Butter Cream Frosting

This is the BEST Butter Cream frosting recipe for cakes and cupcakes. It’s the perfect butter cream icing for decorative piping. You’ll love this EASY vanilla butter cream frosting recipe! It is so versatile and easy to frost cakes or change the consistency so that it can be piped and hold even delicate designs.

Want to experiment with flavors? Don't like vanilla? As I mentioned this frosting is so versatile you can switch up flavor profiles like I do! You can substitute the vanilla extract for other extract flavors such as almond, coconut, maple, orange, or lemon. Try a combination of vanilla and orange....oh my! One of my favorites is the Princess Cake and Cookie emulsion from Lorann's, which you can purchase here, which gives it a perfect light, nutty citrus profile. I love using vanilla bean paste too and making speckled frosting, just keep in mind if you want your frosting to be a different color to go with lighter colors so you can still see the tiny beans. Add 3//4 cup cocoa powder, half the salt and eliminate the flavorings for chocolate butter cream.

The stiffness of this frosting is easy to modify. For a more stiff frosting for piping, use less cream as you are mixing it. If you get heavy handed, you can still use it for crumb coating or even the last layer of cake frosting. You can always add a little more powdered sugar to stiffen it back up.

I just love a large swirl of frosting on top of cupcakes, then covered in sprinkles. This recipe made a batch of icing for me that covers about 15-17 cupcakes, but you may have more or less depending on your piping techniques.

Look at how beautiful that frosting is with sprinkles!! And I love these treat boxes that are the perfect size for two cupcakes or an assortment of cookies. I bought them here and they come in a package with four different designs.... look at HOW CUTE!!

Please feel free to leave questions or comments about butter cream frosting and share your favorites!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened about an hour (DO NOT MELT)

• 3-4 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon table salt

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or other flavors, see notes above)

• Up to 4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. Beat the softened butter for a minutes with a mixer using the paddle attachment on medium speed.

2. Turn off the mixer and add the 3 cups of sifted powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. The frosting may look clumpy and that means you are on the right path so far!

3. Increase mixer speed to medium and add the vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of cream and beat for 2-3 minutes until it is whipped, fluffy, and creamy in appearance. This is critical to make sure you icing has air mixed in and is light. I use my KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment that has the silicone scraper so I don't have to stop and scrape my bowl.

4. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining cream 1 tablespoons at a time.

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