I’ve tested a ton of buttercream recipes in my day, but my go-to is a super simple American buttercream recipe that I’ve tweaked to my liking. I’ve used this recipe for frosting countless cakes and cupcakes and I’m a big believer that a good vanilla buttercream is something every baker should have in their recipe box. There’s nothing fancy about the way this recipe is made, but it will certainly taste like you whipped up something special!
My Favorite Buttercream Frosting for Cake Decorating
This vanilla buttercream recipe is technically an American buttercream, which basically means it has a butter base and is stabilized and sweetened with powdered sugar. Most American buttercream recipes use a ton of powdered sugar to give structure to the frosting, but I have tailored this recipe to use less powdered sugar and be less sweet than your average American buttercream. As a result, the vanilla flavor really shines through and it’s the perfect consistency for cake decorating, topping cupcakes, and even creating intricate designs. It also firms up in the refrigerator, making it ideal to use as a base under fondant!
Vanilla Buttercream Key Ingredients & Substitutions
There are just a handful of ingredients you’ll need for this recipe and it’s simple to whip up for people of all skill levels. I’ll explain what role each ingredient plays in the buttercream and any substitutes you can use:
- Unsalted Butter. This is the base of the buttercream and gives the frosting a rich buttery flavor and velvety smooth texture. If you only have salted butter on hand, you can use that instead and omit the salt at the end of the recipe. And if you want a vegan version of this buttercream, you can follow this recipe which uses vegan butter sticks.
- Powdered Sugar. This adds stability to the frosting while sweetening. I like to use less powdered sugar than the average American buttercream so that the frosting doesn’t end up cloyingly sweet, but if you’d like it even less sweet you can reduce the powdered sugar amount by up to ½ Cup. Just keep in mind that the consistency of the buttercream will be thinner.
- Pure Vanilla Extract. This flavors the buttercream, and making sure you use a good quality vanilla extract or paste is one of the secrets to success. You can use any kind of vanilla extract or paste, but my favorite brands are Trader Joe’s Bourbon Vanilla and Costco Pure Vanilla Extract (the price is unbeatable). You can also substitute this ingredient for other extract flavors, just be careful how much you use because some extracts are more potent than others! If you’re looking for more flavor options, I have all of my frosting recipes here.
- Whole Milk or Heavy Whipping Cream. This thins out the buttercream while binding all the ingredients together. I like to use a liquid with lots of fat for this part because it makes the final frosting more velvety smooth, so whole milk or heavy whipping cream are my go-to’s. If you’d rather use a dairy-free option you can substitute this with any milk alternative, but keep in mind that the flavor of the liquid will affect the overall frosting flavor.
- Salt. A pinch of salt helps balance the sweetness beautifully.
Vanilla Buttercream Tips for Success
This buttercream is simple for anyone to make, but there are a few things to keep in mind when making, storing, and working with it.
- Room Temperature Ingredients. Be sure to use room temperature ingredients. This is important for ingredients to combine and create a smooth consistency. Over the years I’ve found that cutting corners like adding cold milk will create a curdled look in the final frosting because the temperature hinders the ingredients from coming together smoothly. Not the best look! So, take your ingredients like butter and milk out of the refrigerator for about an hour prior to making the frosting.
- Use the Paddle Attachment on Your Stand Mixer. Also known as the flat beater attachment, the paddle attachment is designed to incorporate just the right amount of air into the buttercream. This makes it easier to make smooth buttercream without a ton of air bubbles.
- Whip the Butter for a Long Time. To achieve the smoothest buttercream that’s also nearly white in color, you’ll want to whip the butter for a long time – about 7 minutes. In this amount of time, the butter should go from yellow to almost white and be extra smooth.
- Then Mix Everything Else on Low Speed. After you whip the butter, it’s important to keep the mixer on low speed any time you’re mixing in the additional ingredients. Even though it will take longer to mix the ingredients, keeping the mixer on low speed helps prevent air bubbles from forming in the buttercream.
- Let the Ingredients Fully Combine. After I mix in the final ingredient (salt) I like to run the mixer on low speed for another minute or two to allow everything to combine fully. This gives the powdered sugar time to dissolve as well, so the buttercream will taste smooth and not grainy.
