We really liked this recipe. It was actually my first attempt at homemade frosting. I used butter flavored shortening as suggested and I used half and half instead of milk and didn't have to use 1/4 cup to get it to spreading consistency. I used the kitchen aid and beat for about 15 min. Oh and I forgot the salt. It is sweet but it's frosting!!! I'll use it again I'm sure.
I used butter in place of the margarine and cut the sugar back to 4 cups instead of 5. I have a sweet tooth, but my husband doesn't. This recipe managed to please us both. Very easy to spread also. Thanks, I'll never have to use store bought frosting again.
Great! I didn't have any shortening, so I used half margarine, half butter. Used the full five cups of sugar and it's pretty sweet, but not unbearable. Great texture. Mmmmmm.....
I made this with all real butter - no margerine, no shortening. But no other changes. It was smooth, creamy, easy to work with, and set up well. Not at all too sweet. Perfect amount to cover a 2 layer cake.
This frosting was fantastic! I used it for a dozen cupcakes for my sons birthday party (I used a generous amount on each cupcake and there was still plenty of icing left over). Everyone raved over it! I did make a few alterations though. I used 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup butter flavored shortening. I used a little more vanilla (about 2 tsp) and much less powdered sugar (about 3 cups). I also used about 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream in place of the milk. I beat it really well until it was nice and smooth and fluffy. I made it the day before I made the cupcakes and refrigerated it overnight in a container then let it sit out until it was close to room temperature before icing the cupcakes. Delicious!!!
My whole family loved this frosting. I have had a really hard time finding one that my husband likes, but this one can and will be used on every kind of cake in our home. Thanks! UPDATE: I made this frosting again today but added 1 cup of cocoa and 1/2 cup of milk (instead of what was called for in the original recipe). YUMMY! I prefer the butter cream verses the chocolate butter cream, but my daughters on the other hand choose the chocolate.
i substituted milk for 35% cream ...i know ...i know...bad for you, but you are eating cake so may as well make it good lol!
This is amazing! Easy and quick to get together. It is creamy, fluffy goodness! I used butter, butter flavored shortening , and 1% milk, which is what I had on hand. I used this to fill chocolate chip cookie cups which worked perfectly!
I love this recipe! It's great for cookies, cupcakes and bar cookies too. I use the butter flavored shortening and it gives it an extra buttery flavor. Everyone raves over this frosting. Great texture and hardens perfectly for decorating.
This recipe is FANTASTIC, however, I reccomend using unsalted butter instead of margarine. I think that margarine doesn't taste as good as butter and it doesn't harden well.
YUM! I added a tsp. almond extract and 1/2 tsp. vanilla as someone else mentioned and it was addictive! Everyone loved this frosting! Thanks Kris!
Just like momma used to make! This is how all of our cakes were frosted when I was a kid. Thanks for bringing back some great memories. Yum!
This was by FAR the BEST butter cream Frosting I have ever made!!!! I will DEFENITELY make again!! It was sssssso easy to make yet INCREDIBLY DELICOUS!! although I cut it in half and used 1\4 C. real butter and 1\4 C. Shortening instead of Margrine turned out PERFECT!!
This frosting is beautiful because it is so smooth, fluffy, and light. Very easy to spread. Perfect sweetness, but a little greasy for my taste. Maybe I'm not used to the shortening.
this frosting is THE BEST! i doubled the recipe because i had ALOT of icing to do. this was super easy to make, and tastes delicious!
This will be the only buttercream recipe I will use from now on. i usually used the recipe on the back of the C&H box, it calls only for butter. I've never been happy with the way it turned out. Unlike this one the texture was great, not to sweet or greasy. Hard to believe w/ the 1/2 a cup of butter & shortening!:). I used it to top the fudgy chocolate cake recipe from this site. Best cake & frosting combo.
Great recipe! I was a little worried about how it would come out because frosting and I don't have a good history (!), but I had no trouble at all. I wouldn't change a thing.
