Two Essential Frostings: Buttercream and Meringue

Frosting, the Finishing Touch to your cake

What you coat your cake with is as important as the cake itself. As timeless as they are delicious, buttercream and meringue are two of our favorite frostings.

There are many buttercream options for frosting your cake, such as Flour Buttercream with a pudding base that is added to beaten butter, French Buttercream made with egg-yolk foam, German Buttercream with a custard base, and Italian Buttercream with an Italian meringue base. Made with butter, confectioners’ sugar, and heavy whipping cream, American Buttercream is our favorite. Enhance our basic recipe with a variety of classic flavors, or take your icing to the next level with our Italian Meringue Frosting, Swiss Meringue Buttercream, or 7-Minute Frosting.

Basic American Buttercream
 
Makes about 5 cups
Ingredients
  • 2 cups (460 grams) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 (2-pound) bag (907.2 grams) confectioners’ sugar
  • ½ cup heavy whipping cream
  • ½ teaspoon (1.5 grams) kosher salt
Instructions
  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter at medium speed until creamy, 5 to 6 minutes. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar, cream, and salt, beating until smooth.

 

Try out these flavor variations for our Basic American Buttercream recipe:

Vanilla Bean Buttercream: Add seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean.

Strawberry Buttercream: Add ¼ cup finely chopped strawberries. (If mixture begins to separate, add more confectioners’ sugar, ¼ cup at a time.)

Cream Cheese Buttercream: Reduce butter to 1½ cups (345 grams), and add 8 ounces softened cream cheese. Beat together butter and cream cheese until creamy before adding remaining ingredients.

Lemon Buttercream: Add zest of 2 lemons and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. (If mixture begins to separate, add more confectioners’ sugar, ¼ cup at a time.)

Chocolate Buttercream: Add 1 cup (108 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

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4 COMMENTS

    • Hi Pavi, thank you for reaching out! Two pounds of confectioners’ sugar (how we buy the sugar in the United States) equals about 8 cups unsifted to 9 cups sifted powdered sugar. Hope this helps. Happy Baking!

  1. Swiss Meringue Buttercream: Your directions have 2 different instructions for what to do with egg whites.

    Also, you do not include 1/2 cup water in ingredient list, but call for it in recipe directions.

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