. I have yet to find one that can withstand the heat during a mid-summer cookout!
Jump to:
Ingredients
You only need a few ingredients to make classic buttercream frosting.
- Salted butter. I have recently switched from using unsalted butter to salted butter in my frostings. During my many, intensive 😅 recipe testing sessions, I’ve found that for many recipes that aren’t being baked (dishes where you can taste as you go), salted butter sometimes works better. This is the case for most frostings. Make sure it’s softened almost to room temperature before you begin. Only have unsalted? No worries, I have notes on what to do in the recipe card (add a pinch of salt!).
- Powdered sugar. Also known as 10x sugar, icing sugar, or confectioner’s sugar. Weigh or measure this the same way you would measure flour (don’t pack it into the measuring cup).
- Vanilla extract. Clear vanilla has a more artificial flavor but will give you an almost pure white color compared to real vanilla extract. You can also play around with adding other flavors/extracts! Almond, peppermint, and coconut are a few of my favorites (or you can add a bit of concentrated coffee for a coffee frosting). Keep in mind some extracts are more potent than others, so start with less and add more as needed (taste-test!).
- Heavy cream. You may substitute milk instead. Cream helps this frosting become silky smooth and pipe-able (it will be quite dry before you add the liquid). Whip it into your frosting with your mixer on medium-high speed.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
SAM’S TIP: If you only have unsalted butter, just use that and add ⅛ teaspoon of salt. Taste test, then add more salt as needed (I wouldn’t imagine you’d need more than ¼ teaspoon total!). I don’t recommend leaving out the salt entirely if you are using unsalted butter — the frosting will be too sweet.
How to Make Buttercream Frosting
While I used my stand mixer for the in-process pictures in this post, it’s completely fine to use an electric hand mixer, instead. This is actually what I use when I make the frosting in my video (in the recipe card).
Beat the softened butter until it’s smooth and creamy, then add the vanilla (and salt if you are using unsalted butter). Gradually add the powdered sugar, about a cup at a time; keep your mixer on a low speed while you do this so you don’t send powdered sugar flying all over your kitchen (or yourself!).
When you’re done, the powdered sugar should be completely incorporated, but the mixture will look pretty dry (shown in the above photo)–this is normal. We’ll fix that in the next step!
Add a splash (about a tablespoon) of cream and slowly increase the mixer speed to medium high. Keep adding more cream, about a tablespoon at a time, until you reach your desired consistency. Keep in mind the more cream you add, the softer your frosting will be.
Add any food coloring you’d like to use, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and give your frosting another good mix. Use as desired, or cover and store (instructions below) until ready to use.
SAM’S TIP: This recipe doubles or even triples easily, as long as you have a bowl that’s large enough!
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe makes roughly 3 cups of frosting. This is enough to frost a 9×13″ sheet cake, an 8″ or 9″ two-layer cake, or 24 cupcakes (unless you frost them like I did in my photos, then you’d only have enough for 12 cupcakes).
I actually have a separate recipe for an amazing chocolate buttercream frosting! See also my favorite chocolate frosting, which is a chocolate buttercream made with melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder.
No, this frosting can sit at room temperature for up to two days; however, as with most frostings, buttercream does not hold up to high temperatures. It will absolutely melt if you keep it in a warm kitchen or outdoors on a hot summer day.
If you want to color your frosting, simply stir in some food coloring at the end. I prefer to use gel food coloring (this is the gel coloring set that I have), but regular liquid food coloring or even powder food coloring will work.
Pair Your Buttercream Frosting With:
Buttercream frosting is probably the easiest frosting to make, so I don’t think you’ll have any trouble with it, but please leave me a comment if you have any questions!
Enjoy!
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Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) salted butter softened (see note)
- 4 cups (500 g) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2-4 Tablespoons heavy cream or milk plus more as needed (see "Tips" section in post for substitutes)
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a large bowl and an electric mixer) and beat on low-speed until creamy and smooth.1 cup (226 g) salted butter
- Add 1 cups (125g) of powdered sugar and vanilla extract and, with mixer on low speed, stir until combined. Gradually add remaining powdered sugar until completely combined. Mixture will likely look very dry, but all sugar should be absorbed.4 cups (500 g) powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Add heavy cream or milk, one tablespoon at a time. Start with mixer on low-speed and gradually increase speed to medium-high, beating on this speed for several seconds to whip the liquid into the batter and scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl after each addition. Add additional cream until desired consistency is reached. If you accidentally add too much liquid and make your buttercream too soft, you can usually salvage the icing by adding more powdered sugar2-4 Tablespoons heavy cream or milk
- If using food coloring, stir it in here at the end. Gel food coloring is my preference for vibrantly colored icing.