This frosting is great! While mixing, i would taste to make sure that it wasn't getting to sugary, I found that 5 cups of sugar would have been too much and even 4 cups of confectioners sugar (powered sugar) was a tad to much. Nonetheless, the frosting was perfectly smooth and delicious!!
Oh my goodness, this was way over sweet and way to gritty. I did everything to a t on this recipe. I will be looking for another one.
This recipe was perfect with the moist yellow cake I did a search on. Both the cake and the frosting were moist enough for my brother, who had oral surgery, and had a tender mouth to eat. I would definately use this recipe again!
Cut this recipe in 1/2, and it turned out beautifully. Perfect for piping. Will use many times. Would go great on just about any cupcake or cake. I used to top the mini chip cupcakes from this site.
I had to make cupcakes for my daughters class and I used this frosting. The kids loved them! Heck I loved them...lol. It was really easy and tasty. Taking pity on my daughter's teacher, I did decrease the sugar to about 3½ Cups(25 kids on a sugar high is my idea of torture). I also used all butter which came out a little heavier than I would have liked, this is probably why the recipe calls for margarine and shortening. I'll have to try it that way, as well. Thanks for a great recipe!
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!! I didnt have shortening on hand so I just used butter. Cut back a bit on the sugar and it was excellent! Added chocolate powder at the end and doubley good. Cant go wrong here!
Great consistency, doesn't melt like others I have tried, but a little too sweet. This recipe makes a ton of frosting, so it's perfect for decorating!
I use this recipe to frost The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies (found on this site) and the combination is great. I am constantly asked to make the cookies. The frosting is a key part of that.
too much vanilla for my liking. cut back on the vanilla and this recipe would be amazing.
Excellent consistency but this is REALLY REALLY sweet. I prefer a frosting not as sweet so I'll keep looking.
Success! After several failed attempts, this recipe yielded a nice light, fluffy frosting that spread easily... and didn't taste "crunchy" from the powdered sugar. I used my Kitchenaid for the heavy work in this recipe. I let the margarine and shortening cream for a few minutes, then added part of the sugar. When that was mixed, I added the vanilla, salt, and milk, then the rest of the sugar. I added in a few drops of food coloring (which distributed well- not streaky or grainy). I let the whole thing mix on a medium speed until it was nice and smooth. It doesn't taste *exactlly* like bakery frosting, but it's the best I've ever made! It made enough to generously frost a 9x13 cake.. with plenty left for bowl-licking!
Tastes great and very simple to make. I did find though that the recipe as written was great for piping but a little too stiff for icing. I added a little extra milk to thin it down for icing.
This is the first time I have made any type of frosting, and it turned out perfectly for my son's bday cake. I used butter instead of margarine, and 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp almond extract. I also sifted the sugar. I made this the night before I decorated my son's cake, put it in the fridge overnight, and was then able to use it after about 20 minutes in room air with a pastry bag and tip (first time ever decorating a cake as well!). The frosting worked very well, held its shape, and tasted great, per everyone's review at the bday party! I would highly recommend this recipe and will be using it again.
great icing to work with, halved the recipe and turned out great...great for piping, thanks!!
Delicious!!! This recipe is perfect. I used it to make a baseball field cake for my friend. After I had frosted the cake, I kept sticking my finger in the bowl of leftover frosting so I could eat it. This recipe is good because the frosting dries up a little, holding its shape and not sticking to everything that touches it.
I've been testing frostings this week and this one wasn't our favorite. Good side- it was fluffy,creamy, and easy spread. For a medium consistency on cupcakes, use less milk.
I like this recipe because it is easy and adjustable. I used butter instead of margarine, and cut the confectioners sugar to 4 cups. I tasted it after adding the sugar, and decided that while it wasn't "tooth-pain sweet", it was a nice light sweet that complimented my cake very well. I'd recommend using the butter, and tasting as you go with the sugar so you can stop when it's sweet enough for YOU. Thanks for the recipe...I'll be using it from now on!
