Classic American Buttercream Frosting

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

Classic 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. Please, 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 Easy Homemade Chocolate Cupcakes or Homemade Classic Yellow Cupcakes. These are my two favorite cupcake recipes!

They’re the only cupcakes I make for events, parties, birthdays, and picnics. They are crowd pleasers too – everyone loves them!

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.

Buttercream frosting can come across as overly 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.

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. 

Print Recipe

Classic American Buttercream Frosting

Classic American Buttercream Frosting is a quick and simple sweet 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 frosting

Servings: 15 cupcakes

Calories: 185kcal

Author: Heather

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
• 3 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3-4 tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions

• In a large bowl, add room temperature butter and vanilla. Mix to combine. 
• 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 heavy cream a tablespoon at a time and continue mixing until desired consistency is reached.
  
• Pipe or spread frosting with a knife onto cupcakes and serve.

Notes

Recipe will make enough to frost about 15 cupcakes (as shown in photo), a 9x13 sheet cake, or an 8-9 inch two layer cake. Double recipe to make high, dramatic cupcake frosting, or for adding decoration to your cakes.

 

A good rule of thumb is to always have extra frosting rather than too little. 

Nutrition

Serving: 0g | Calories: 185kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 0g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 28mg | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 2mg | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 6.6% | Calcium: 0.5% | Iron: 0.1%