Vanilla Buttercream Icing
This is the perfect vanilla buttercream frosting recipe for any occasion!
Published: April 26, 2021 · Modified: March 11, 2024 by Jennifer Ryan
This is my go-to vanilla buttercream icing recipe. I use this recipe to fill, ice and decorate many of my cakes and pastries. This is a recipe I got from my grandma when I first left home and wanted to bake cupcakes. She told me this recipe was fool-proof and even I couldn’t mess this one up. She, of course, was right and the buttercream came out perfect the first time, I’ve been using and sharing this recipe ever since. I love you grandma xx
This buttercream recipe is super simple to make and requires only 4 ingredients. Buttercream is perfect for icing, celebration cakes, topping cupcakes, and even filling biscuits. Buttercream frosting is a classic choice for piping decorations on cakes and cupcakes. It’s creamy, sweet, and easy to work with. The best buttercream frosting for piping should be thick enough to hold its shape, but still soft enough to pipe easily. To achieve this, we use a high-fat butter.
How many calories are in buttercream?
If you’re on a diet to try and lose weight, a recipe for vanilla buttercream frosting is not your friend. As, 2 tablespoons of buttercream contains roughly about 140 calories. Buttercream is made from sugar and butter, so you shouldn’t be surprised by the high calories. But if you still want the buttercream-topped cupcake, you’ll need to go on a long walk afterwards. For a person weighing about 140lbs you’ll need to walk for about 40 minutes (3mph) or run for 20 mins (6mph) to burn off the calories*. Cupcakes can be a great motivator for exercise lol.
What is the difference between vanilla frosting and buttercream?
Vanilla frosting is a type of icing usually made with sugar, vanilla extract, cream cheese or heavy cream or sometimes butter. It is typically light in color and has a smooth, creamy texture. Buttercream is a type of icing made with butter, sugar, and milk or cream. It is typically thicker and richer than vanilla frosting, and can be used to pipe decorations on cakes and cupcakes. It’s also usually a little sweeter than vanilla frosting and can be flavored with extracts or liqueurs.
Changing things up
This is a simple buttercream frosting, it’s perfect to use as a base for many different cakes. You can easily change up the colors by adding in a few drops of food coloring and stirring well until the color is well incorporated. Here are a few ways to add some flavor to your buttercream icing.
- Lemon zest and a table spoon of lemon juice
- Orange zest and ½ teaspoon of orange extract
- Stir in a couple of tablespoons of strawberry puree
- Add I pinch of pumpkin spice (this is perfect for topping carrot cakes)
- Stir in a good dollop of your favorite jam
- Add a tablespoon of alcohol, peppermint schnapps, rum, whiskey or even a coffee flavored liqueur.
If you’re wanting your icing to turn out whiter, you can buy white food coloring. Also use clear vanilla extract.
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Vanilla Buttercream Icing
Equipment
Ingredients
- 600 g Icing sugar
- 300 g Unsalted butter room temperature
- ¾ tbsp Vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp Salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl add your unsalted butter and using a k paddle attachment (not whisk) on your mixer cream the butter; this will take a few minutes.300 g Unsalted butter
- While the butter is mixing sift your icing sugar into a separate bowl.600 g Icing sugar
- Once the butter is completely smooth, slowly add in half your icing sugar and mix until combined.
- Add in your salt and vanilla extract and mix.¼ tsp Salt, ¾ tbsp Vanilla extract
- Then add in the other half a bowl of icing sugar and mix until completely smooth. You may need to scrape the bowl down a couple of times to make sure that all the ingredients are well combined. That’s it, my "go to" deliciously simple buttercream frosting.
Notes
Nutrition
2 thoughts on “Vanilla Buttercream Icing”
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This is the same buttercream recipe I used on my vanilla triple layer cake and cake of dreams recipe. You can find both of these amazing cakes in the dessert section.
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*the calories eaten vs the calories to burn for the buttercream were worked out by API not myself. So the math may not be 100% accurate.
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Simple but delicious thanks.
Thanks Bet, you can’t go wrong with a good dollop of buttercream icing.