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This is THE original salted buttercream frosting recipe that went viral and has been shared by hundreds of thousands of people – and this recipe has been read tens of millions of times!
Millions Have Enjoyed this Recipe
Millions Have Enjoyed this RecipeThis was my very first viral recipe here on The Kitchen Magpie! If you like this, you should try my Lemon Buttercream Frosting recipe. This recipe is the best thanks to sweet and salty mixing together!
When I first wrote this recipe 9 years ago, no one was using salted butter in their frostings – or at least there weren’t any posted online that I could find.This recipe made it in to my cookbook, that’s how amazing it is! This recipe was one of the first on my website and has been viewed by tens of millions of people over the years! Isn’t that crazy?
This buttercream icing is still is amazing, melt in your mouth, whippy, ultimate swirly cupcake worthy. It was fantastic on the homemade chocolate cake I made to go with it the very first time I whipped it up. The cake was dense and moist, and paired with a light as air buttercream icing… heaven. Angels dancing on your taste buds. I’ve tried it on every cupcake that you can imagine and it’s even amazing on vanilla. Salty vanilla icing on a vanilla cupcake is heaven for vanilla lovers!
Please go and have a read of my Buttercream Icing FAQ which answers a lot of the questions about this recipe asked in the hundreds of comments on this post below!
The most important is How to Fix Broken Buttercream, that’s a whole post in itself!
Frosting Ingredients
There are four basic ingredients for this buttercream frosting and I have kept it simple and straightforward for years now:
- Salted butter – a good quality, tastes-good-off-the-spoon butter is important!
- Vanilla – You need that classic vanilla taste
- Icing sugar – This is also known as powdered sugar or confectioners sugar
- Coffee cream – This is literally called coffee cream here in Canada but what it is is a cream that is 18% milk fat and up
Commonly Asked Frosting/Icing Questions and Answers
Do I have to refrigerate a cake with buttercream?
This buttercream has butter and it has whipping cream in it. I personally leave it out all day and it’s fine ( butter is always fine at room temperature) but the whipping cream? That’s a personal call for you. I have left it out overnight, but I honestly have to tell you to refrigerate it instead of leaving it out. But it’s really a personal decision. Apparently because of all the sugar you can leave a cake with buttercream frosting out for 2-3 days.
How long can you leave a cake with buttercream icing out?
I leave mine out for a day, not in the hot sun at all and it’s fine. According to the US food and inspection agency, you can leave a cake with buttercream frosting out for 2-3 days.
What is the best butter to use?
Salted and organic butter is literally the best butter that you can use. It is the salt that really makes this the best buttercream frosting ever. It’s actually a myth that salted butter is an inferior quality – it’s not. It’s the same quality.
How do I make the frosting stiffer?
You will want to use less cream in order to make the frosting stiffer. Start out with only a small amount of cream and add it until you get the consistency that you want.
How do you thicken up frosting?
This buttercream frosting is thick to start without adding in the cream! To start, beat in the icing sugar and see what the thickness of the frosting is. Then you can add a little bit of cream, a little at a time, until you reach the desired consistency. IF you go too far, you then can add more icing sugar/powdered sugar to thicken it back up.
How do you soften buttercream?
This one is easy, leave it out on the counter at room temperature for 45-60 minutes and it will be soft! If that doesn’t work and your frosting is too thick, then you might have to beat it again and add some more cream.
Can you store butter based frostings in the refrigerator?
You bet! Buttercream frosting/icing can be stored in the refrigerator for a week or two, as long as the whipping cream that you use wasn’t going to expire soon.
Can you freeze butter based icings?
I freeze it all the time! Simply defrost, mix and use as normal.
Tips and Tricks for the Best Buttercream Frosting
- Always use salted butter. When I first wrote this recipe in 2010 there weren’t many people that were food blogging compared to today, so I literally couldn’t find a SINGLE buttercream frosting recipe on the internet that used salted butter! Now I am sure that if I looked there would be tons of recipes similar to this one. Oh, how times have changed! So I had discovered that salt and sweet are a match made in heaven for icing and I never looked back. You can also read about the difference between salted and unsalted butter.
- Whip that butter, with a paddle beater if you have it, if not, don’t worry. You can also use the beaters on your handheld mixer just fine to beat the buttercream frosting! You want the butter to be smooth and creamy before you add the icing sugar.
- Fresh icing sugar makes all the difference. Icing sugar/powdered sugar/confectioners sugar goes stale, and you can sure taste it when it does! Crack open a fresh bag for icings, you won’t be sorry! Over the years many people have agreed that this is another trick to making great buttercream frosting.
- You can make this frosting as light or as heavy as you want by adjusting the amount of heavy cream that you use.
- Read this if you are looking for piping techniques.
Some More Frosting Recipes:
- Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- Chocolate Buttercream Icing
- Pistachio Pudding Buttercream Icing
- Vegan Buttercream Icing
- Candy Bar Buttercream Icing
Happy baking everyone!