- I recommend piping icing over your cupcakes or frosting your cake immediately. See notes below or in the post on how to store buttercream and use at a later date.
Notes
Chocolate Version:
See my chocolate buttercream.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
This recipe was originally published in 2020, I’ve updated the post to use salted instead of unsalted butter (see my post for more info on why this change was made) and added a new video.
Craig
Hi there – I was reading your recipe for petit fours and want to make a chocolate version of this icing as fondant is so difficult to deal with. Is it possible to add cocoa powder or melted chocolate to this recipe?
Sam
Hi Craig, I have a chocolate buttercream frosting that you should see. Did you see the icing I included in the petit fours? It’s not fondant and works really, really well and you could add cocoa powder to that. I’m particularly proud of that icing because it’s so easy to work with for the petit fours.
Craig
Hello – well I actually did *not* see that because I live and work in China so it’s often difficult to connect to the outside world. I will certainly check your recipe out now that I have a link. 🙂 Thanks@@!!!
Haaniah
Is there any way that I can reduce the sugar as my family doesn’t really prefer very sweet stuff?
Sam
Hi Haaniah! The sugar really helps with the stability of the frosting. The more you cut the sugar the runnier the frosting will be.
Denise B
I am making an almond cake for my mother in laws birthday today. she wants almond buttercream frosting. should i sub the vanilla for almond or use both? I dont want a strong flavor.
Sam
I would personally reduce the vanilla extract to one teaspoon and then add almond extract to taste. Almond extract is quite potent, so I’d start with just 1/4 teaspoon and then add more as suits your taste.
Kelly
I love this frosting!! I need one the is strawberry flavored. Can I just add some strawberry purée to the existing recipe?
Sam
Hi Kelly! You have to be a little careful here. A strawberry puree is very watery and this could ruin your frosting. If you take a puree and make a reduction on the stovetop to thicken it up a little bit then it could work for this frosting. 🙂
Hadassah
I want to add enough gel food coloring to make a darker primary colored frosting. With the frosting being white, is that even possible? Is it possible to make a red frosting without having it turn pinkish?
Sam
Turning a frosting red can always be tricky. I really recommend using food gels over the water based colors to get the deepest colors possible.
Natalia Cortinas
Hi ummmmm I dont nu how to start but if got really really liquidy It looks really bad and tasted great but liquidy what do I do if it turns liquidy
Sam
Hi Natalia! If the frosting is too runny you can most of the time fix it with more powdered sugar. Make sure your butter isn’t too soft when you start and be careful not to add too much heavy cream at once. 🙂
Dr.Baker
Hi, I was wondering would the consistency, texture or taste change of my buttercream if I use liquid food colouring instead?
Sam
Since you won’t be adding a ton of food coloring to it it shouldn’t change the consistency. I like the gels because the color is so much more vibrant. 🙂
Lauri A Wood
Enjoyed watching your buttercream recipe. Curios question…..I see you were using a kitchen aid mixer with a glass bowl for this recipe but also have another kitchen aid mixer with a metal bowl over on your counter. Do you like glass or metal bowls better for your kitchen aids mixers? I have baked for years never owned one but am considering it now. Best to you, Thanks!
Sam
Hi Lauri! Personally I prefer the metal bowls. The glass bowls have an adapter that screws on to the bottom so you can attach it to the stand mixer and I’m not really a big fan of it. The glass just works better for video. 🙂
Malak
I made your buttercream frosting and loved it, but can I put it on sugar cookies?
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Malak! You can certainly put it on sugar cookies if you’d like. 🙂
Brianna
Excellent delicious frosting plus extremely easy to make! Thank you 🙂
Sugar Spun Run
I am happy to hear that you enjoyed it, Brianna! Thank you for trying my recipe. 🙂
Susan
This frosting is a huge winner in my family! Super easy to make and soooo delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the frosting so much, Susan! 🙂
Kristina Peterson
This frosting is FROSTASTIC!!!
My son and I just made it for his birthday cake. This frosting just might make up for having to shelter in place on your 9th birthday! Thank you!
Sugar Spun Run
FROSTASTIC, I LOVE IT! I am so glad that you enjoyed the recipe and I hope that you had fun making it together, Kristina. Despite the current situation, I hope that your son a wonderful birthday celebration. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Judy Wilt
I can’t wait to make the frosting.
Sam
I hope you love it, Judy! 🙂
Marielle
Delicious
I used 3 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream and it was the perfect consistency
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that it worked out so well for you, Marielle! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
George
Hi Sam,
This looks but where is the video – please?
“While I think you’ll have no trouble making it, I’ve included a how-to video below the recipe for those of you who like visual guides!”
Sam
I’m so sorry about that, George, you should be able to see the video now (it will be below the recipe now).
George
No worries, thanks – great video.