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
This is, by far, the best frosting ever!! I use it for every occasion. And we always have leftovers, so I freeze it in small cups and my husband eats it like ice cream! 🤣 is there a way to make this chocolate? Like add cocoa powder? Or something?
Glad to hear that, Kati! I’m working on a chocolate version!
I just melt chocolate chips and put the melted chocolate into it. I cannot have milk so I use almond milk instead of cream or milk its very good.
I’ve learned to replace 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar with chocolate cocoa. That works well
yes if u added some cocoa powder it would prob be good chocolate 😁
Can I not use a mixer I don’t have one ?
You could make it without a mixer, but it would be a lot harder to mix. The butter needs to be very soft and you may need just a bit of extra milk.
So easy to make, and my son thought it way tastier than the stuff you buy in a can. Thank you for the recipe!
Awesome works well for cakes too!
Hi I was wondering if this recipe could be used to decorate cakes? I’m making my brother his birthday cake, and I want it to turn out amazing.
Yes! It’s perfect for decorating and pipes well!
My 8 year old son loves to bake & we’ve used this recipe several times for making icing. It is the best!! We just made this icing a couple days before Christmas & used it to decorate cut out sugar cookies. It was fantastic on the cookies as well. I’ve printed this one to save to my recipe book. I will never buy icing from the store again!!
Very good frosting
Can I use a food processor for beating?
Looks deelish!! How long will this keep for (wondering if I can make it 2 days in advance of using?)
excellent taste and easy to make. I used this to decorate my favorite Christmas sugar cookies. It was a big hit. Thank you!
This is the best frosting! I use it for sugar cookies. My adult son said it’s the best I’ve ever made. Always a hit with the girls in my Wednesday night church clasd for our Christmas, Valentine’s and Easter parties.
This is by far the best buttercream I have tasted. It is not too buttery and not too sweet. It is just perfect! Thank you for sharing!
Wow, so good and so easy to make. Could sit and eat it with a spoon!
Agreed… and I definitely did 🙂
Amazing!!!! Will use this going forward! Thanks!!
This is it! My search is over. This will be the only frosting I will ever use. I just used half the sugar. I really like the consistency. Thank you!
This recipe is excellent. Upon going through the reviews I decided to taste the frosting closely as I gradually added the sugar and did indeed end up feeling like it was perfectly sweet at only 3 cups of sugar. Other than that minor modification it was excellent.
Loved it! What is the shelflife of this frosting? I’m using it for a cookie cake and I am assuming three days is typical or week in the fridge. But definitely had questions because of the milk.