Love,
Karlynn
The Best Buttercream Frosting Recipe
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Total Time
- 5 minutes
- Course
- Dessert
- Cuisine
- icing
- Servings
- 16 servings
- Calories
- 223
- Author
- Karlynn Johnston
Ingredients
- 1 cup of salted butter
- 3 teaspoons of vanilla
- 4 cups of icing sugar
- 4-5 tablespoons of coffee cream 18% and up
Instructions
- Get out the salted butter! Trust me and use salted butter, it’s the secret ingredient!
- Beat the butter until it is light and creamy. This is important as you are adding the icing sugar next. If the butter isn’t creamy you can get lumps in the icing.
- Add in the icing sugar. Again, if you are like me and can taste stale icing sugar, you will need a fresh bag.
- Add in the cream.. I used 4 tablespoons for my preference, you adjust to what you want.
- Stiffer icing = less cream. Lighter icing = more cream. Adjust the amount to your liking by adding one tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached.
- Add the vanilla then keep mixing it until fluffy and thoroughly combined.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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stefffie78 says
what’s coffee cream??
AlisonCarnacchio says
i made cupcakes with this buttercream and it was yummy, i also was able to dye it blue too. Great to work with!
Melissa says
This icing was amazing! I made a cupcake cake for my daughter’s First Communion! I even made it swirled blue and white and people asked me for the recipe!
Thank you so much!
walkerlady says
What is icing sugar? Is it powdered sugar? And by coffee cream, do you mean like coffee mate? Or like half and half, light cream? not sure what you are referring to! Please let me know!
gwardell2001 says
I made this tonight w/ Ghiradelli’s unsweetened choaco powder and it was fabulous! My husband who never likes my frosting likes this recipe. I will use it again for certain!
Ugomma says
Does anyone know how I could tweak this to make a WHITE CHOCOLATE buttercream frosting??
th2o says
As a very serious baker I must disagree on your butter choice. Salted butter is a condiment and should be used as such. Salt is added by the manufacturer as a preservative, to enhance the flavor and to mask odors. It allows them to use a lower quality product to start with. Salt adds shelf life of up to 5 months, unsalted is 3. You could be buying old butter to start with. There is no standard to the amount of salt used. Rule of thumb is 1/4 tsp per stick. Some use much more. A cup of salted butter means your using a minimum of 1 teaspoon of salt. A color agent Annatto is also added to most salted butter. Unsalted butter is creamier and sweeter. You can smell the difference. Salt enhances flavor. That’s why an unsalted butter recipe calls for a pinch salt. You control how much.
For this recipe: coffee cream = heavy cream aka whipping cream (most butter fat), icing sugar = confectionary sugar aka 10x powder sugar. If its too thin add more sugar or just start with less liquid. Double strength vanilla = 1 1/2 tsp not 3. Yes refrigerate… it’s butter.
This was not written as a dig or put down only fact and experience based opinion. Hopefully some will try and taste the difference.
Sharon says
th2o
Thanks for Sharing! It’s wonderful to get an expert’s opinion to help understand the basics 🙂
th2o says
As a very serious baker I must disagree on your butter choice. Salted butter is a condiment and should be used as such. Salt is added by the manufacturer as a preservative, to enhance the flavor and to mask odors. It allows them to use a lower quality product to start with. Salt adds shelf life of up to 5 months, unsalted is 3. You could be buying old butter to start with. There is no standard to the amount of salt used. Rule of thumb is 1/4 tsp per stick. Some use much more. A cup of salted butter means your using a minimum of 1 teaspoon of salt. A color agent Annatto is also added to most salted butter. Unsalted butter is creamier and sweeter. You can smell the difference. Salt enhances flavor. That’s why an unsalted butter recipe calls for a pinch salt. You control how much.
For this recipe: coffee cream = heavy cream aka whipping cream (most butter fat), icing sugar = confectionary sugar aka 10x powder sugar. If your finished icing is too thin add more sugar or just start with less liquid. Double strength vanilla = 1 1/2 tsp not 3. Yes refrigerate… it’s butter.
This was not written as a dig or put down only a fact and experience based opinion. Hopefully some will try and taste the difference!
jrodriguezsocal says
This recipe is wonderful! I made the chocolate frosting with your chocolate cake recipe and got one compliment that it was “better than a bakery”! :) The only thing I would change is on the recipe is to add a time length for whipping the butter: this was my first time making buttercream frosting, and I whipped for a very long time before realizing that adding the powdered sugar would create the desired texture.
Karlynn Johnston says
Works for stars, piping but not for anything like roses!
melissa says
Thank you for sharing! I can’t wait to try this! It sounds delicious! I am going to make a Cupcake Cake for my daughter’s First Communion and I don’t normally bake so it should be fun!
Melissa in Caledon, ON, Canada
Debbie Magoffin says
A must try it is soooo good melts in your mouth going to use on my Sons Wedding cupcakes. And you can use food colouring in it.
