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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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Peady says
This is delicious! :D
Thanks bunches!
Allison says
Thank you for the recipe – I’ve just made two batches (separate colors) and they are both delicious! I also added Peppermint extract to my green buttercream to place on the chocolate Cupcakes – I have a feeling this will be yummy! Thanks again for sharing your wonderful recipe!
EmilyPelous says
I was wondering, about how many cupcakes would this frost? It sounds really good and I would love to use it on a chocolate cupcake recipe I’m dying to try. Thanks!
honeychile says
Great recipe! I haven’t made buttercream frosting in a while and couldn’t remember the proportions; a Google search led me to your welcome recipe. I usually use salted butter for the same reason you mention. It seems to cut the cloyingly sweet taste, but I only had unsalted butter on hand. I added a generous pinch of fine salt, and it worked well. I substituted half’n’half (that’s what we use in coffee) and used about a third less than the thicker cream. My favorite vanilla extract is Sonoma Syrup Company’s Vanilla Bean Crush which is a blend of both Madagascar bourbon and Tahitian beans along with vanilla bean seeds. I used 4 tsps. The end result is delicious and creamy. It was soft enough to spread, but stiff enough to pipe. In fact, it spread so cleanly that I didn’t bother with a crumb coat. I saved enough of the frosting to pipe a simple border around top and bottom and a few piped roses in the center. Beautiful, simple, delicious! Thanks again!
Olga says
I just made an icing using your recipe – it worked. It’s so
good. Thank you for sharing. I have to work on my piping skills a bit more.
Shirley says
Im making a white cake with lemon curd between the layers. Did you ever try lemon juice in the icing? I’d love to do that but don’t want to experiment on this one (it’s for a fancy shower) unless I hear someone has actually tried it and it was good. Anybody try using lemon juice instead of water? Was it good, too sour, too strong, too odd? Help.
thekitchenmagpie says
@Shirley YES I have a lemon buttercream recipe! https://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/lemon-buttercream-icing
david lollis says
is the coffee creamer just any liquid creamer ?
thekitchenmagpie says
david lollis No it’s a heavy cream between whipping and half and half, but all three will do!
ShanenSteppenwolf says
thekitchenmagpie david lollis
So what coffee creamer is the best to use?
Frazzled Baker says
ShanenSteppenwolf thekitchenmagpie david lollis I don’t want to jump in, but use unflavored Coffee Mate or French Vanillia flavored. Also, as a tip, havae stayed in a few hotels which provide Coffee Mate creamer as well as pure maple syrup. Since they are provided with your meal and/or the room, you have already paid for it. Both can keep forever.
RedMtl says
I frequently wonder at people who seem surprised at the use of salted butter. I don’t use anything else, nor did my Mother or either of my Grandmothers. The salt acts as a catalyst against the sugar, and this chemical reaction is missing with the unsalted butter, resulting in the flatter taste.
This recipe has been my base for decades, but I rarely see it except in antique cookbooks. Glad someone discovered a preferrence for it and made it more widely known.
From this starting point I flavour as needed. The most frequent choices for me are coffee-cream, mint or strawberry.
As a note to the post below, when using almond extract, remember that some people are nut allergic. A such a person, I know from more than fifty years experience that most people never realise that the extract means that the resulting item has nut content. I have lost count of the number of times I have been told that something has no nuts, only to find out too late that extract was used for flavouring.
If anyone cares to try the coffee flavouring, I recommend using instant dissolved in extremely little liquid. The concentration is greater, and the end result does not have too much liquid.
thekitchenmagpie says
@RedMtl I know, it’s really weird! Salted butter is where it’s at UNLESS it’s very finicky baking like pastries etc where the balance has to be exact. Thanks for stopping in!!
RedMtl says
thekitchenmagpie How true. That said, I don’t use unsalted for anything, really, including pastry. Occasionally I make an exception for puff pastry, but even my Mother didn’t bother with that.
Have looked around your site and found other things of interest. Perhaps more comments to follow.
Brian J says
Karlynn, When you say “cream” for the icing, is it a heavy cream or half & half? Thanks
thekitchenmagpie says
Brian J Half and half works!
Anna says
Salted butter is by the unsalted butter :/
juliewilds1 says
This was perfect!!! It was the first time I had ever really decorated a cake from scratch. I did use orange wilton, which was a greasy mess, and made my fox look mangy. But it is still cute! Next time I will make my own bright colors with the yummy buttercream! Julie
thekitchenmagpie says
juliewilds1 Oh my goodness how did I miss this? That is ADORABLE!!!!! Thank you for sharing!
Squirrelcheeks says
Can one freeze this if I have used double cream
Asadourian says
EakinEagles KitchenMagpie Your yummy icing was used between the layers and under the fondant. So good… pic.twitter.com/dgdbgLTBGY
KitchenMagpie says
Asadourian EakinEagles Awww I love little bakers in the making!! <3
KitchenMagpie says
Asadourian EakinEagles Aww is there a pic of the cake ?
zsantiago39 says
I have not tried your recipe yet, but everytime I make buttercream frosting it taste too much like butter. What am I doing wrong?
