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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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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. –
sweethaven says
Hi, can I use color for this icing? How many hours can it stand at room temp? Please advice, tnx. – bambi
Blf says
Made this today to ice my daughter’s tye-dyed French vanilla white chocolate cupcakes (she’s turning 9) and it is FABULOUS! Light and fluffy and colored beautifully. My new favorite icing recipe 🙂
PrettyMetal says
I am so pleased to have found this recipe. I had to look up some of the terminology and I am so excited I have all the ingredients! I am looking forward to making this deliciously described icing.
Karlynn says
Yes, make two batches!
Ammy says
Absolutly LOVE this recipe, have never paid attention to how much it makes. I need about 6-8 cups, thinking I need to do a double batch??
StephanieCloreOtte says
I always use a recipe just like this, it has been my go to recipe. I always get complements! I like to buy the flavored creamers too because they add a subtle taste to the icing and can really complement certain flavors of cake! I also never use unsalted butter, it just comes out too sweet for me, the unsalted just seems to give it the perfect balance. You won’t get a super white icing, but you can always add some of the icing bright paste to whiten it up a bit. However I have never once had someone complain that the icing wasn’t a “pure” white, only complements =)
Anne says
@StephanieCloreOtte You seem to contradict yourself in your post. Could you please clarify which is better – Salted or Unsalted?
crazycakelady says
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" profile_url="https://www.livefyre.com/profile/5296840/" ns="true">StephanieCloreOtte
Think she meant to say “the salted butter just seems to give it the perfect balance.”
Susan Adrian says
The best reason to use unsalted butter rather than salted butter is that you can’t control the amount of salt in the recipe if you use salted butter. Different butterbrands and different batches of butter have different amounts of salt.
Use unsalted butter then add salt to taste. I’ve had to throw away buttercream icing when I used salted butter because it was just too salty.
Susan Adrian says
The best reason to use unsalted butter rather than salted butter is that you can’t control the amount of salt in the recipe. Different butters and different batches of butter have different amounts of salt.
Use unsalted butter then add salt to taste. I’ve had to throw away buttercream icing when I used salted butter because it was just too salty.
Ronie Walter @ IT Staffing Agencies says
As a first time visitor to your blog I am very impressed. I hope it is possible to present more someday. So much important things can be learn on your blog. Keep sharing such a very informative post like this.I found a lot of informative stuff in your article.
Karlynn says
I have used almond extract, it’s very easy to flavor this, have fun experimenting!
leah says
can you sub out the vanilla for different flavours like orange or cotton candy flavouring….anyone tried this?
leemz says
O this truly is the BEST buttercream EVER. My typical buttercream was always either too buttery or two sweet, but this one is just perfect. I just made a batch for my mum’s birthdays and the buttercream is chilling in the fridge. It really does tastes like ice cream. Thank you soooo much for it.
You’re the best. 😀
Ninz says
Hi how many cupcakes will this cover when using a icing bag.
Karlynn says
Softened butter works the best and won’t break your mixer!
Tweet55 says
Do I leave the butter at room temp or whip it straight from the fridge thanks
Reb Thack says
@Tweet55 Give the butter about 2 hours at room temperature
Karlynn says
You can fit two batches in a KitchenAid. The recipe yields 3 cups, so that would be 6 cups of icing for you.
mirandese says
Any suggestions for making this icing in large quantities? I am icing a 3 tier cake (10, 8, &6) double layers, and want to be sure I have enough.
Notjustcakes says
I urge you all to try this! It is a must! It works so well with very sweet cakes and goes on very well under domed fondant iced cupcakes! Thank you for sharing with us!
Megan P says
Does anyone know does this icing freeze well? Thank you!
Caitlan says
Yes, I have frozen this icing. I just put it in the fridge for 24 hours before I need to use it. I put it back in the mixer and add a little bit of cream to help it come together.
Hilly says
I really liked this recipe.will try it today for my doughnuts.can i use simple fresh cream.
Scott says
Have tried and used many different buttercream recipes, this by far is the nicest i have used. I did a couple of minor changes. I used unsalted butter and add a 1/4 tsp sea salt, also only added 2 tsp of clear vanilla. And with 5 tbs of 18% table cream for my base icing, it was the smoothest creamiest icing i have ever had. Everybody raved about the cake how light and airy the icing was and not too sweet . it was a total hit. thanks for this recipe
Catherine says
I made this for a baby shower this weekend! The guests were gushing over the frosting and begged me for the recipe! Of course I directed them your way through pinterest! Thank you for making my cupcakes such a success!
Christine M says
Cake virgin here- How much cake will this cover? I have a 6inch pan and 9 inch pan. I’m doing a practice (6 inch) run this weekend for the big 1st bday party next week, if I have extra, will it still be good to use next week? (can I put in the freezer? or fridge is ok?)
koni says
hi,
it is amazing butter cream icing.
thank you for your post.
and i wonder if you can tell me what kind the tablespoons you use? because i do not know what size tablespoons should i use. i have a bit confusing.
Nette says
@koni lol. Tablespoons are table spoons. Then there’s teaspoons. The bigger spoon is a tbs. but I can get little measuring spoons from any dollAr store
dfdfdfdfdfdgggtgt says
@koni ALL TABLESPOONS ARE THE SAME!!!
Kat says
Do you think it’d be ok if i substituted the cream with cream cheese?
Jackie T says
Have you ever tried whipping cream? If so, how did it turn out?
JohannaPrivett says
I use whipping cream with the recipe all the time and it works great!
Krystal Smith says
I’m very curious about this recipe for buttercream. I’m in charge of making my mother in law’s 60th birthday cake and she’s recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I’m wondering if this recipe has been tried with substituting the icing sugar with Splenda or a diabetes friendly sugar? Would I have the same or similar dreamy results for the buttercream icing? I’m going to experiment with that option for my son’s birthday cake in the next few weeks so hopefully it turns out. I will try making a smaller amount just to test it out. I’m very much looking forward to it.
Karlynn says
You would have to do some experimenting to try, the texture would be different.
Mona says
Hi I’m glad I found ur website been looking for a good buttercream icing.
Im in uk what Cream would u suggest I use?
Thanks