Canned frosting may be what you grew up on, but you’ll be ready to make a switch when you see how easy it is to make your own homemade buttercream frosting.
Once you’ve mastered this simple vanilla buttercream, be sure to try our variations: Orange Buttercream Frosting, Lemon Buttercream Frosting, and Easy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.
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If you’re a cake fan, then you know that the frosting is what makes it amazing. Creamy, buttery, and sweet, buttercream is just that – the icing on the cake.
While it’s pretty standard to pick up a few tubs of commercial icing in the grocery store baking aisle, you’ll find that homemade buttercream is pretty amazing.
I’m amazed at how much better my cakes taste with homemade frosting. My husband and teenage son, who previously shunned white frosting because “it tasted bad”, now love it.
And if you’re looking for chocolate? Well, this chocolate buttercream frosting recipe is the bomb.
Homemade Buttercream Frosting
This homemade frosting is delicious on cupcakes as well as any birthday cake your kid might dream up. You get to control the quality of the ingredients without spending a fortune and the taste is really worth the extra effort.
What ingredients do I need to make my own homemade buttercream frosting?
Making your own takes just a few simple ingredients. Here is the simple list below:
- 1 cup butter – you want this softened so it can be easily mixed together with the other ingredients
- powdered sugar
- milk (or you can use half and half for more richness)
- vanilla extract
How to make your own homemade icing:
Does buttercream frosting need to be refrigerated?
Although this homemade icing does contain a bit of milk, it is still safe to stay out for a few days.
That said, if it’s a hot day or you prefer cold frosting, be sure to refrigerate the cake once it’s frosted.
How much frosting does this recipe make?
This buttercream icing makes the perfect amount for about 18 cupcakes – give or take depending on how much frosting you like to pile on your cupcakes.
How much does it cost to make homemade frosting?
Homemade buttercream frosting calls for basic baking ingredients that when bought at regular prices break down as follows:
- butter – $1.84 ($3.69/lb)
- powdered sugar – $1.48 ($2.99/2lb.)
- milk – $0.02 ($3.09/gal)
- vanilla extract – $0.67 ($7.99/2 oz.)
Total cost for a batch of homemade buttercream at non-sale prices = $4.01
If you shop the Good Cheap Eats way, that is shopping the best store, the sales, and clearance, you can easily get that price much, much lower.
A ten-ounce tub of frosting from the store runs from $1.50 to $6, depending on the brand and if it’s organic or not. You’d need two tubs to match this homemade batch.
So you can settle for $3 for the bargain frosting or take your cake over the top with homemade.
If you prepare this recipe, be sure to share a picture on social media and hashtag it #GOODCHEAPEATS. I can't wait to see what you cook up!
Homemade Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 3-4 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoon milk or half and half
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In large mixing bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add three cups sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, and vanilla extract.
- Beat until combined and fluffy.
- Adjust with more sugar or milk, depending on what consistency you’re looking for.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published July 12, 2010. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Coby
Homemade all the way for me!!! I have made so many different kinds of frostings for different purposes. I love homemade buttercream, cream cheeese, 7 minute, whipped, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, lemon….you name it I like it! I am all for homemade cakes too. I don’t like the aftertaste you get in the boxed mixes.
Firefly
Looks so yummy!
NancyC
I prefer homemade frosting and cakes…your recipe sounds great!
Val
I love buttercream!!!! I could eat it for lunch. Your cupcakes look adorable.
JessieLeigh
Yum to homemade buttercream! Absolutely nothing like it. Worse than the canned stuff (to me) is that Crisco-tasting mess the supermarket bakeries often use… blech! My recipe is very similar to yours except I use heavy cream in mine, because, you know, a cup of butter isn’t enough fat for me. 😉
Jessica
That’s why I never liked Buttercream. That grocery store blech.
PS. This was your first comment since the move. That’s why you were in moderation. 😉
Liz@HoosierHomemade
Thanks for taking a minute and joining Cupcake Tuesday!
~Liz
Barb @ My Daily Round
I’m a firm believer that the frosting makes the cake, or the cupcake as it were. I think Rose Levy Beranbaum (“The Cake Bible”) always said to focus on the frosting over the cake, though homemade cakes are just as good. Your recipe is very similar to one in Jean Anderson’s “American Century Cookbook.”
On Fridays, I am sharing how my family is getting back into Real Food with my Real Food Basics series. So many of our extended family members are being diagnosed with allergies, diabetes, and celiacs that I feel passionately about getting my children as healthy as possible. I am looking forward to hearing about your family’s journey!
Monica
Nothing beats homemade frosting. Although, I still use canned from time to time in order to save…time.
Liz@HoosierHomemade
Yay! We have another cupcaker amongst us! You did a great job!
I’m actually very surprised you had not been making your own frosting. Glad you gave it a go! 🙂
I would love for you to link up to Cupcake Tuesday! That would be awesome!
Thanks Jess!
