Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream
This delicious Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream Frosting is crusting recipe that is perfect for cake decorating! This American Buttercream is similar to our Classic Vanilla Buttercream recipe, however, it has a lighter, fluffier texture due to the shortening in the recipe.
Table of Contents
Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream: A Crusting Recipe
- What is a crusting buttercream? As the name suggests, crusting frostings like this one develop a very thin crust when exposed to air. In as little as 5-10 minutes, a cake frosted in a crusting buttercream can be lightly touched without removing any of the frosting. Beneath that thin layer, the frosting remains soft.
- Many cake decorators love to use the "Viva Paper Towel method" of smoothing when working with crusting buttercreams. Simply frost the cake, sweep around the sides and top with your spatula (or bench scraper) of choice, and then allow it to sit for a few minutes before smoothing over it with a paper towel.
- (Viva brand paper towels are a popular choice for this paper towel method of smoothing because it has no quilting or impressions.)
- You can find more information on this method of smoothing here: Leopard Print Buttercream (using the Viva Paper Towel Method).
Helpful Hints
- This Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream frosting contains both butter and shortening. Because of the shortening, it is slightly more heat resistant than an all-butter frosting recipe, and it is lighter in color than an all-butter buttercream recipe.
- If heat is more of a concern, you could switch to an all shortening (no butter) frosting recipe like this one: High Ratio Frosting. All frostings will melt if the weather is hot enough, but shortening certainly is more resistant than butter.
- If you are looking for a crusting frosting that does not contain any shortening, we love our Classic Vanilla Buttercream recipe also. You can find it here!: Classic Vanilla Buttercream.
- We often use clear vanilla in our buttercream frosting recipes because real vanilla gives vanilla buttercream more of an off-white or ivory color. However, this may not bother you! It simply comes down to personal preference or the design of your cake.
Does Brand of Confectioners Sugar Matter?
** Important note about the sugar: We’ve had great results with Domino’s confectioners sugar and US Sugar (we buy ours from Costco). Some brands of confectioners sugar don’t work as well with buttercream frosting recipes. If a package doesn’t say pure cane sugar, it contains beet sugar which is more likely to give you a grainy outcome.
In addition to that, we’ve noticed that even some brands that say “Pure Cane Sugar” will give a grainy consistency. So frustrating! One example is Dixie Crystals (although it used to work great for us a few years ago.) Something has changed…it’s a mystery. Anyway, this recipe should not be grainy, and so if it is, experiment with a different brand of confectioners sugar.
Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. confectioners' sugar 910 g
- ½ cup 1 stick (113 g ) unsalted butter softened (soften on countertop rather than microwave for best results)
- 1 ½ cups solid vegetable shortening such as Crisco or Trex 286 g. or 10 oz. by weight. ** If using hi ratio shortening, see below)
- 2 Tablespoons clear vanilla extract 24 g
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon butter flavoring if you are leaving out the butter and using all shortening
- ¼ teaspoons lemon or almond extract 1 g OPTIONAL
- ¼ cup milk 57 g any milk is fine but I like milk with higher fat content. You could substitute water too (See below)
- ½ teaspoon salt to cut the sweetness. We use popcorn salt because of its fine grain. If using table salt you can dissolve it in the milk before adding.
Instructions
- Cream butter, shortening , salt and extracts until creamy and smooth.
- Add powdered sugar and milk. Mix thoroughly on medium speed for approximately 8 minutes. For the last two minutes decrease the mixing speed to VERY SLOW ( number 2 speed on a KitchenAid) until creamy and smooth. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally during the mixing process.
Notes
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Hi Terri, The amount is before sifting. However, sometimes when opening a new plastic bag of confectioners sugar it will not need sifting. The amount of confectioners sugar given in the recipe will vary, you may need a bit more or less depending on where you live and the humidity.
I weigh the powdered sugar then sift
BeBe and Jenny, thank you both very much!! I LOVE this site!!!!!!??
This sounds delicious! Will I be able to pipe "monster fur" with this recipe? I plan to use the grass tip for one cake and star tip 18 or 21 for the fur on the second cake. Will this be stiff enough to hold up? Thanks!
Hi Gloria, Yes, it will be stiff enough for your piping. The stiffness will vary due to the heat and humidity in your area. If it is not stiff enough, just add more powdered sugar until it is the consistency you need.
I have a question. My icing gets greay while on the cake after a day or so and I ont refrigerate due to drying out. so is there something I'm doing wrong?
I meant greasy. lol
Will this icing be snow white in color? If not, would adding some Americolor bright white gel paste help? Thanks
Hi Deborah, It does look white, but is not perfectly white because it has one stick of butter. It would be fine to add Americolor bright white if you would like to.
Hi! I used this recipe as frosting for my daughter's birthday cake, wondering if you can help me troubleshoot as to why when I tried piping rosettes it literally fell off the cake? At one point half the cake of rosettes fell off. I ended up mixing an all butter-buttercream and it eventually stayed on the cake. I want to use this recipe as it tasted good and the colour was a nice white for a wedding cake I'm going to be making soon.
Thanks!
Hi Alexina, I'm sorry that you had trouble with the rosettes falling off! Were you piping rosettes all over the cake? Next time I would crumb coat the cake and immediately start your piping. This will help the rosettes to attach a bit better than if you were trying to pipe onto a fully crusted crumb coat. If this wasn't your situation, then it could be that the frosting was a little too stiff to properly attach (you could just add a bit more liquid). Or, finally, it could be that the rosettes were attaching partially to the rosettes beneath it rather than to the cake itself and the weight eventually caused sliding. I hope that this helps!
Thanks for the reply! I think it was a combination of those you mentioned of crumb coating and too stiff. Yea the whole bottom tier was covered in rosettes. I didn't apply the rosettes right away once I crumb coated, I wasn't sure if it needed time to 'set.' I will definitely do this next time. I'm not sure if I read it here or somewhere else but to apply this recipe of crusting buttercream to a room temperature cake, that if it's cool the buttercream will not crust like it's supposed to? Can you please confirm this?
Thanks so much!