White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Learn how to make sweet and creamy white chocolate buttercream frosting with this easy recipe. Although it looks plain, the frosting is made with melted white chocolate, so there’s extra flavor hiding in each creamy swirl. The frosting is very rich and wonderfully thick, so it holds beautiful shape when piped. Try it on vanilla cupcakes with raspberry filling!

One reader, Amy, commented: “I don’t usually write reviews on any recipe that I’ve tried, but today—yes. This is the best buttercream icing ever. I’ve tried so many different ones and they just fall short. Today was different—this one was all that and then some… I’m still licking my fingers. ★★★★★”

One reader, Fred, commented: “This is the perfect frosting for pretty much anything. I used it on my first ever wedding cake for our granddaughter. It frosts so smoothly and pipes exquisitely… ★★★★★“

Move aside, vanilla buttercream and cream cheese frosting, and make way for the new white frosting in town. (I still love you both, though. There is room in my heart—and my kitchen—for all the frostings.)

But maybe you’re tired of the same ol’ vanilla frosting. And while I love cream cheese frosting, I know a lot of people in other countries have trouble making it, because it’s not always easy to find brick-style cream cheese outside the U.S. So I wanted to publish another option for a delicious white frosting that tastes good on a variety of desserts.

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Why You’ll Love This White Chocolate Buttercream

• Extra creamy and rich from melted white chocolate
• Holds shape when piped
• Spreads easily onto baked goods
• Can tint it a color (see it colored on top of these white chocolate peppermint cupcakes)
• White chocolate tastes great with so many different flavors

If you love white chocolate, you’ll enjoy these white chocolate strawberry cupcakes too. I add freeze-dried strawberries to make a delicious strawberry white chocolate frosting on those!

Grab These 6 Ingredients

1. White Chocolate: For the best flavor and texture, we need real white chocolate. Do not use white chocolate morsels or candy melts here—get the real-deal bars of white chocolate.
2. Unsalted Butter: Start with room temperature butter. Room temperature butter is cooler than you think. If the butter is too warm, the frosting will be thin and taste greasy.
3. Confectioners’ Sugar: We’re using less confectioners’ sugar in this frosting than we do in vanilla buttercream, because the white chocolate is already sweet.
4. Heavy Cream or Half-and-Half: Liquid thins out and adds even more creaminess to the frosting. You can use heavy cream or half-and-half. Milk works in a pinch.
5. Vanilla Extract: Vanilla extract adds incredible flavor.
6. Salt: A pinch of salt offsets all the sweetness.

Best White Chocolate to Use in Frosting

The best white chocolate frosting starts with real white chocolate. Do not use white chocolate morsels because they contain stabilizers preventing them from melting into the correct consistency. You need the bars of “baking chocolate” found in the baking aisle near the chocolate chips. I like Baker’s and Ghirardelli brands, which come in 4-ounce bars. You need 6 ounces of white chocolate for this recipe, so you’ll use 1 and 1/2 bars.

Start by chopping up the white chocolate and placing it in a microwave-safe bowl. (I usually use a glass liquid measuring cup.) Microwave it in 20-second increments, stopping and stirring after each increment. The short bursts of heat allow the white chocolate to melt without burning. Once it’s completely smooth, set it aside to let it cool at room temperature for about 20 minutes.

The rest of the recipe is similar to making regular vanilla buttercream or strawberry buttercream, and you’ll add the cooled melted white chocolate during the process. You’ll need a handheld or stand mixer.

It looks like vanilla buttercream, but it’s silkier, smoother, and has an extra-rich flavor. You’ll love it.

What Tastes Best With White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting?

White chocolate pairs beautifully with so many flavors, like chocolate, raspberry, lemon… the list goes on and on! This recipe makes enough for 12–16 cupcakes, a 3-layer 6-inch cake, or a 9×13-inch quarter vanilla sheet cake. I recommend you 1.5x the recipe for a 2-layer cake.

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