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Home » Recipe Type » Desserts » Cakes
4.9 from 104 reviews

Buttercream Icing for Cupcakes (Vanilla and Chocolate)

5 minutes
By: Pamela Reed
Posted:6/23/21
Updated:1/16/24
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The best buttercream icing for cupcakes and cakes. Includes both vanilla and chocolate frosting recipes. You only need 4 ingredients: butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla and milk. Recipe will frost 24 cupcakes or a 9×13 cake.

Buttercream Icing for Cupcakes

This is our absolute favorite cupcake icing for all our birthday cupcakes and cakes. The result is a very fluffy, sweet frosting, perfect for spreading or piping on cupcakes.

My decorating skills aren’t the best, but this buttercream icing makes everything always look better. Top with your favorite sprinkles or crushed cookies and you have gorgeous looking cupcakes!

In this post I’ll show you how to make vanilla buttercream frosting using 4 ingredients, but I’ll also give you instructions on how to make chocolate icing and colored icing (any color you want!). This recipe makes enough frosting for 24 cupcakes or a 9×13 cake (or a dinosaur birthday cake!), but can easily be adjusted to make more if you need it.

If you love this buttercream icing make sure to check out my German chocolate cake frosting, brownie frosting and cream cheese frosting too!

How to Make Buttercream Frosting

You will need butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, and milk for this recipe. Let’s talk about 2 quick things.

Butter: I prefer salted butter as it balances out the sweetness, but you can use salted or unsalted butter for this recipe. Both will result in delicious frosting. You want softened butter for this recipe, not melted. I pretty much never have room tempeature softened butter, so I throw it in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften it up.

2 sticks of softened butter in bowl.

Vanilla Extract: If you want pure white frosting, make sure to use clear vanilla.

hand holding clear vanilla flavor.

In a large bowl mix butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract and milk until very fluffy. This takes a few minutes, so be patient while it becomes light and fluffy. I personally use my electric hand mixer, but you can use a stand mixer if you have one too.

spoon filled with buttercream frosting in bowl.

Once frosting is fluffy, spread on cupcakes, cake, or sugar cookies. This frosting is also great for piping bags if you want to make frosting swirls on cupcakes.

piping bag filled with frosting with cupcake next to it.

How to Make Chocolate Icing

Want to make buttercream chocolate icing? Add 1 1/4 cup cocoa powder to the bowl when mixing to make chocolate frosting.

How to Make Colored Icing

To make colored icing add 3-6 drops of food coloring to the icing when you mix it. If you’re going for pastel, start with 3 drops. If you’re going for more bold and bright colors, 5-6 will be how many drops you want.

For this pink frosting I used 4 drops of this pink food coloring, topped with star sprinkles.

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4.88 from 104 reviews

Buttercream Icing for Cupcakes (Vanilla and Chocolate)

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The best buttercream icing for cupcakes and cakes. Includes both vanilla and chocolate frosting recipes. You only need 4 ingredients: butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla and milk. Recipe will frost 24 cupcakes or a 9×13 cake.
By: Pamela Reed
Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes minutes
Total Time 5 minutes minutes
serves 24

Ingredients

  • 1 cup salted butter softened
  • 4 cups confectioners powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract use clear vanilla if you want pure white icing
  • 2 tablespoon milk

Instructions

  • