Buttercream Frosting Recipe
Making a Bakery Style Buttercream Frosting
I received the following email from home cook Rhonda requesting a recipe for a buttercream frosting that would taste more like she has experienced at a bakery. Here is what she said,
"I am a stay at home mom that has looked everywhere for the
real sweet buttercream frosting that the bakery uses. I have looked
on-line, cook books and none of the recipe’s are right. The kids love helping me make cakes but they only like to decorate them. They do not like the frosting. If you have a recipe I would love
it. I will keep trying until I get the right one. I hope you can help. Thank you, Hi Rhonda!"
I immediately sent her request to my friend Chef Jenni Field, a professional pastery chef who graduated from Orlando Culinary Academy with her own blog called Pastry Methods and Techniques. Jenni asked for her original recipe that you can see below and offer her the following comments and recipe. (The photo above is from a birthday party my daughter attended. I was blown away at how this caked looked with its rich buttercream frosting that even include the ribbon. It’s not a great photo but I couldn’t ask the hostess to take the cake out of the box just so I could take a photo.)
Hi Rhonda,
I’m sure it must be frustrating to have fun decorating a cake with your kids only to have them refuse to eat it because they don’t like the frosting! I, personally, like almost all kinds of frosting, but I will do my best to give you some recipes that your kids will enjoy.
You said that you are looking for a recipe that tastes like bakery frosting. Unfortunately, there are many bakeries, and most of them use their own “special recipes.” It might be difficult to pinpoint the style of frosting you’re looking for, but I’ll give it a shot. Thank you for sending in the recipe you used. This gives us a place to start.
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup shortening
1/8 salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/8 almond extract
5 cups powdered sugar
4-6 teaspoons half and half
This recipe is your basic Wilton-style American buttercream. The texture can be kind of fluffy but a little bit gritty since it is based on powdered sugar. Powdered sugar contains some corn starch to keep it from clumping, and sensitive palates can pick the raw starch flavor up. Even if you don’t taste the raw starch, the texture is unmistakable—barely gritty if you rub a little between (clean) fingers.
Many icings are based on this basic American fat + powdered sugar + flavoring formula, including one of my favorites, cream cheese frosting. So, I won’t even linger at the standard American counter. Let’s wander over to another counter.
I found a modification of the standard American buttercream in The Whimsical Bakehouse by Kaye Hansen and Liv Hansen. I’ve made this before, and it is pretty tasty. The use of boiling water cooks out some of that raw starch flavor, and the resulting texture is much smoother.
House Buttercream
3 cups confectioners’’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup boiling water
1 1/3 cup shortening
3 ½ ounces (7 tablespoons) cool butter, cut into pieces
Fit your mixer with the whisk attachment. Put sugar and salt in the bowl. Add the vanilla and boiling water and whisk on medium-low speed until smooth and cool. Then add the shortening and the butter. Whisk until smooth. Then, increase the speed and whip on medium-high speed until the frosting is very light and fluffy and has doubled in volume. This could take up to 15 minutes, so be patient. You can flavor this with other extracts, as well—almond, butter, even peppermint.
If you are looking for a completely smooth and silky buttercream, look toward the European bakery counter. Europe is the home of egg-based buttercreams. The texture is light and ethereal, and the flavor of pure butter comes through. These frostings are a bit rich and not always considered “kid frostings”, but since I don’t know your kids’ taste, I’m offering these as possibilities, as well.
All of these frostings are based on whipping either egg whites, whole eggs or egg whites together with a 240-250 degree, F, sugar syrup until cool. Then, butter, salt and flavorings are whipped in. As you can imagine, the yolk-based buttercreams are the richest, and the lightest are the egg-white based buttercreams, also called meringue-based buttercreams. I think that this last type is the most kid-friendly version. Here is a basic recipe.