Here’s a quick video I whipped up to show you my method for making this buttercream recipe and all my tips for success:
I’ve got more recipe videos like this one + some fun cake decorating tutorials on my YouTube channel if you want to see some more! I’m always rolling out new videos, so click the subscribe button while you’re there to ensure you never miss a new one.
Vanilla Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 1/2 cups (420g) powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp whole milk or heavy whipping cream, room temperature
- 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
Instructions
- With a hand mixer or paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream the butter on medium-high until it’s creamy and light (almost white) in color. About 7 minutes.
- With the mixer on low, add the sifted powdered sugar one cup at a time, scraping down after each addition and making sure each cup is fully incorporated before adding the next one.
- Add vanilla, milk, and salt and mix on low for another minute until fully incorporated.
Notes
- Frost 12-15 cupcakes with a piping bag
- Fill and crumb coat a three-layer 6-inch cake or two-layer 8-inch cake. To have enough for frosting and decorating as well, double the recipe.
Tips for the best buttercream consistency
There are three types of consistency for buttercream that you need to know, and each one plays a different role in cake decorating.
Medium Consistency
This is the most versatile of all consistencies. It works perfectly as a filling between layers, crumb coating, frosting a cake (especially if you want a smooth buttercream finish), and even decorating cupcakes with simple piping tips. This buttercream recipe is medium consistency as-is, so it’s super easy to spread smoothly onto cakes. To test and make sure you’ve got a medium consistency going, you should be able to dip your rubber spatula into the buttercream and it will come out with soft peaks and spread easily when you move your finger over it.
Thin Consistency
This is the perfect consistency for painting with buttercream or writing a message on your cake. To achieve it, just add 1-2 additional teaspoons of room temperature milk to thin out the buttercream.
Stiff Consistency
If you’re piping buttercream flowers, especially ones with petals that need to stand upright, you’ll need a stiff consistency. Add an extra 1/2 cup of powdered sugar per batch of the above recipe to achieve this. When you dip your rubber spatula into the frosting, it should come out with stiff peaks, but when you pipe with it, make sure it’s not so thick that you have to put a ton of extra pressure on the bag or clog the piping tip. If you’re running into these problems, fear not! You can tone it down by adding room temperature whole milk, 1 tsp at a time, until it’s just right.
Hey I live in a area which is quite humid so is there anyway to prevent my buttercream melting without using shortening
Hi Rhea! Substituting butter with shortening is the only method I’ve tried for stabilizing the buttercream for hot/humid environments. If you’d rather go the all-butter route, you can always keep the cake in the fridge until about 30 minutes before you serve it. That keeps it nice and firm for presentation.
Hello! I am a home baker and for some reason my previous recipe (which uses shortening) has just been, well, falling short lately! So I plan on trying out yours this weekend!
Quick question regarding coloring – most of my cakes are not white and so how I do it now is incorporate the color into the cream/vanilla and then put it in the butter/sugar mix. Would you recommend doing this or what is your “go to” method for adding color!
I’m so excited to find your site, I love your tutorials! I am going to try out a fault line cake this weekend I think!
Hi Ashley! I’m so excited for you to try this vanilla buttercream recipe and make a fault line cake. For coloring, I usually make the batch of buttercream, then add food color gel to tint it. I find that it’s easier to control the color that way, but you do you!
Thanks for this wonderful recipe! Do you have YouTube channel? I am from Philippines
Hi Desiree! Thanks so much for your kind words. I do have a YouTube channel! It’s here: https://www.youtube.com/sugarandsparrow
I was wondering about how many cupcakes does this decorate? Wanted to use this for a cupcake cake and some extra cupcakes, 60 in total
Hi Hannah! This recipe will decorate about 20 cupcakes.
Thanks Whitney! I love your site!!
I’ve tried this recipe a couple times now and I love it!! Not overly sweet which is great. However, each time I’ve made it I get some serious air bubbles, which makes getting that nice, smooth layer of frosting on my cake difficult. Any tips??
Hi Bel! Glad you’re loving the vanilla buttercream recipe! So the only real way to eliminate air bubbles is to make sure you don’t overwhip the buttercream (more whipping time = more air being incorporated). If you do end up with air bubbles, try pressing the buttercream to the sides of your mixing bowl with a rubber spatula to release some of that air.
