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.
Ivy
Really easy and tasty recipe! Thank you Sam!
Yvonne
Delicious and easy to make.
Sav
Does this frosting withstand dying and piping? I need to make a batch of cupcakes with colored piping.
Sam
This is a great frosting to color and pipe. 🙂
Al
I used salted butter, tasted the final product and still added 1/8 of salt. Don’t hesitate to use salted butter, helps to balance the sweetness. I added vanilla at the end so I could control the amount. Started with 1 tsp and added more to taste. I used 3 tbs of half and half, and it was perfect! Light and fluffy. Great recipe!
Roberta
Yummy Yum Yum !! Hands down the best butter cream frosting I’ve ever had. Very easy to make and tastes absolutely amazingly delicious. Thanks Sam. YOU ROCK OUT LOUD!!! YOU’RE ARE ROCK STAR GIRL !!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Roberta! 🙂
Vicky
Delicious and easy to make even with my little granddaughters help 🙂
Vicky
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for letting us know how it went for you, Vicky! It’s always fun having little helpers in the kitchen ❤️
Abby
I normally am not a fan of frosting but this one was amazing. Everyone at my party loved it and want me to make it for every event now. Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Abby! 🙂
Larisha
Can I add cocoa powder to this recipe and if so , how much 🤔
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Larisha! We actually have a chocolate buttercream frosting 🙂
Penny
Hi there!
Could this recipe be flavored with any flavoring…say cotton candy perhaps? Would I do a tsp of vanilla and a tsp of cotton candy?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Penny! It sure can! ☺️ We haven’t tried the cotton candy extract, so we can’t say for sure how potent it would be or how much to add though.
Lora
If I need to frost a 9 by 13 two layer cake, on the inside, outside, and a bit of decor, how much frosting will I need
Sam
Hi Lora! I would probably double the recipe. 🙂
Mary Anne
This frosting came out very good and made an ample amount
Gigi
Used this with your vanilla cake recipe and it was delicious! Just enough frosting to cover the whole cake. Will be using again in the future!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much! It’s the perfect pairing for the vanilla cake. 🙂
Lotte
This recipe was so simple, but still so tasty!
Megan Mollett
Love all of your recipes. Would you consider this “gluten free” ?
Sam
Thank you Megan! Most powdered sugars are gluten free so yes this would be a gluten free recipe. 🙂
Julie
What do you do to this buttercream recipe to make it pourable for Petit Fours?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Julie! Check out our petit fours post–there’s a video there that should be helpful for you. 😊
Van
Hi Sam!
What’s the difference in texture and taste of the frosting between this buttercream frosting recipe and the vanilla frosting recipe?
I noticed that the same ingredients are used but not in the same quantity.
Thanks a bunch, I love your recipes!
Sam
Hi Van! They’re honestly very very similar. This one (buttercream) is closer to a true/standard American buttercream than the vanilla frosting. This one is sweeter, crusts a bit better, and is firmer than the vanilla frosting. I hope that helps!
Esperanza Nava
What brand of butter do you use, because I don’t know if the butter I use is a problem that it is too liquidy after I make it and it doesn’t get stiff or the overall temperature of my kitchen? Any tips and suggestions.
Sam
Hi Esperanza! If your butter is getting too liquidy it’s most likely due to the temperature in your kitchen. I use a whole variety of different brands and have never found one to melt faster than another. You can always add more powdered sugar to try to firm it up a bit. 🙂
Michele
Hello, would this frost three 6 in rounds?
Sam
Hi Michele! The icing layer may be a little bit thin but it should work. 🙂