A staple in any baker’s kitchen, vanilla buttercream frosting is deliciously soft, creamy, and sweet. My favorite recipe for American vanilla buttercream is simple to make and is easily piped onto cakes and cupcakes for a truly memorable dessert.
Finally! A completely separate post for the most common recipe in any baker’s repertoire: vanilla buttercream frosting. This is my favorite vanilla buttercream recipe. There’s nothing fancy, crazy, or complicated about it, but the flavor and texture will certainly taste like you added something special.
But guess what? You didn’t. It’s our little secret.
How to Make American Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
American vanilla buttercream is incredibly simple and much easier than, say, Swiss meringue buttercream. From mixing bowl to decorating cupcakes in less than 10 minutes! Here’s how to make it:
- Beat butter until creamy. Make sure your butter is softened to room temperature before beginning. Use a hand or stand mixer to beat until smooth and creamy.
- Add sugar, cream, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed until these ingredients are incorporated, then bump up the mixer to medium-high speed. At this point, you can add more confectioners’ sugar if the frosting is too thin or a splash of heavy cream if it’s too thick.
- Taste and salt. Add a pinch of salt to offset the sweetness. Trust me on this one!
Buttercream Frosting Ingredients
Buttercream ingredients hardly differ between recipes, but the ratio of ingredients does vary. I’m here to tell you that this careful buttercream formula works EVERY time—my recipe is perfection.
- Butter: We can’t have buttercream without butter. Though salted is fine, I recommend using unsalted butter so you can control the added salt. Whichever you use, make sure you are using room temperature butter.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: Sweetens vanilla buttercream and adds stability and pipe-ability to the frosting.
- Heavy Cream: Though whole milk or half-and-half are perfectly acceptable, use heavy cream for maximum creaminess and richness.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Adds that glorious vanilla flavor. And if you use homemade vanilla extract, even better.
- Salt: Offsets the sweetness and adds that little something extra.
This recipe also serves as the jumping point for strawberry buttercream frosting—try that next!
For something lighter and less sweet, I recommend this whipped frosting.
Decorating with Buttercream Frosting
The word “creamy” doesn’t even do this stuff justice. But even though it’s supremely creamy, this vanilla buttercream holds its shape beautifully. It’s perfect for piping even the most complicated and intricate designs. When decorating cakes and cupcakes, I gravitate towards the following 5 piping tips. Each creates a completely different look, so that’s why it’s a great collection if you’re just starting out. And these tips won’t break the bank—they’re each pretty inexpensive.
- Wilton 1M (Rose) – a classic piping tip and the easy buttercream rose is a staple decoration. This same tip can also produce a decoration that resembles soft serve ice cream.
- Wilton 8B – one of my all-time favorites.
- Ateco 849 – it’s a pretty wide piping tip. You can make a rose, a soft-serve swirl, or a super easy ruffled look.
- Wilton 12 small round – since it doesn’t have any detailed edges, I love using this tip for silky creamy frostings such as salted caramel frosting and cream cheese frosting.
- Ateco 808 large round – it’s also a round tip, but it’s much larger. Its decoration looks like a big fluffy cloud!
Want to see how to decorate cupcakes? Here’s my how to use piping tips video. And here is how we use this frosting to decorate easy Halloween cupcakes!
How to Rid Vanilla Buttercream of Air Bubbles
Over-whipping vanilla buttercream creates air bubbles. The taste is no different, but the buttercream is no longer smooth and velvet-y. Here’s how to get rid of air bubbles in your frosting:
Ditch the mixer. Grab a wooden or metal spoon and begin stirring the buttercream by hand. Mash the frosting up against the side of the bowl to “pop” the bubbles. Do this until most of the air bubbles pop, about 1-2 minutes. This trick requires a lot of arm muscle!
Ways to Use Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
I’ve used this vanilla buttercream more times than I can even fathom, but I love it most paired with chocolate cupcakes or vanilla cupcakes. If you scale it up (slightly) you can use it to frost a layered cake, like I do with my white cake recipe. If you add slightly more heavy cream, you can use this as the base for whipped buttercream, as I recommend with my vanilla sheet cake. It also tastes delicious with:
- Lemon Cupcakes
- Confetti Cupcakes
- Vanilla Cake
- Soft Cakey Sugar Cookies
- Checkerboard Cake
- Sugar Cookie Bars
- Chocolate Cupcakes
- Piñata Cupcakes
- Sugar Cookie Cake
By the way, if you make my homemade vanilla extract, this buttercream tastes even more fantastic. 🙂
PrintVanilla Buttercream Frosting
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 2.5 cups
- Category: Frosting
- Method: Mixing
- Cuisine: American
Description
This is my favorite vanilla buttercream. It’s the perfect vanilla frosting that’s simple, creamy and smooth and tastes unbelievable on vanilla cupcakes!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 – 5 cups (480-600g) confectioners’ sugar (see note)
- 1/4 cup (60ml) heavy cream, half-and-half, or whole milk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- salt, to taste
Instructions
- With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add 4 and 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, the heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to medium-high speed and beat for 2 full minutes. Taste. Add a pinch of salt if frosting is too sweet. I always add 1/8 teaspoon.