I added a little more milk as I was blending. I almost mixed for about 7 mins and it was very easy to spread.
I doubled the recipe so I could color part of it to decorate my cake. I didn't want to run out but probably could have made a single batch. Had about 2 1/2 cups left over(some white some colored). I also added almond extract. This is my new favorite frosting recipe. EXCELLANT!!
I used butter instead of margerine. This turned out a fabulous buttercream that spread beautifully on my 9x13 yellow cake. No complaints here!
VERY easy! VERY yummy! I didn't have vanilla so added a squirt of maple syrup...was delish on the frosted banana bars from this site!!
This frosting was the best I ever made and was so easy. Definitely a keeper!
I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfect - wonderful thick consistency, but still easily spreadable.
this is the oddest, and sweetest (not in a good way) frosting i have EVER tasted. my advice is to add WAY less powdered sugar.
This is a superb recipe, I only used 4 cups of sugar and lemon flavor instead of vanilla and it is more than enough. This is a keeper!!!
My first time making frosting, and it turned out really great. The great thing about this frosting is you can actually control the consistency of the frosting... add more milk to make it thinner, less milk to make it thicker. A little sweet for me, but when I added a cup of cocoa, it all evened out. Yum.
I had to make a super quick frosting this morning and this is the one i had all the ingredients for. I love it. I didn't have margarine or shortening so i just used all butter. It tasted wonderful. I did ad about 1/4 cup of merange (sp) powder to help stiffen it up. my only suggestion is to refridgerate for about 1 hour before using if you are going to decorate with it. I also added 8oz of cream cheese to half the batch for a second cake. It turned out to be one of the best cream cheese frostings i have ever made. I will defately use this as a base for my frostings from now on.
Bless your heart, Kris—you just saved me a good bit of trouble with excellent results! Will use repeatedly. Halved recipe, replaced milk with lemon and vanilla extracts, and liquid food coloring. Pipes beautifully. Thanks to the writer who described how she did it with her KA; I followed in your steps.
THE BEST EVER!!! sums it up!!! it was hard to keep my familys fingers out of so i could really frost a cake!!! my son always just asks if i will make him the frosting! verrry good... thanks kris!
This is a great recipe and very forgiving of substitutions. For the chocolate variation mentioned already, I cut the shortening by half and used more butter; I also used half and half instead of milk. Lovely flavour and texture -- and everyone loved it! Thanks!
This recipe is just right! I made a few changes b/c of the ingredients I had on hand - all butter instead of butter/shortening and heavy whipping cream instead of milk. Will use this recipe for frosting from now on.
WOW! All around 5 stars! Simple to make, includes ingredients I always have on hand, and most importantly, it's delicious. The only change I made was to use 1/2 heavy cream, 1/2 milk. Perfect!
This is very good. It does need to be beaten a few minutes to incorporate the sugar, but it's very light, fluffy, and perfect on a dark chocolate cake. I've used it on the Black Magic Cake from this site and it's wonderful! I won't buy icing in a can anymore!
it was ok but i wouldnt use it on cake again, its more suited for cookies
WOW!!! This is the best butter cream ever! The only thing I did different was add a tad bit more milk. That was because I wasn't going to do any piping with it, so I wanted it a little creamier. I could have eaten the whole bowl of frosting by itself! I almost forgot, I also used butter and butter-flavored Crisco.
This was great! So easy to make, too. It really did taste like the kind at the bakeries. I used just a little less milk than called for - you can always add more if you need to. Thanks for the recipe!
I used this frosting on the White Almond Wedding Cake recipe and it was great. It was a very easy recipe.
Just make sure to beat it really well! I didn't actually have 5 whole cups of confectioner's sugar, it was more like 4 3/4 cups! :D But it tastes awesome! My dad loved it! I put it on sugar cookies and they are very tasty if I do say so myself. I definitely recommend! (Oh and I actually used 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of shortening and a touch of butter flavoring. And we only have skim milk so that's what I used.)