Italian Buttercream
5.25 oz. sugar (3/4 cup), divided
2 oz. water
4 large egg whites, at cool room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons lemon juice
3 sticks unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla or other extract
Over medium heat, bring water and ¾ of the sugar to a boil. Cover the pot and let boil for 2-3 minutes to wash any sugar crystals off the sides of the pot. Remove cover and cook until the sugar syrup reaches 248 degrees, F.
Fit your stand mixer with the whisk attachment. On medium speed, whip egg whites, salt and lemon juice until foamy. Add the reserved sugar and beat to medium-stiff peaks. Try to time this so the sugar and the whites are ready at the same time.
When the sugar has reached 248 degrees, F and the whites are at medium-stiff peaks, with the mixer on medium-high, carefully pour the sugar syrup in a thin stream down the inside of the bowl. This will prevent the syrup from hitting the whisk and getting spun around the sides of the bowl instead of into your frosting. It will also cool the syrup just a bit so you don’t risk curdling your whites. Whip until cool, about 5-10 minutes.
Once the meringue is cool, add the butter, one piece at a time. Whip until each piece is completely incorporated before adding another piece. The icing might start to look a little curdled, but it should come together nicely by the time you have added all the butter. Feel the mixing bowl. It should feel somewhat cool. If it doesn’t, cool the mixture down by either putting the bowl in the refrigerator for a few minutes before continuing to whip or by rubbing the outside of the bowl with a bag of frozen peas while mixing. Guess which one I do?! Whisk in the vanilla, and you’re good to go.
This icing will get spongy on standing, so re-whip before icing. Italian buttercream keeps nicely in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. If you do refrigerate it, make sure to bring it up to room temperature before whipping, or it will curdle. I have successfully saved buttercreams (when I’ve been too impatient to wait) by rubbing the outside of the bowl with a hot, wet towel. Don’t be like me, though. Let it come to room temperature.
You can also make a lovely chocolate variation by whipping in 2-4 oz. (this depends on how chocolaty you like your chocolate frosting) good quality chocolate, melted and cooled.
I hope that one of these two frosting recipes will get you close to your goal of having your children eat what they decorate!
on January 18th, 2009 at 12:02 am
I cant thank you enough for all your help. I’m looking forward to baking our cake this sunday. My kids are always asking to help out in the kitchen and I have enjoyed how fun and creative they get when they take turns decorating the cakes we make. This time I hope the little ones actually eat it. Of course the older kids and myself have no problem.
Thanks again
Rhonda
on January 18th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Thank you for all your help! I cant wait to try out the new buttercream frosting. The kids and I will be baking this sunday.
Thank you again,
Rhonda
on January 18th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Hope it turns out great and the cake gets consumed by everyone–frosting and all!
on January 24th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I have the old fashioned buttercream recipe with the confectionery sugar. The problem is the bakery frosting doesn’t taste like confectionery sugar but mine does. What can we do to eliminate or minimize that confectionery sugar taste.
on April 5th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I made a swiss buttercream recipe that had egg whites, sugar, butter and vanilla, and it came out great. I refrigerated it overnight and then took it out of the fridge the next morning to bring it up to room temperature so I could frost the cupcakes I made. I decided to re-whip it and all this water came out! It ended up all watery and weird. I still used it because I didn’t have anything else to use, but it was really tough to pipe it with all the drops of water. I’ve always heard you can re-whip buttercream so I was really surprised. Any ideas on what I did wrong? Thanks!
on April 9th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Elise, Swiss buttercream is made w/uncooked egg whites, so when it sits, even when it has butter whipped into it, the liquid will seep out (as you unfortunately discovered). To avoid this, make Italian buttercream instead–add sugar syrup heated to 240 degrees to whipping egg whites and whip until cool. Then add the butter. The syrup will cook the proteins in the whites and you shouldn’t have a seepage problem.