- Adjust if needed: You can control the consistency at this point—add up to 1/2 cup more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin or more heavy cream if frosting is too thick (add only 1 Tablespoon at a time, beat together, then taste and add more if desired).
- Use immediately or cover tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer. After freezing, thaw in the refrigerator then beat the frosting on medium speed for a few seconds so it’s creamy again. After thawing or refrigerating, beating in a splash of heavy cream or milk will help thin the frosting out again, if needed.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer)
- Quantity: This recipe is enough to frost 12-16 cupcakes or a thin layer on a 9×13 inch quarter sheet cake. Follow the ratios written in this white cake for a two layer cake, or for a three layer cake use the ratios in this confetti cake.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: If your confectioners’ sugar is particularly lumpy, I recommend sifting it 1-2x before measuring and using.
- Heavy Cream: I love using heavy cream for the creamiest consistency. You can use half-and-half or whole milk instead if needed. The lower the fat, the less creamy your buttercream will be. Whichever you use, make sure it’s at room temperature. Otherwise your frosting could separate or appear grainy.
Keywords: Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
And here is my favorite chocolate buttercream recipe!
Nice texture to work with and very smooth, but I think it could use more vanilla because I could really taste the powdered sugar.
★★★★
Hi. Just like to know what if there is no powdered sugar. What can I substitute for it. I will try it today for my son’s bday tom.
Hi Marion, unfortunately, there’s no suitable substitute for the powdered sugar here. Regular sugar will leave a grainy, unpleasant texture. Best to get powdered sugar here!
How much frosting can be made with all these ingredients ?
Hi Lexi, This recipe yields 2.5 cups of frosting. See recipe notes for details.
Hi, I’m sorry I did not read through all the comments to see if this question is already been answered. But I need a crumb coat for a cake. Would this work?
Definitely!
This is glorious, as is everything I’ve made from your website. I was wondering if I doubled the standard vanilla as a base, if I could split it and add the lemon ingredients to some of it, and the chocolate ingredients to some of it to have three different types of frosting. Or, is the chocolate and lemon recipes enough different that it would be better just to make 3 separate batches? My daughter’s first birthday is coming up, and I think it’s best to make things overly complicated. 😉
★★★★★
Hi Sarah! That is definitely a great idea, but may end up being more trouble than it’s worth. Mostly because chocolate buttercream requires less powdered sugar to account for the cocoa powder so the base recipes aren’t exactly the same. You could make half batches of each if you don’t need the full amount. Would love to hear how everything goes for you!
Hi Sally, I tried this recipe and it was good. My friends and family loves it.
But for me personally it was too sweet. If I reduce the sugar, the buttercream is not as thick as it supposed to be. Is there something I can use to substitute the sugar but still maintain the consistency of the buttercream?
Thankyou 😀
~love from Indonesia ❤
Hi Lizz, for a less sweet buttercream, try adding a bit more salt (a pinch or two more). That should help cut the sweetness without altering the texture and consistency by removing some of the confectioners’ sugar. Or, you might like our Swiss Meringue Buttercream better — still delicious but less sweet than traditional American buttercream like this one. Hope this helps!
Absolutely awful, there was too much sugar and so it had like a sugary texture and was way too thick no matter how much cream I had added!
★
Hi Sally,
I plan to make the triple chocolate cake recipe (3 layers) with this buttercream recipe. So do I have to use the 3-layer cake ratio to have enough buttercream to frost the cake?
Thanks
Hi Lola, correct – use the ratios from this recipe to yield enough for a three layer cake. Enjoy!
I absolutely love this buttercream, have used it many times. Sally could I add some meringue powder or another agent to help keep this frosting more stable in the heat of the summer? Or do you have another recipe that would stand up to some heat?
★★★★★
Hi Jill, If you replace half of the butter with shortening it should be more stable in the heat! I would still try to keep it inside, or at least out of direct rays of sun, on a particularly hot day until close to serving.
I am not someone who is usually a fan of buttercream, but I thought this was delicious! Most buttercream is too oily/fatty and makes my stomach hurt, so I was a little nervous with this one as it has a good chunk of butter. Surprisingly it was very mild in the buttery-ness. Would recommend!
★★★★★
Terrible, it absolutely ruined my cake! It was insanely thick and dry, even though I used only 4 cups of powdered sugar. I’ve made American buttercream many times and have never had any issues like this. Do not use this recipe if you want useable frosting!
★
Hi Ana! You can add more cream if your buttercream is too thick. Thanks for giving it a try!
