Classic Vanilla Buttercream
This flavorful Classic Vanilla Buttercream Recipe is one of our favorites! It couldn't be easier to make, and it is so delicious. Keep it in mind the next time you need a flavorful frosting for your cake recipes and buttercream cake designs!
Table of Contents
Why we Love it
There are so many reasons to love this delicious vanilla buttercream! Here are just a few:
- Delicious and SO easy to make
- Perfect for piping
- It can easily be changed up with add-ins, extracts, and an adjustment here and there ;0) - A few examples are our Oreo Buttercream, Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream, Strawberry Buttercream, and Peanut Butter Buttercream!
- Develops a very light crust, which is great for those who use the Viva Paper Towel Method of Smoothing. Also, the Hot Knife Method of smoothing works great with this vanilla buttercream also!
How to Make Vanilla Buttercream
You can find the full, printable recipe card for this vanilla buttercream at the bottom of our post!
This frosting, which is known as an American Buttercream, is a simple combination of softened butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, and a splash of milk.
Allow the frosting to mix for a few minutes to reach the best, creamy consistency. If you'd like to thicken the consistency of the frosting, (for piping buttercream roses, etc.) you can add a bit more confectioners sugar.
To thin out the frosting, you can simply add small amounts of milk.
Textured Buttercream
Of course, your frosted cakes don't have to be perfectly smooth. We love textured buttercream as well as the look of piping all over a cake.
Our classic vanilla buttercream frosting is versatile enough for just about any sort of buttercream cake or cupcake design you can think of.
Here are just a few of our free cake tutorials that demonstrate simple texturing and piping techniques: Ridged Buttercream Technique, Buttercream Petal Cake, Cascading Rosettes Cake, and Looped Ribbons of Buttercream.
Piping
If you are interested in learning more about piping borders or different piping techniques, make sure to check out our section of Buttercream Techniques, which features a section on Buttercream Piping.
There, you'll find tutorials on piping with star tips, piping with round tips, piping with ruffle tips, and more! All of these techniques can be done with today's Buttercream Frosting recipe.
Recipe FAQs
Classic Vanilla Buttercream (Crusting Recipe)
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (226g) Should still hold its shape but dent when pressed.
- 5-6 cups confectioners sugar (690g)(You can adjust amount slightly up or down to your liking.)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g) (For whiter frosting, you can use clear imitation vanilla)
- ⅓ cup milk or cream (72g) (Adjust amount as needed to reach desired consistency.)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
Instructions
- Cream the softened butter until smooth. Blend in the vanilla.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and most of the milk. Beat at medium speed until the powdered sugar is incorporated.
- Add remaining powdered sugar and milk and mix at medium speed another 3 to 4 minutes scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Then, slow down the mixer to very slow for 1 to 2 minutes. This will help eliminate air pockets in the buttercream. The texture will become very smooth.
- This recipe can be doubled or halved.
- Yields approximately 4 ½ cups of frosting. Enough to frost a two layer 8 or 9 inch cake.
- Can be frozen in air tight container for at least three months . Thaw on countertop.
- If your buttercream is too thin, add more sugar. If the consistency is too thick, add a bit more milk.
Thanks BeBe!! Are there any recipes that you prefer hi ratio? Now that I have it, I want to use it! But it's so expensive that I want to use it on a recommended recipe. Any recommendations? Thanks again!
We use it most often with the Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream recipe, using high ratio instead of Crisco. https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes-tutorials/fluffy-vanilla-buttercream/
Hi Melissa! I am wondering which recipe you would recommend to pipe the "fur" on these monster cakes. My DIL doesn't want a real sweet icing, but I have to use what will work. She is in AZ and the temp inside where the party is will be 75-77 degrees. Thanks for your help! I doubt a SMBC would work in that temp. Is that correct?
Sorry for the second post! I meant which of your recipes would you recommend and does it have to be a crusting buttercream to do this? It will be refrigerated Friday night till Saturday at noon. Thanks for your help!
Hi Gloria, We do not use SMBC very often just because we prefer the American crusting buttercream. I think you could use SMBC in that temperature, but I think you would get the more defied look of fur with a crusting buttercream. You could use the Classic Vanilla recipe above, keeping the cake refrigerated or in an air conditioned area until the outside event would be fine. Also, the Fluffy Buttercream recipe, https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes-tutorials/fluffy-vanilla-buttercream/ that has only 1 stick of butter plus shortening would work well. In both recipes I would add 1 teaspoon of salt, preferably popcorn salt because of its fine grain to cut the sweetness since your DIL wants less sweetness. Also you can decrease the amount of sugar by 1 cup possibly more and still have a crusting buttercream (more sugar means a firmer crust). Just give it a test with your piping tip to see if you get the look you are going for. Hope all goes well
Hello, I am a new member and am looking forward to trying to get a smooth buttercream look which I have never been able to achieve with my current buttercream recipe.
I was wondering if I could substitute something in place of the milk and would this give it a longer shelf life than the 3 days?
Thanks
Whenever I make buttercream, it stays grainy, even after mixing with a oddly attachment, in a mixer for over 10 mins.....what am I doing wrong
Sorry, meant paddle attachment
Hi Lee-Ann, I am sorry we missed your question. Always feel free to repost your question or email us at info@mycakeschool.com. To get a longer shelf life for your buttercream you could use all shortening instead of butter and water instead of milk. When leaving out the butter you will want to add some butter flavoring to the recipe. The buttercream will crust much more quickly when using water so you will need to work a bit more quickly when smoothing. Hope this helps.
Hi Helena, Does your bag of powdered sugar say Pure Cane Sugar? If it does not, it is made with beet sugar and this can give your buttercream a grainy feel and taste. I don't know what brands you have available to you but we use Dominos brand. We used to also use Dixie Crystals with no problem as it was also made with pure cane sugar and cornstarch. However, we began to notice that when we used Dixie Crystals brand our buttercream would be grainy. Our conclusion was even though both brand list cornstarch and cane sugar, Dixie Crystals must have changed its ratio of the two ingredients. So now we only use Dominos. You will need to experiment to find which brand of pure cane sugar works for you. It is also a good idea to beat the butter and/or shortening about 4 minutes to warm it up a bit before adding the powdered sugar. Here is a link to a Forum discussion on this, there might be other helpful info there, https://www.mycakeschool.com/message-boards/search/grainy+buttercream/
Hi Thank you so much, this has helped me a lot. I did beat the butter until it was really soft, and gradually added the sugar, then let it beat for a good 10mins, and then beat it some more....to no avail!!.....couldn't understand what I was doing wrong!!.I am in the UK, and almost all supermarkets sell Silver Spoon sugar, which is made from UK beet, not cane, which must be why I was having so much trouble!!. Tate & Lyle makes theirs from cane, but have now added maize, which according to a lot of reviews from professional bakers, is not as good and many are now looking elsewhere for a different product. Why do these company's do this?!!. Think I will look on cake decorating suppliers to see if I can find some there, thank you so much
Could I use whip cream instead of milk?