Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Vanilla buttercream frosting is quick & easy. This recipe is the base for so many other flavors. It is the best frosting for crumb-coating a cake that you plan to cover with fondant, and spreads or pipes like a dream!

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting Recipe

Once you have this basic vanilla frosting recipe down, you can add so many other flavors or ingredients to customize your frosting for whatever cake or cupcakes you like! We use our favorite buttercream frosting in so many ways, and have tried other methods of mixing it up...so we are sharing our preferred method here with you.

One of the most basic of baking essentials has got to be this fantastic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting!

Jump to:

• Vanilla Buttercream Frosting Recipe
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Angela's Pro Tips & Notes
• 🧁 More Dessert Recipes
• 📖 Recipe Card
• 💬 Reviews

🥘 Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (softened at room temperature, but not too soft)
• 4 cups confectioners sugar
• 4 tablespoon heavy whipping cream (2-4 Tbsp, start with 2 Tbsp)
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or another flavor)
• 1 pinch salt (optional)

🔪 Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl (with a hand mixer) or the bowl of your stand mixer (with the whisk attachment), beat your slightly softened butter for 5-6 minutes or until light (pale in color) and creamy.
2. Add the vanilla extract, salt (if desired, add to reduce the sweetness of your frosting), and 1 cup of the confectioners sugar. Mix at medium speed and add the remaining confectioners sugar alternating that with drizzling portions of the heavy whipping cream into the frosting.
3. *You may not need all of the heavy whipping cream, stop adding liquid once you have added all of the confectioners sugar and have reached a firm, but spreadable frosting consistency.
4. Once all of the confectioners sugar has been incorporated, continue whipping on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until light, creamy and fluffy.

💭 Angela's Pro Tips & Notes

• While you can always add all of your ingredients after creaming your butter, I prefer to add my additional ingredients gradually. I start with only 2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream, as how much liquid you may need will be determined by the exact amount of ingredients, as well as temperature and humidity
• On high humidity days, to prevent your buttercream frosting from melting, you can do a 50/50 ratio of butter to shortening (look for a high-fat percentage shortening - NOT the 0% trans fat option). Although we do have some days with high humidity here in Minnesota, we have very rarely actually needed to use anything other than butter in our buttercream frosting recipe.

🧁 More Dessert Recipes

• Cinnamon Sugar Baked Donuts
• Crack Grapes
• Puff Pastry Apple Turnovers
• Blackberry Tart
• Candied Orange Slices
• Tanghulu (Candy Coated Strawberries)

📖 Recipe Card