Karla J says
does it work for decorating as well or will it fall flat?
ginaandjeremy says
I typically do not like buttercream icing, but this is hands down the best I’ve ever tasted! Its not overly sweet which is wonderful!! I doubled the recipe as I had 48 cupcakes to frost and still had plenty left over. Which I’ve put into the fridge to frost a cake tomorrow. This will be my go to icing recipe from now on!
NatsIPFarmer says
How doi make this chocolate flavour?
SheriRusso says
What exactly is coffee cream? I have never seen it in my store. We have whipping cream, heavy cream, half and half (half milk, Half cream-which most people use in their coffee….) and light cream here in NJ. which cream should I use?
Irisheyes0913 says
Americans would use half & half
gwardell2001 says
Half and half is coffee cream. Or I use the all natural sweet cream creamer and it was yummy! (And all I had in fridge)
walkerlady says
SheriRusso I asked the same thing!! and what is icing sugar? is it 10x or powdered sugar?
MCasoni says
SheriRusso Coffee Cream is indeed your half and half! 😀
LaurenLaporte says
SheriRusso incase no one has replied to your question, coffee cream is usually 18% cream….you’ll have to look for the fat percentage on those cartons and search for 18%
Java_Junkie says
SheriRusso Where I live Coffee Cream is 18%.
AmandaRoss says
I tried this recipe last night. The taste was good but the icing was very thin and made my cake too moist almost to the point it was soggy. Anybody know what i can do to change that for next time?
Danaroo says
AmandaRoss add more sugar or less cream
walkerlady says
AmandaRoss use less cream and/or more sugar!
MCasoni says
AmandaRoss Add more icing sugar!
Marie says
AmandaRoss I added the full 5TBSP of cream in my recipe and at first the frosting seemed thin too, thenI turned the mixer n the highest speedand whippedth frosting for about 7 minutes and it became light and flufffy… which I prefer…. but very spreadable.
AmandaRoss says
I tried this recipe last night. The taste was good the icing was very thin and made my cake too moist almost to the point it soggy. Anybody know what i can do to change that for next time?
wishchild7 says
AmandaRoss add less cream
CharzStarz says
Also was wondering if I can add some food coloring?
wishchild7 says
CharzStarz yes but its better if you squeeze fresh fruit and use there juices
CharzStarz says
I am excited to try this recipe for my nephew’s 6th birthday cake 🙂 but I was wondering if an electric mixer is absolutely needed to achieve fluffy buttercream? or can I just use my good ole wooden spoon and muscles?
wishchild7 says
CharzStarz muscles work
MirandaAlexandriaVerven says
This is my new favourite butter cream!Thanks so much for sharing!I didn’t have cream so I used milk but I also mixed sour cream into my milk to make a cream constancy, it’s awesome! :)
MirandaAlexandriaVerven says
can I use milk instead of cream?
Karlynn Johnston says
Oh,at least two batches for that! I’m a heavy icer…I would err on the side of caution and say three!
StephanieBoring says
I’m making 48 cupcakes and want to use this recipe. How many batches should I make to cover 48 cupcakes generously? Thanks!
Karlynn Johnston says
Yes, you can color it!
gidget98 says
can you use food coloring? I need to make yellow and purple frosting for a bithday cake for my grandaughter.
likerofthisrecipe says
AMAZING!!!! needs a little more butter though
DorindaSpiers says
I have always used this recipe for my icing. I do not use the coffee cream and the icing lasts forever in the frig. I don’t use as much vanilla either. Doesn’t it make it too strong? My vanilla is from Mexico and has the bean in it. I think it would be to strong if I used three teaspoons.
TayKayRos_Love says
DorindaSpiers So what do you use instead of the coffee cream? I’d like to try this.
Bakergirl says
I tried this recipe last week and it is the BEST buttercream recipe I have found. It’s my new go-to recipe! Whipping the butter until its white and using heavy cream make all the difference! I don’t like using shortening as most recipes call for, this recipe is lighter and perfectly fluffy. Love it!
Foreveradame says
Bakergirl How long do you whip it for…mine turned out perfect, but i am curious what whipping it longer would do
AmandaM says
Hi!! Well the first time I made this I fell in love! I’ve tried many recipes but could never find any I liked until now! The first couple of times I made it, the consistency was perfect however, lately it had been melting. I can’t understand what I might be doing wrong if I’m not doing anything different. Do you use your butter at room temperature or cold from the fridge?
sweetsbyrae says
AmandaM I’ve found that butter based buttercreams only hold up in certain temperature and climates. I live in the chicago area and last summer I had trouble getting my buttercream to stay stiff and not separate and droop, but the buttercreams with shortening and butter hold up much better!
AmandaM says
Hi! Well the first time I made this I fell in love! I’ve tried many recipes but could never find any I liked until now! The first couple of times I made it, the consistency was perfect however, lately it had been melting. I can’t understand what I might be doing wrong if I’m not doing anything different. Do you use your butter at room temperature or cold from the fridge?