Buttercream Frosting Recipe

This is my favorite creamy and fluffy buttercream frosting that is perfect for piping and decorating cakes and cupcakes. Tint with food coloring for any occasion. This recipe post explains everything you ever wanted to know about the basic Buttercream Frosting! I am a cake artist and this the buttercream frosting I use when I make buttercream frosted novelty cakes. You can see some of the Novelty cakes I have made for orders. 

Vanilla Buttercream frosting

Ingredients

100g salted butter (softened)

100g vegetable shortening* (see Notes)

1/4 tsp vanilla powder 

2 tbsp condensed milk 

600g confectioners sugar / icing sugar 

Directions

1.  Sift icing sugar twice and keep it aside. (This is a very important step when it comes to hassle free piping.)
2. Beat the butter and the shortening together in a large bowl until soft. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth. (Use a good quality vegetable shortening like Crisco)
3. Finally add the condensed milk and vanilla powder along with the rest of the Icing sugar and beat well until smooth and creamy. (Using a very quality vanilla powder will enhance your buttercream taste. So always use a good quality vanilla powder. Do not use liquid vanilla since the buttercream will be too runny.)
4. After beating, using a wooden spoon or spatula, stir and mix the buttercream to break the air bubbles formed while beating. You can add any gel colour at this stage. 
5. Transfer the buttercream to piping bags and use for piping. You can also use this to sandwich cakes.

Notes

• If you want to use this frosting to cover a cake before piping, add 2 tbsp hot water to make it very light and runny. When covering a cake, the buttercream should be very soft and quite runny. It is easy to pipe on buttercream than directly piping on the cake or cupcakes. 

Chocolate Buttercream frosting

Ingredients

100g salted butter (softened)

100g vegetable shortening 

1/4 tsp vanilla powder 

2 tbsp condensed milk 

500g confectioners sugar / icing sugar
100g unsweatened cocoa powder

Directions

1.  Sift cocoa powder and icing sugar twice and keep it aside. (This is a very important step when it comes to hassle free piping.)
2. Beat the butter and the shortening together in a large bowl until soft. Add half of the icing sugar mixture and beat until smooth. 
3. Finally add the condensed milk and vanilla powder along with the rest of the Icing sugar mixture and beat well until smooth and creamy. 
4. After beating, using a wooden spoon or spatula, stir and mix the buttercream to break the air bubbles formed while beating. 
5. Transfer the buttercream to piping bags and use for piping. You can also use this to sandwich cakes.

Notes

• Always use a good quality butter like Anchor butter or Highland butter and a good quality vanilla powder. 
• You can always adjust the ratio of butter and shortening. (For example you can use 150g of butter and 50g of shortening). 
• Adding shortening makes a frosting that will stand up a little better in warm weather. Otherwise your buttercream will start to melt which will make it difficult to frost.