Sturdy Buttercream Frosting (Great for Decorating)

Busy Mama Recipes



I know there are a million recipes out there for buttercream frosting, but I get asked for a recipe a lot. This one is my favorite because it tastes good and is still stiff enough to decorate and tends to not "melt". IT doesn't taste like sugar or food coloring, like a lot of decorating frosting tends to do.  It is not a traditional recipe, if that is what you are looking for. It does contain some cream cheese, but not enough to be called a cream cheese frosting.

I use my KitchenAid stand mixer and make large batches at a time. The recipe below yields enough frosting to frost and "stuff" a two layer cake, with leftover to make decoration flowers. Today I decorated three dozen cupcakes and had enough leftover to do almost a dozen more. The reason I don't like making small batches of frosting is because if the mixer isn't full, air gets whipped into the frosting and it creates bubbles... not good if you want smooth, decorating frosting.

3 cups salted butter at room temp
8 ounces room temp cream cheese (to stabilize and add flavor)
1 1/2 cups vegetable shortening (for stabilizing)
6 cups powdered sugar
2 tbs milk or heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract

Whip the butter, cream cheese and shortening until smooth. While continuing to mix, slowly add the powdered sugar. Add the milk (one spoonful at a time, and only if necessary) and the vanilla. Chill until you're ready to use.

Photo:  Monster cupcakes for my one year old son's monster themed birthday in February.  The frosting looked like this for a week before the rest of the cupcakes got eaten.  No melting, no running- even with the added food coloring.  I bought the candy eyeballs at Safeway.

Immediately prior to use, re whip in the mixer to prevent the frosting from becoming too hard to pipe.  The cream cheese and shortening are optional, and you can substitute butter instead. However, adding the shortening makes the frosting less "meltable". The cream cheese adds just enough flavor to make it not taste like butter, and also creates stability and helps keep it from melting or becoming soft.