Lynda, bakeries use ingredients that home bakers can’t get their hands on, so that’s why it’s really difficult to make a homemade frosting that tastes exactly like bakery frosting. Having said that, I assume that you don’t want to taste that sort of chalky/raw corn starch flavor that confectioners sugar can have. Here’s a link to a pretty good buttercream in which you dissolve the confectioners sugar in boiling water. This helps to minimize the raw starch flavor: http://www.pastrychefonline.com/Simple_Buttercream.html
Hope this helps:)
on May 28th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Thank you very much for posting this easy-to-make recipe! It really helped me, and it is very much like a bakery-style frosting…tasty, too! I made an adult themed cake for a bachelorette party and needed something that was easy to spread; this was it!
Tip to other users: I made flesh-colored frosting by mixing food dye in a separate, small bowl then slowly adding a few drops of it at a time to the basic white frosting from this recipe. My concoction was 8-drops Yellow, 6-drops Red and 1-drop Green…mixed in a small bowl by itself. Again, add a little of the mixed dye, at a time, to the white frosting to achieve the desired flesh-tone richness.
on June 4th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
jfield,
Yum! The Simple Buttercream recipe is wonderful! I can’t count how many different frostings I have tried and never used again. I am hooked on this one!
on December 13th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
I read that the Italian buttercream will get spongy on standing. Will this still happen if I frost my cupcakes the day before I serve them?
Hi Tiina, I’ll have to ask my friend and pastry chef Jenni to come answer this one. RG
on January 9th, 2010 at 11:50 am
Italian buttercream can indeed get spongy on standing, Tina. It’s really only a problem if you let it sit before you ice whatever-you’re-icing. If you do have to let your buttercream sit for a day or two, re-whip it to bring back the creamy, dreamy texture. If you don’t, it will be very hard to spread and look kind of clumpy and stupid.
Once you spread it, though, it will maintain that look. The flavor and mouthfeel will be fine, even if you ice your cupcakes well in advance. They might even be a little less messy to eat since the icing will have had a chance to “cure” a little.
Jenni
on March 11th, 2010 at 3:21 am
Does the simple buttercream form a crust? I have been searching for a frosting that tastes like a bakery and I would love to try this one. I prefer to use a BC that crusts though. Thanks.
on March 11th, 2010 at 8:44 am
Good question, Kristie. To make the Wilton-style simple buttercream frosting form a crust, you need to add some meringue powder. Guess who makes it? Wilton! You can also use powdered egg whites. Use 1 tablespoon per cup of fat (shortening/butter). It will work better w/shortening since butter will tend to leach liquid at room temperature. Use butter flavored shortening to get the best of both worlds. Just know that your frosting will be pale yellow and not white.
Thanks Jenni for this explanation - RG
on June 5th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
HI! I wanted to ask if you could make a video on how to make the frosting you use for your cakes. I’ve searched all over but i can’t seem to find a good frosting on my cake. All the ones I’ve used usually are too sweet too thick or not thick enough.I would really appreciate it!
I will ask Chef Jenni. - RG
on July 7th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Oh my gosh, the tip given by Gwen on how to make flesh coloring for white frosting was AWESOME! It really works, could not have found this site at a better time,needed to have flesh colored frosting for a baby shower cake. Thanks so much for sharing your tip!!!!!!!
You are very welcome Missy - RG
on July 7th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
how much icing do these recipes make? I need to do a wedding cake.
on July 13th, 2010 at 6:24 am
Hi, Kim–These recipes are all roughly scaled for a 9″ cake. The best resource I know of for scaling up and having enough frosting for a wedding cake is in The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I believe Wilton has a chart as well.
on August 14th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
The cake in the picture above looks like it was covered in fondant not buttercream frosting? I’m baking a cake right now and am going to try one of these for the frosting, I’ve been looking for a bakey style buttercream frosting for awhile.
Hi Margie, please let me know how it turns out. - RG
on August 26th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Thankyou. I’m looking for a rich, thick and creamy frosting for a Chocolate Kahlua cake I’m making