Yum! Easy, and a great way to break in my new mixer. I left it at 4c of confectioner's sugar and added a small amount of cinnamon to complement the apple cake it was meant to frost, and it tastes far better than store-bought frosting and even better, it makes enough for leftover frosting to nick tastes of with a spoon!! YUM!
If there were six starts I would rate it six!! This recipe is absolutely incredible!! The only things I changed were that I used evaporated milk (I ran out of regular milk) and I used one cup of shortening instead of 1/2 and 1/2. Also I had to add additional milk, the mixture was too thick. But wow, what a result. I feel like I can open a cake shop with this recipe.
This was really good frosting! I used butter flavored crisco & butter. Next time I think I might up the butter portion and add a bit less of the crisco. Don't get me wrong it was great I just think it need a slight tweak. I also added 1tsp almond extract and 1tsp vanilla. Got great reviews from everyone!!
I was looking for a frosting that was more like the store quality. This was it. Was a little nervous at first but finished result was amazing. I followed recommendation s from previous comment and used whole milk and butter flavored crisco. Will use this recipe again forsure. the best ever.
Edit : I am now giving this recipe 5 stars as the next day it was SO much better. Even I liked it! It was perfect on my cookies and cream cupcakes. ----------- I really don't like buttercream frosting in general, but I made this for my partner who loves it from his childhood. I changed the servings to 18 (3/4 of the full recipe) to frost 12 large cupcakes (very large). It was the perfect amount. I made these substitutions: Butter instead of marg. Otherwise it'd be far too much processed fat for my tastes. I only used 3 cups of sugar instead of 3 + 3/4 based on everyone's reviews. It was still incredibly sweet. I used "butter" crisco because that's all the store had. I added more pure vanilla extract because at first it tasted too much like fat and icing sugar. This worked well to give it a better flavour. The consistency at this point was very greasy and not near firm enough so I added approx 1/2 cup of fine flour (a spoon at a time). I beat it for about 5-8 minutes and it became incredibly fluffy. I wasn't so keen on the final product for eating but it piped beautifully and my partner really enjoyed eating it.
I used butter and butter flavored crisco and amarretto instead of vanilla. even my daughter who abhors cake icing loved it.
Really good! I also used butter instead of margarine. I didn't use all powd. sugar, it was already desired consistency at 4 1/2 cups! Made lots of creamy buttery frosting! Thanks Kris!
Very good recipe. Tastes a lot like the Wilton butter cream, but a bit creamier and more butter flavor. I used it on cinnamon rolls and it paired nicely.
Finally...at "LONG LAST"...a Butter Cream Frosting Recipe that is a real "KEEPER"!!! I've been looking for a good basic bakery frosting with NO Eggs...and this one is it !!! Turns a golden color...very pretty. Good texture also. Didn't think it was too sweet "AT ALL"...I'll be using this recipe often!! Thanks Kris for sharing it !!!
Good Tasting! I will make this again, but I will make sure I have an electric mixer on hand next time. It was tough to mix by hand. Thanks
This was great. I've made it a few times and no longer measure the powdered sugar - just keep adding until the consistency is right. The keys are use room temp ingredients, add a little almond extract, substitute butter for the margarine, and whip, whip, whip for a long time with a stand mixer. The consistency just keeps getting better the more you whip it.
Smooth and fluffy, but a little too greasy for my taste. The other reviews said this recipe made A LOT of frosting, so I decided to half this recipe. It still made a lot of frosting, but overall, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be.
It's got way too much sugar for just 1/2 cup of butter ! If I make it again I would cut sugar down to 1 cup for 1/2 cup butter.
Amazing. I did make some changes. I heated the frosting to help blend it together. I then mixed it as it cooled. This gave it an amazing texture. That is the only thing I changed. Oh yeah I used butter flavored crisco. Simply Amazing!
This frosting doesn't joke around. It's thick and rich and seriously sweet. I added 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to cut the sweetness a bit. I used it to frost my christmas cookies this year and everyone loved them. All in all, this is a wonderful recipe!
