Name: Classic American Buttercream Frosting
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 18 cupcakes
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (room temperature); 4 cups confectioner's sugar; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1/4 cup heavy cream (or milk)

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American Buttercream Frosting is a quick and simple frosting to top your next batch of cupcakes. Four ingredients are all you need to make this creamy, sweet, and rich vanilla frosting.

American Buttercream Frosting is a quick and simple frosting recipe. American buttercream is made using butter and confectioner’s sugar, and there is no cooking involved.

This means you can whip up a batch of frosting in minutes with just a few, simple ingredients.

No more of the canned, store-bought cake frosting. Make your own – it tastes infinitely better and takes very little effort.

Try this buttercream frosting on my Homemade Chocolate Cupcakes or Homemade Classic Yellow Cupcakes. These are my two favorite cupcake recipes.

A Less-Sweet American Buttercream Frosting

American buttercream can be extremely sweet. Because of this, I like to add heavy cream to my buttercream frosting. The cream helps tone down the sweetness, and it helps the frosting whip up into a light and fluffy consistency.

I also use slightly less confectioner’s sugar than the standard recipe, because I don’t care for the overly sweet taste of buttercream frosting. You should find that my American buttercream is creamy, rich, and not too sweet.

I also have an amazing Chocolate Buttercream Frosting that’s a great choice for chocolate lovers. It is the chocolate version of this buttercream frosting recipe – sweet, rich, and chocolate-y.

How to Make American Buttercream Frosting

For this recipe, you’ll need room temperature butter. You’ll want to set out your butter 1 to 2 hours beforehand so it’s softened when you’re ready to make your frosting.

If you forget to take out your butter beforehand, slice it into small pieces and set it out on the counter. This will help it warm up to room temperature faster.

For this recipe, you’ll need room temperature butter, confectioner’s sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract.

In a large bowl, add your room temperature butter. Whip until creamy.

Then, add your confectioner’s sugar and starting slowly, mix until incorporated. Turn up the speed and whip until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Last, add your vanilla extract and heavy cream, then whip another 1 to 2 minutes, or until light and fluffy.

If needed, adding more confectioner’s sugar will thicken your frosting, and adding more heavy cream will thin your frosting. Buttercream is generally very forgiving, so you can add more ingredients as needed.

How Much Frosting Do I Need?

This recipe, for 18 cupcakes, calls for 3 sticks, or 1 1/2 cups of butter. I find it easiest to adjust the quantity of butter in the recipe, then adjust the rest of the ingredients to match.

6 cupcakes, or 12 cupcakes with thin frosting: 1/2 cup of butter.
12 cupcakes, or a 6 inch round layer cake: 1 cup of butter.
18 cupcakes, or an 8-9 inch round cake: 1 1/2 cups of butter.
24 cupcakes, or 10 inch round layer cake: 2 cups of butter.
A 9×13 pan cake will fall somewhere between 12 and 18 cupcakes worth. Without decorations and a thin layer of frosting, make enough for 12 cupcakes. With decorations or a thick layer of frosting, make enough for 18 cupcakes.

If you’re unsure, I’d err on the side of caution and make extra frosting. There’s nothing worse than running out of frosting halfway through decorating a cake!

In the recipe card below, hover over the serving size. A bar will pop up, allowing you to change the serving size and measurements to what you need.

These measurements will also work for my Easy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.

If you don’t have heavy cream on hand, milk can be substituted. However, I highly recommend grabbing some heavy cream for this recipe. I also like adding heavy cream to my skillet meals (like this, this, or this) to make a creamy sauce.

Cupcake Recipes

This frosting is so versatile, it will work on any of my cupcake recipes! Check them out below:

Classic American Buttercream Frosting by The Toasty Kitchen

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5 from 2 votes

Classic American Buttercream Frosting

American Buttercream Frosting is a quick and simple frosting to top your next batch of cupcakes. Four ingredients are all you need to make this creamy, sweet, and rich vanilla frosting.

Prep Time5 mins

Total Time5 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: american buttercream

Servings: cupcakes

Calories: 251kcal

Author: Heather

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream or milk

Instructions

In a large bowl, add room temperature butter, beat until creamy, about 1 minute.
Add confectioner's sugar and slowly mix until ingredients are fully combined. Then, whip at high speed for 2-3 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla extract and heavy cream, then whip until fluffy, another 1 to 2 minutes.
Pipe or spread frosting with a knife onto cupcakes and serve.

Equipment

Hand Mixer

Mixing Bowls

Measuring Spoons

Measuring Cups

Notes

How much frosting do I need? (you'll also need to adjust the amount of the other ingredients, just using butter as an example):

6 cupcakes, or 12 cupcakes with thin frosting: 1/2 cup of butter.
12 cupcakes, or a 6 inch round layer cake: 1 cup of butter.
18 cupcakes, or an 8-9 inch round cake: 1 1/2 cups of butter.
24 cupcakes, or 10 inch round layer cake: 2 cups of butter.
A 9x13 pan cake will fall somewhere between 12 and 18 cupcakes worth. Without decorations and a thin layer of frosting, make enough for 12 cupcakes. With decorations or a thick layer of frosting, make enough for 18 cupcakes.

This recipe is slightly less sweet than a traditional buttercream frosting, because I use less confectioner's sugar. If you'd like a traditional, very sweet buttercream, add up to 2 cups more of confectioner's sugar (ex: 1 1/2 cups of butter and 6 cups of confectioner's sugar).

Nutrition

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