Vanilla Whipped Buttercream Frosting

Elevate your treats with this easy vanilla whipped buttercream frosting recipe with just simple steps to make a velvety-smooth frosting that adds a touch of vanilla goodness to your cakes and cupcakes.

Jump to:

• What is Whipped buttercream?
• Why we love this recipe
• More Whipped Frostings
• Ingredients Notes
• How to Make Less Sweet Whipped Buttercream Frosting
• Storage and Freeze instructions
• Recipes Variations
• Tips for this recipe
• Buttercream alternatives
• FAQ - Frequently Asked Question
• Whipped Buttercream Frosting

What is Whipped buttercream?

This whipped buttercream frosting is simply my lighter, less sweet version of the very popular and traditional buttercream frosting recipe.

Made primarily from butter and confectioners' sugar, the whipped version adds a higher content of heavy cream to make the frosting even more fluffy and creamy.

This perfectly textured whipped cream buttercream frosting is ideal for decorating all your cupcakes, layer cake, brownies, cheesecakes, and cookies. It's the recipe to remember for elevating all your desserts without needing a pastry degree."

Why we love this recipe

• Only 3 basic ingredients, butter, confectioner sugar and whipped cream.
• Easiest, fastest, and most foolproof frosting, perfect for baking beginners.
• Stable and hold its shape for a long time, perfect for birthday cakes, wedding cakes, piping cupcakes, smooth cakes, cake decorating and more.
• Easy to flavor to any taste (see recipe variations section).

More Whipped Frostings

Ingredients Notes

• Butter: Use unsalted butter with at least 80% fat and softened at room temperature, for a lightly salted version use semi-salted butter.
• Sugar: Use extra fin sugar like powdered sugar, icing sugar, or confectioners sugar. Don't use granulated sugar, as it may result in a grainy buttercream with a not-at-all-smooth texture.
• Heavy cream: You can use heavy cream or heavy whipping cream.
• Vanilla: As an option, pure vanilla extract adds a delicious flavor to this plain frosting, or you can use the seeds of a vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste.

Useful tools: Use preferably a stand mixer, for the power of the mixer or even an electric mixer perfect for small quantities.

You will find the quantities and complete instructions in the recipe card at the end of the page.

How to Make Less Sweet Whipped Buttercream Frosting

Beat the butter

• Place softened butter cut into pieces in the mixing bowl of an electric mixer or in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment.
• Whip on high speed until butter turns white for about 3-5 minutes, it increases in volume and is very creamy with a fluffy consistency.

Tip: Beat the softened butter for at least 5 minutes. The more you beat the butter, the whiter the buttercream will be.

Add confectioner's sugar

• Add the sifted confectioner's sugar to the creamy butter in batches while leaving the mixer running at medium speed and until incorporated.
• Add the vanilla extract and heavy cream and whip on high speed for a further 5 minutes or so, until you have a fluffy buttercream frosting is thick and smooth.

*Classic buttercreams generally have 3-4 times more confectioners' sugar than butter, but here there's only twice and the texture remains creamy and firm.

Storage and Freeze instructions

In the fridge: Whipped buttercream can be stored in the fridge under plastic wrap or in an airtight container for up to a week. After refrigeration, allow it to come to room temperature before whipping again.

Room température: American buttercream is also known to be stable at room temperature for up to 48 hours, but always in a cool, sun-free place.

How to freeze: It can be stored in the freezer in an airtight container or in storage bags for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw completely before whipping again.

Recipes Variations

Add nut butter: Easily add nut butter like peanut butter, almond butter or others to have a delicious nutty flavor.

Fresh fruits: like fruit puree (rather than fruit coulis so as not to alter the texture) such as a strawberry puree, strawberry compote like in this strawberry buttercream, raspberry compote, blueberry compote, etc.

Cookie Crumbs: chocolate chip cookie crumbs, biscoff cookies, Oreo cookies, and more.

Natural flavors: Lemon juice, lemon extract and lemon zest, orange juice and other citrus fruits, or almond extract, rose water, almond blossom water.

Spreads: like chocolate Nutella spread, Lotus biscoff cookie butter spread, strawberry jam, lemon curd and more.

Chocolate version: Unsweetened cocoa powder or melted chocolate for a chocolate buttercream frosting.

Food coloring: To color the buttercream use gel food coloring, the purple neutralizes the yellow and gives a whiter cream.

Tips for this recipe

1. Take the butter out of the fridge 30 minutes before! The texture of the butter is important, it must not be cold otherwise the cream will not be homogeneous or melted otherwise the cream will be runny.
2. Beat the butter for at least 3-5 minutes! The butter should be whipped until it increases in volume and has a lighter color.
3. Sift the sugar! For a better blend of all ingredients.
4. Beat on high speed for at least 5 minutes! When sugar is well incorporated add another 5 minutes of mixing to whiten the buttercream.
5. Finish with the paddle attachment! After so much mixing at high speed, a lot of air has been incorporated into the buttercream and to get a smooth texture it should be mixed gently for at least 2 minutes.

Buttercream alternatives

This buttercream is certainly the easiest recipe, but it's also the simplest because it's made from 2 ingredients: butter and sugar, which makes for a rather fatty and sweet frosting.

Here are some other frosting recipes for a change from classic buttercream:

Lighter: Choose a simple whipped cream chantilly or a mascarpone whipped cream, which is my ultimate choice between firm and a light and fluffy texture. (With just cocoa powder you can make this chocolate mascarpone frosting)

Softer: Meringue-based buttercreams are more fluffy and less sweet in the mouth like this Swiss meringue Buttercream , Italian meringue Buttercream or French Buttercream (Easily to flavor like this white chocolate Swiss buttercream)

More intense and rich: With chocolate ganache-based frostings, such as milk chocolate ganache and white chocolate ganache.

For novice bakers: Diplomat cream, a combination of pastry cream and whipped cream, or German buttercream, also known as crème mousseline.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Question

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