I use unsalted butter, powdered sugar, and pure vanilla extract, and a little milk.
yanogator says
zsantiago39 It’s supposed to taste like butter. If you don’t want that, you can use 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening.
tessyjo says
Tried it. Nailed it. Loved it!
I used Lurpak slightly salted butter. To quote my 9 yr old daughter “OMG this icing is amazeballs!”.
My new go to recipe for icing.
JonMichael says
OMG! You are my new BFF. I absolutely hate having to use unsalted butter. Coming across your buttercream icing recipe was a godsend. Thank you! Thank you! And THANK YOU again!!!!
thekitchenmagpie says
JonMichael Haha yes I am a lover of salted butter! It’s the best in sweet sauces and frostings!
linda says
recipe says “serves 6” Aprox. how many cupcakes will this recipe frost?
thekitchenmagpie says
@linda It yields around 2 cups ,depends how heavy or light you are with the icing!
ElsaCakes says
This butter cream frosting recipe looks and sounds delicious! I would love to try making this for a birthday cake I am making but because I live in Florida where its HOT and HUMID, I really doubt that this frosting would hold up well since its made from all butter. Can i substitute half of the butter with shortening without it affecting the taste much?
Lindsey Grimes says
@ElsaCakes I understand what you mean about the hot humid weather. I live in Alabama. As long as you are inside, it doesn’t affect the recipe much. If you are going to be outside, I don’t think that the shortening would hold up any better to the heat…. I honestly don’t know of a frosting that does hold up to the heat well considering what they are made of. LOL Good luck!
PMiller says
I use evaporated milk instead of cream – its great
Samantha says
Really great recipe! tried it for the first time tonight and it turned out great! i only changed a few things. Instead of using 4-5 tbsp of cream, i used 3 Tbsp of whole Guernsey milk (which has a higher butter fat than the store boughten whole milk), and added 1 tsp of almond extract. really good on spice cake. 🙂 definitely will use this recipe again!
Donnagk says
Hi, can someone help please – I followed a recipe for Vanilla Buttercream Frosting with 1 cup butter, softened; 3 – 4 cups confectioner’s suger (forgot to sift it); 2 teaspoons vanilla; pinch salt; 2 – 3 tablespoons of half-and-half. The problem is it is sweet – is there anything I can do to make less sweet???
michelle says
Is icing sugar just confectioner powdered sugar
MelissaMoss says
@michelle Yes! Look at the FAQ. She addresses it there.
Betty says
Would this butter cream icing work for a wedding cake.
Barbara says
@Betty I had a gorgeous simple vanilla cake with buttercream frosting at my wedding. Best decision ever. I used floating tiers so each cake layer could be fully frosted instead of simply stacked on one another), and the bakery I used had lovely, skillful designs. If buttercream is what you like, go for it!
Murrya says
My wedding cake was a carrot cake with buttercream frosting but the baker topped it with fondant to get the design I wanted.
Emily says
I hate frosting! I’ve never really cared for it..until now! Great…you’ve created the frosting to addict even the frosting haters. The world is screwed lol!
But seriously, this icing is easy, delicious, and wonderful to spread! It’s not too rich and not to bland. The salted butter REALLY DOES make it perfect!
thekitchenmagpie says
@Emily Ok this made me laugh this morning!! I’m glad I converted you ;)
April says
This is soo good. I used 2 tbsp. of French vanilla coffee creamer (it was all I had), and surprisingly it came out great. Light and creamy. Great for cupcakes.
thekitchenmagpie says
@April I keep meaning to try the coffee creamers! It sounds soo good!
Ella 1712 says
Ella 1712 says
Made this heavenly delicious buttercream for my sons Spider-Man cake and it turned out amazing! I used hazelnut coffee creamer and off course some color 🙂
Thank you for this great recipe
thekitchenmagpie says
Ella 1712 This is fabulous!! You should share it on my Facebook page as well!! What a great job you did!!
Ella 1712 says
Thank you ☺️ I will be more than happy to share it on your Facebook page!
Walkingyellowmags says
Hi Karlynn, I did post this before, but maybe I was a guest and it didn’t go?? I just wondered, if it is not too cheeky to Ask, whether I can really freeze the cake, put the crumb coat on, re freeze it, put the icing on ….. (Am making a dragon cake for little grandson, and cake will be a bit tricky to ice…. So it sounded a godsend to read that you froze cakes, iced them, re froze ….) I have made 2 huge bowlful a of this delic icing ….a nd it seems pretty stable, but I wondered how the cake stood up to several re freezes and thaws?? Clearly moisture doesn’t seep through or you would have said!! Am doing the icing tomorrow, cakes are in freezer as we speak!, Thank you so much for an amazing site.
Angie says
PHENOMENAL. This is the best icing I’ve ever tasted, and I’m not usually a fan of buttercream icing! I used heavy cream because it’s what I had on hand, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. This is a keeper for sure. I’m taking birthday cupcakes to a friend tomorrow, and I can’t WAIT to hear his reaction!!
superjohn12 says
thanks for this useful info