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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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SweetG says
Just my 2 cents..I absolutely would never use salted butter for a buttercream (or any baking for that matter). I recently sampled a buttercream made with salted butter and I almost gagged. I want to eat a cake that’s sweet, not salty. It was way too salty.You have no control over how much salt they put into salted butter. You can always add a bit of salt afterwards if you like.
crazycakelady says
SweetG
I think it’s all a matter of taste. I NEVER use UNsalted butter in my baking. I have been baking cakes for the public for years and I am known for my “delectable” (not my word) buttercream icing, which is very similar to this one. My recipe calls for the salted butter and a tsp of popcorn salt disolved in water, so you would gag! I think you may be in the minority here. Salt acts as a balancing agent in some super sweet recipes, however if you like “super sweet” it’s not for you.
Elizabeth says
crazycakelady SweetG I only use salted butter in everything also. Always did.
noonoocar says
crazycakelady SweetG I have always always always used salted butter as well and I was trained as a pastry chef. Definitely the minority who wouldn’t like the balance between the sweet and salty. I don’t believe unless someone told them they would even know unless it was pointed out to them
AlixBoyington says
SweetG Unsalted butter is too bland for this recipe, as the salt gives it that slight taste that makes it so wonderful.
Pattiep says
Pinterest is blocking your web site so no one can get this icing recipe.
Karlynn Johnston says
Yes.
stump says
is powder sugar the same thing as icing sugar…
AmandaM says
I cannot tell you how long I have been searching and testing different buttercream recipes! I hate shortening! I hate recipes that call for 2 pounds of sugar! 2 pound???? That’s just crazy. And when I read this recipe, especially the salted butter ingredient.. I said, this must be it. Who doesn’t love the combination of salty and sweet? Anyhow, I gave you a little shout out on my new blog. Thanks again for being the genius to perfect this recipe! https://amandalovestobake.blogspot.com/
JennyP says
Just made it! Don’t think it will make it to the cake! lol~
And just noticed you are from edmonton, me too!!
Karlynn says
You are so welcome!
SamAngelCakes says
i will try it
JeanieMcVay says
I used cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and International House Almond Joy coffee creamer and my icing is AWESOME! Thank you for this!!!!!
JenniferBC says
Needed a buttercream icing recipe for my daughter’s 1st birthday and liked the sound of this far more than the Wilton version. I’ve never made my own icing before, so I was pretty nervous, but it turned out awesome!! Thanks so much for such a great and easy-to-follow recipe.
Heather canada says
Ramsey – use cream that you would use on desserts – double cream would work just fine. 🙂
BigOrangeKitty says
Ramsey – it’s just cream you’d put in your coffee, or half & half, use some kind of cream, not milk.
Karlynn says
Amen to the rubber band on the sugar!So glad you liked the recipe, welcome to the site!
Tanyaewa says
Your was the first recipe to come up when I googled this morning in a panic :). Great recipe. Good proportions. I had to use real whip cream from A can when it turned out I had no milk or cream! The alternative was soy milk lol. Worked just fine. Added enough to make it the right consistency and added a few drops of liquid food colouring too. Thanks for posting this. I will have to check out the rest of your blog. I think it’s funny that your picture accompanying the recipe is exactly the same sizes and brands ( and rubber band on the sugar 🙂 as I had. Thx!
ramsey says
please could you tell us were you can get coffee cream from the uk cause i dont know or does it have another name for it thank you.
Kim says
I made this yesterday for my pumpkin cookies — and when people then had the cookies the reaction was — “mmmm these are so good .. I LOVE the icing especially!! LOVE the icing.” They made that cookie delicious!! Thanks so much! ~Kim
Rainbow Prams says
Thank you so much for this I was searching high and low for a top recipe! Fingers crossed my cakes will look fab at the epilepsy awareness cake sale at school tomorrow x
Barrie Brown says
Most people use a 2:1 ratio – how did you arrive at 4:1 ratio?
wojo711 says
Made this today, AMAZING!!! Will be my go to recipe!
nursekr2004 says
What a wonderful recipe. Our 2 year old grand baby was really upset when he couldn’t have that second beater! LOL! It was a definite hit. I will use this time and time again. And you are right coffee cream is wonderful instead of milk. Loved it…thanks a million!
PiperB says
Thank you for this yummy recipe. I added some Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey wiskey. Very yummy!
PiperB says
Thank you for this yummy recipe. I added some Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey wiskey. Very yummy
Jenny says
Made this today using salted butter. Was my first time making buttercream, had my cousin over who makes buttercream all the time. We both loved it and she said that this is now her go to recipe!
Karen says
Not true – the inferior ingredients and using salt to give taste. There are no ingredients in butter other than cream. By whipping it separates into butterfat and buttermilk. The butterfat is washed with cold water until the liquid becomes clear – voila – butter. Salt is only a preservative. I know – I make my own butter.
Karlynn says
You can give it a try, the taste will be different though, and Greek Yogurt has no fat, which is partly why the cream works so well. I would buy a small pint of cream and freeze it, it’s simply the best.
Joanne says
We only have the powdered coffee mate stuff in our house. I’d hate to be buying coffee cream all the time just for icing, even though I read you can freeze it. Will greek yogurt work instead?
kf4hpo says
The reason to use unsalted butter is this: My ex used to work at Kraft and he said they use inferior ingredients in salted butter because salt makes it taste better. Unsalted butter is better quality. You can easily add your own salt.
NurseLaura says
I love this recipe. I’ve used it many times and everyone has loved it each time!
Karlynn says
The icing can be colored, can stay at room temp as long as butter itself can (a long time but it goes soft) Yes it’s confectioners sugar, you can try different creams if you like but I don’t guarantee it’s the same quality! I use this for all my kids birthday cakes.
sweethaven says
Hi, can I use coloring for this icing? How many hours can it stand at room temp? The sugar icing here is the confectioners sugar? Can I use the nestle table cream instead of the coffee cream? I am in a hurry surfing the recipe coz I need to use ut tomorrow Thursday for my daughter`s bday… Please advice, tnx. –