Hi Sally. Been using this recipe of yours more times than I remember and always forgot to comment and say thanks!
Your recipes are so simple and honestly my favorite thing is how you put so much detail in each recipe you use and you explain why you use a particular ingredient and how it helps with the overall recipe/presentation. Cheers!
overall the frosting tasted okay, but I have a question.. first of all my frosting turned soft and gooey, it barely held up the shape of the piping tips.. Do you know why that would happen?
★★★
Hi Bree! Next time if your buttercream is too soft you can add more confectioners’ sugar to help it stiffen and hold its shape when piped.
Hi!I was wondering if almond milk would work for this recipe?
★★★★★
Hi Halle, you can, but the buttercream won’t be as creamy.
Love this recipe, but I have a lot of leftover. Can I halve the recipe for the same great results?
Yes, you can!
Hello Sally!
Is this buttercream good to frost cookies?
If so, will the buttercream crust? I am looking for a good buttercream to frost cookies.
Thank you so much Sally!
I so enjoy your recipes ❤️
Hi Janette! This buttercream is great on cookies, but does not crust. Usually crusting buttercream uses shortening instead of all butter. This recipe will maintain it’s shape when piped but it won’t crust unless spread in a very thin layer. Here is our crusting buttercream recipe. (It’s in the gingerbread house blog post.) Enjoy!
I’ll be using this recipe for some cupcakes this weekend. I will be tinting the frosting red (Disney Cars theme); will be using the Wilton Icing color (gel-based). Does the tint alter the flavor? Should I add a little more vanilla or sugar?
Hi Mirna! No need to make any changes to the recipe.
Very good!!
★★★★★
Hi there, could you flavor this recipe? Trying to use a good piping buttercream but my daughter is requesting lemon. Thank you!
Hi Stephanie, we’d recommend following our Lemon Buttercream recipe instead. Hope your daughter enjoys it!
What brand of butter do you use? How do you get your buttercream so white?
★★★★★
Hi Heather, we know this sounds weird but a *very* tiny drop of purple of food gel food coloring will whiten your frosting!
Hi
I just tried this recipe for my birthday cake… OMG it was soooo good!! Will definitely be my go to recipe for cakes going forward!! Thank you so much for sharing!!
★★★★★
Ruined the whole cake. It pulled the cake of (the cake was cooled, so it couldn’t be that), it was grainy, didn’t spread.
★
how much do have to make for a 2 layer 9 inch cake plz I need your help. love your cakes
★★★★★
Hi Lindsy! You can use the ratios from this white cake recipe – it yields slightly more, perfect for a 2 layer 9 inch cake.
The taste is great, but my frosting ended up grainy. Did I over or under whip the buttercream? Or possibly too much or too little of an ingredient?
Hi Liz, it could simply be the brand of confectioners sugar you are using. Try sifting it before using which should help.
Hi Sally! Curious whether I could use some of this buttercream to frost the top of an ice cream cake (your recipe!) instead of the whipped cream topping? Do you think it would freeze well for cutting/eating or become too hard?
Hi Dana, You definitely could! It will soften up enough to cut if you simply place the ice cream cake on the counter for a few minutes. Enjoy 🙂
Hi Sally! Can I used salted butter then just omit the salt in the recipe? Thank you!
Hi Tin, You can use salted butter. Taste the frosting before adding salt, then add salt to taste.
Hi Sally,
Can I substitute orange extract in this recipe? I think it might be nice on a vanilla cake. I need enough frosting for a rainbow layer cake!
Thanks!
Yes you can. Enjoy!
Hi, this is probably a silly question, but I usually use milk in my frosting…I want to try using heavy cream, but all I see is heavy whipping cream..is whipping cream the same as heavy cream that I would want to use for frostings? Is there a certain brand I could look for to find just “heavy cream” and is it in the refrigerated section or a can. Thanks so much!
Hi Kellie, Not a silly question, this can definitely be confusing! Their difference is in the percentage of milk fat. Heavy cream and heavy whipping cream contain 36% milk fat and whipping cream (without “heavy” in the title!) is a little lighter with 30% milk fat.
They can all be used interchangeably in most recipes, especially frosting. The difference usually only matters but when it comes to making actual whipped cream– heavy cream/heavy whipping cream will hold its shape longer.
Thanks, Stephanie! So “heavy whipping cream” is what I want to be looking for then? There isn’t anything called just “heavy cream”? Thanks again!
Heavy cream OR heavy whipping cream will be written on the carton. They are the same thing 🙂
its so good!
★★★★★
I love love love this recipe!
Just wondering if it can be made a day in advance and stored in the fridge over night?
I need to make 60+ cupcakes tomorrow… and with two toddler assistants, I’m trying to spread the work load out if possible! lol
Sure can! You can cover the frosting tightly and tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.