Sometimes when I’m frosting a cake and finding that there are air bubbles that can’t easily be smoothed out, I will get the first frosting layer as smooth as I can and then chill the cake for about 30 minutes, then fill in all the air bubble holes with more buttercream and smooth that over. It makes for a super smooth cake. Here’s a full tutorial with all my best tips on how to get the smoothest finish possible: https://sugarandsparrow.com/how-to-frost-a-cake/ Hope all that helps!
Hi Whitney,
what can you substitute vanilla extract with? I have Vanilla essence and vanilla paste but I’m not sure if I can use them to replace it? please will you let me know if I can substitute with these and in what measurements.
thanks
Hi Ashley! You can substitute vanilla extract with vanilla paste. Just use equal amounts of vanilla paste per amount of vanilla extract and you’ll be good!
Hi Whitney,
When you say you use this to frost your cakes, is that for the crumb coat also? And how much doubling will I have to do for a 10in rounds cake? I’m really excited to try this recipe since i’ve stayed away from traditional butter cream because of the sweetness.
Hi, Jackie! This recipe works for filling, crumb coating, and frosting the cake. For a 10 inch round cake, if you’re using it as filling as well as frosting, I would make 2.5x the recipe. If you’re just crumb coating and frosting the cake, I would make 1.5x the recipe. Hope you love it!! Let me know how it goes.
Thank you! I’m a basic cook, but I followed your buttercream (and chocolate dripping ganache) recipe, plus the tips. They were a great help & they both came out perfectly!
That’s so wonderful to hear, Lauren!! So happy you’re enjoying the recipes and tutorials!!
Will this amount of sugar taste very sweet?
Hi, Jessy! I don’t think this recipe is too sweet. I purposefully reduced the sugar (most other recipes call for 4+ cups of sugar) and added salt to make it sweet, but not overly so.
Hi Whitney! Do you use the thin consistency to cover the outer layer of the cake? Which consistency is best if I need to paint it in gold? Another question what happens if I want to reduce the sugar level does it affect the consistency of the buttercream?
Hi Natalie! I use thin-consistency to frost cakes (it’s the same measurements as the recipe above). If you add less sugar, the consistency will be even thinner, so I would reduce the amount of milk depending on how much you reduce the sugar (otherwise it might be too liquidy). You can eyeball that part. Thin consistency buttercream will also be perfect for painting a gold finish. You just need to refrigerate the cake after frosting it for about 30 minutes (until the buttercream is firm to the touch) before painting.
Hi Whitney, Could I make a strawberry buttercream using freeze-dried strawberries and this recipe? If so, do you have any recommendations on quantity of freeze-dried strawberry powder to butter/sugar/cream/milk? Strawberry frosting is the best, but I can’t use most recipes as they require extract and I’m allergic to red 40. Thanks!
Hi Jessica! You can totally make strawberry buttercream using freeze-dried strawberries – it’s so tasty! Just use this recipe but substitute the raspberries for strawberries: https://sugarandsparrow.com/raspberry-buttercream-recipe/
I’ve nevwr loved an ABC frosting more than this! & the smoothest I’ve ever been able to get on a cake. Thank you for the recipe!
I’m so happy to hear that, Jessica! Glad you love the recipe!
Do you have a similar recipe for chocolate buttercream frosting?
Hi, Kim! Yes, I do have a tasty chocolate buttercream recipe here: https://sugarandsparrow.com/chocolate-buttercream-recipe/
Thank you so much
All the way from Tanzania
No problem, Neelam! So happy you love the recipe 🙂 Love from Portland!
Ho There,
How long does the buttercream last? Do you think it is OK to make the buttercream in advance, store it in the fridge, and then bring it back to room temp before using? Thanks so much!
Heather
Hi Heather! I make this buttercream recipe ahead all the time. You can store it in an airtight container at room temperature for two days, then rewhip it with your stand mixer to bring it back to creamy consistency. If you’re wanting to store it for longer than two days, place it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temp and rewhip with your mixer before using. Hope that helps!
I made the buttercream and it is absolutely delicious!! I’m so excited about this recipe! One more question, once the cake is frosted what is the best way to store it? Do you cover it with plastic wrap or a cake platter with lid?
Yay, Heather! So happy to hear that! Once the cake is frosted, the buttercream acts as a barrier to hold moisture within the cake, so there’s no need to cover it with additional plastic wrap, etc. I just keep it in the refrigerator until a few hours before serving.