The Best Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
This is The Best Vanilla Buttercream Frosting! It’s rich and creamy, and is super easy to whip up. It pipes beautifully, and is the perfect way to finish off all of your cakes and cupcakes!
We celebrated our daughter’s fifth birthday last week and even as I type this, I find myself still sitting here in a state of denial!
It seems like just yesterday I was sharing a tutorial on how to make her 1st birthday smash cake. But in reality, it was actually FOUR years ago!!!
When people say “the days are long but the years are short,” that is the absolute truth. I sure wish time would slow down with these babies of mine.
Our princess’s request for her birthday cake was a “pink cake with a ballerina on top.”
I was able to provide the pink frosting just fine, but after realizing my construction efforts are pretty subpar, I turned to Etsy for a ballerina cake topper. Which was GORGEOUS by the way! If you’re interested, this is the one I ordered.
As for the frosting, I made this one (and dyed it pink). This is my go-to frosting recipe, and in my opinion, is The BEST Vanilla Buttercream Frosting ever!
I’ve been making it for AGES so I’m surprised I haven’t shared it before!
I have another recipe for buttercream here on my site that I use a lot as well, but this one right here is my favorite because it doesn’t require shortening, and it’s SO SO delicious!
I add plenty of vanilla to give it really good flavor and it pipes onto cakes and cupcakes so well, and holds its shape beautifully! I think y’all are really going to love it!
If you share this Vanilla Buttercream Frosting or any other recipe from my site on Instagram, tag #belleofthekitchen so I can see what you’ve made! And follow me @thebelleofthekitchen, too!
Recipe: The Best Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks),, softened
- 4.5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 4-5 Tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk
Instructions
- Beat the softened butter over medium speed with an electric mixer until soft and creamy. Continue to beat over medium speed as you gradually add the powdered sugar. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed to fully incorporate all of the sugar.
- Once butter and sugar have come together, add the vanilla. Beat in the heavy cream or milk 1 Tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. This frosting is perfect for piping, or for simply spreading onto cakes and cupcakes!
Notes
If you like this recipe for The Best Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, then you might also like:
Skinny Chocolate Cake
Can you please confirm that the recipe requires 4.5 cups of powdered sugar? The video shows 4 tablespoons.
Thank you
Hi Carla, yes 4.5 cups is correct. The video is just showing the powdered sugar being added gradually.
Perfect!
Best vanilla buttercream frosting ever. I’ll never make another. This is it.
This was the BEST buttercream frosting EVER! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! 🤤
The best vanilla butter cream frosting ever! I used pure Madagascar vanilla! Using cream instead of milk made it even better. Thank you for sharing!
This recipe is perfect! Lovely flavor! Thank you Ashley!!
This is the first recipe that came up in my search so I looked no further. I reduced vanilla to 2 tsp and used salted butter to balance out the sweetness. Final product was a little heavy on the sugar. I cross checked a handful of recipes and some call for 3-4 cups of powered sugar for the same amount of butter (you’ll have to adjust your liquids as needed). I’ll try to cut back a little next time. If this is your first time making homemade frosting, you can use salted butter or add a little salt. Add vanilla to taste. Hope this helps someone.
Delicious buttercream frosting. I juice beat and added some beet juice to dye the icing pink.
Wow they weren’t kidding when they said this was the best vanilla buttercream!! This buttercream is dreamy and delicious! Thanks for sharing!
I just found your recipe. I haven’t made it yet but, it looks UH-MAZING!! And, it’s so simple with only four ingredients!! I just had one question, because I’m diabetic. I see that you listed the nutritional information; thank you for that. I was just wondering what the serving size is that fits with that info. I DEFINITELY am going to make your recipe but, I wanted to know how much I could safely use for myself.
Hi Frankie, the nutritional information is based on the frosting being divided into 12 equal servings. I would recommend using a tool like MyFitness Pal to properly calculate based on your exact ingredients (brands can vary) and then portioning it out to get a more accurate measurement!
This buttercream is absolutely delicious!! I was able to decorate 72 mini cupcakes. I used heavy cream instead of whole milk and found I needed about 8-10 tbsp to get the buttercream to the right consistency to flow nice using a piping bag. Will definitely use this recipe again. Thanks for sharing.
This is the absolute best buttercream frosting. I’ve been using it for all my birthday cakes for the past 3 years. I just make sure the ingredients are at room temperature.
Amazing!!!
It turned out super super thick. I added 6tb of cream and 1 tb of extra extract. It was barely spreadable. I not sure if I beat it too long or it needed more cream. But flavor was good. I made it work.
I think you might have beaten it too long after you added in the heavy cream. Remember, heavy cream, when thoroughly beaten, becomes butter. So, it was like just adding that much more butter instead of a liquid “loosening agent” into the sweetened buttercream.
This is the absolute best buttercream icing I have ever tasted. It is so creamy and light yet full of buttery goodness.
Thank you for sharing!
So delicious and creamy. Great with chocolate cupcakes! A great and easy recipe that goes with absolutely Anything.
Can you make this a day ahead and keep it in the fridge? Or should it be made and used to frost cupcakes the day they’re being served? Ty!
You can definitely make it ahead of time and keep it in the fridge. It will harden while it chills, though, so let it sit out on the counter for about 30 minutes to soften before you frost your cupcakes.
Made this today for my son’s Dr. Pepper cake. Everyone loved it!
I’ve made several buttercream frostings and this has been the best by far, even my kid who hates frosting liked it.
I’m not sure if it was the ratios or directions that made this one come out so much better than others, but I WILL be making this again, SOON!
Can you add strawberries to this for strawberry butter cream frosting
Hi Terry, I have a recipe for strawberry buttercream here: https://belleofthekitchen.com/strawberry-lemon-cupcakes/