Yummy! I made this for Christmas and it was a hit! I did two 9" round pans and used the frosting as a filler between the two, then I did a 'crumb coating' and that was all the frosting. So I had to make another batch. If you are planning on decorating a cake with this, like I did, then I suggest doubling the recipe. Another thing, it comes out an almond color, so maybe clear vanilla for a white color? Thanks for this recipe.
This is an excellant frosting recipie. It was yummy, easy to spread, fluffy and rich. It does taste just like the store bought kind. It also makes a lot of frosting. But, you can always put some in the frige or freezer for later. I beat mine with a handmixer on high speed for about five minutes.
Great recipe. Used this to ice a Halloween cake. Creamed unsalted butter and Crisco for 5 minutes with KitchenAid. Would be hard to cream with a lesser machine I think. Used 4 cups sugar, 1/2 tsp almond extract, and 1 tsp vanilla. The humidity in the house did not seem to impact the icing.
Needed a basic and simple frosting - this was perfect. I followed the measurements but used what I had on hand such as I used real butter, high ratio shortening (highly recommend it!) and buttermilk. I did not need the full 5 cups of confection sugar. I added a full 1/4 tsp (maybe more) of salt to balance the sweetness. I blended my butter while very cold adding in alternate amounts of sugar and buttermilk. Once the butter was well combined I added the high ratio shortening and whipped it until light and fluffy. I added the remainder of the buttermilk and enough sugar so that I had stiff peaks forming. I chilled the frosting for 30 minutes and placed in a piping bag. This step made for very easy piping and the designs had great detail showing. I chilled the decorated cupcakes and the frosting crusted nicely. The frosting was not overly sweet as I did not use all the sugar, added more salt and used buttermilk. Will use again.
I was amazed at how this frosting turned out. The consistency was perfect and it tasted great. I will NEVER buy frosting in a can again!
i used butter instead of margarine otherwise made as stated. very easy. may cut back on sugar a bit next time.
this is the best ever homemade frosting. i loved it so much i emailed it to my mother. easy and creamy and just wonderful.i also tried something different. i used half vanilla extract and half rum extract. it was divine.
Easy recipe to follow. I made it with butter instead of magarine because I wanted a stiffer frosting for decorating and it worked. Will definitely make again.
Outstanding!!!! This recipe was super easy and super delicious. I was in search of a simple but good icing recipe that I could use as an alternate to cream cheese icing. Believe me I love cream cheese icing but I just wanted a change. This recipe indeed tastes like the butter cream frosting in bakeries. I might even attempt to make my son's birthday cake in a couple of months opposed to buying one from the bakery. I feel confident it will turn out A-OK.
I used real butter and shortening and it was just like what you get at a bakery. It had a nice texture and was easy to spread. I also doubled it to fill and frost a 9x13 birthday cake.
Excellent! It's not to sweet like most frostings. This is now my go to frosting recipe. Thanks for sharing!
this is a great frosting recipe. the frosting works well dyed pastels with food coloring. however, i used it to make 12 cupcakes, and i cut the recipe for frosting in half. it worked well, so i would say a full recipe easily frosts 24 cupcakes. :)
Really good! I had to add a little extra milk to make it workable, but the texture and flavor were perfect. They dried to the touch in just 30 minutes. To make sprinkles stick really well make it thinner.
This is the best Butter Cream Frosting EVER!! I too used butter shortening and butter instead of margarine. It was a little thick for my liking so I added a little more milk and it was perfect! This will be the frosting i use from now on.
Love this frosting! I doubt I will ever use "just another" butter frosting! (I used butter and shortening.) Thanks so much for the recipe Kris!
My 4 kids and I fell in love with this recipe!! Takes no time at all and keeps wonderfully in the fridge!!! Thanks Kris for another wonderful recipe that shows it can be done at home!!!
Everyone was right! this rocks!! It was prefect for my daughters birthday cake. Tastes great to!! very similar to a recipe I lost. Was happy to find this one!