~Liz
Saralyn
I come from a line of butter-lovin’ women so to me, canned frosting tastes like bug spray! Homemade chocolate cakes are very easy and come out tasty and moist. Here’s my easy-peasy standby:
No Egg Devil’s Food Cake
Mix together:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
6 Tbsp. cocoa
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
Add:
3/4 cup oil
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups cold water
Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or 15-20 minutes for cupcakes.
Julie
If you want a super easy chocolate cake, I suggest the Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate cake recipe – http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipes/detail.asp?id=184. I was introduced to this a few years ago and now it is the only chocolate cake I will make.
Thanks for the buttercream recipe – I love trying new icing recipes.
Jessica
That sounds yummy! I may have to try that out. Does it work in cupcakes?
Julie
Yes, it does work in cupcakes.
Lori
I’m gonna bookmark this one and try to substitue soy butter and rice milk and see how it comes out. DD can’t have dairy or gluten and I am going totry to make her cake this year. They have gluten free cake mixes now, but I was perplexed on the frosting. Hopefully it will come out good! Thanks
Jessica
Go girl! And tell us how it turns out!
Melissa
I use soy ingredients all the time (lactose intolerant Grandmother). You will have to adjust the ingredients a little to get the correct consistency and some brands taste better than others so if you don’t like the taste the first time try again. Also, if I have it in the house, I will use 1/2 c. soy cream cheese in place of half the butter. I have also used almond milk in the past with good results.
Tina
Traditionally real buttercream is made with part butter and part vegtable shortening. I have never liked canned frosting ever, I wont eat it. I have always made my own frosting, always. I store it in the fridge tightly sealed and it will last a long time. I do tend to use cake mix, homemade cakes seem to lack the moistness my family loves. I wish it was cool enough to bake cupcakes!
Jessica
How long do you think a straight butter batch will last?
Monica
From what I remember from my cake decorating class, the frosting will keep for 3 months in an air tight container in your pantry.
Jessica
Really? Oh my word. Who knew? In the pantry?!
Tina
I have kept mine 3 months or so in the back of the fridge. Never tried pantry.
Steph (The Cheapskate Cook)
Oh my gravy, why are adorable cupcakes suddenly EVERYWHERE!?!? I’ve never cared for them, and now my taste buds won’t stop drooling over them! Heehee. Especially the cute ones, because you’re right. Cute cupcakes taste much better. And yours are positively *adorable*.
Way to go switching to homemade frosting! Butter and sugar have to be better than partially-hydrogenated anything.
Thanks so much for sharing. Now I need to take some butter out of the freezer….
Jessica
Yes, I know! I’ve never wanted cupcakes, either. But I think the craze has finally taken me over!
Glenda
Gerk! Aggh! Bleck! Canned frosting is vile. Evil…
Erm, can you guess I was brought up on homemade frosting? 🙂 So glad you discovered how easy buttercream frosting is. It’s so good, I don’t even really need the cake (so that solves the box cake issue…).
If you like marshmallow fluff, maybe you should try 7-minute frosting next. A little more labor intensive but slap it on a white layer cake and coat the iced cake with coconut. OMG!!!!!
As far as homemake cakes go, keep in mind that the from scratch ones will generally be heavier/denser. They lack the ‘fluffiness’ of box cakes. But tasty nonetheless.
Jamie
I appreciate your tips and your encouragement to “live your wage” so I gave you an award: Blog with Substance. 🙂
Jessica
Thank you!
Kayla
I lovee homemade frosting and hardly ever buy canned anymore! I will be saving this recipe for sure 🙂
Anne
Good for you! I started doing the same thing a while back for the same reasons. I recently went a step further and eliminated powdered sugar from my pantry, so I’ve been experimenting with a variety of non-powdered sugar frosting recipes, which I blogged about back in May and June. Making your own frosting is really so much healthier and so much tastier, too!
Jennifer Dempsey
If you like the taste of creamsicles, King Arthur Flour Baking Company has an AMAZING extract called Fiori di Sicilia that is a combination of vanilla and orange extract. It turns regular buttercream frosting into an out-of-this world frosting on yellow cake. It’s wonderful in sugar cookies, too. I don’t sell for them or anything, I just found it and put it in EVERYTHING now!
http://search.kingarthurflour.com/search.jsp?N=0&rt=p&Ntt=Fiori+Di+Sicilia+-+1+oz.+%281546%29
Jessica
YUM! Thanks for the head’s up! I have a bread recipe that calls for that, but I’ve never made it the right way. Now, I have multiple reasons to go get this! TY!
Jamie
This sounds great and I love the picture – next time will you show how to use the decorating kit?! I think that will be one of my summer projects – to learn basic cake decorating!
Jessica
Well, seeing as I have only used it once, I think that would be the blind leading the blind. But we’ll see… 😉
Julie
If you are wanting to learn how to use the tools, take the Wilton classes offered at most major craft stores. I am currently taking them as my summer project and I’m having a blast. The last two months they have been half price too as the class has recently been updated.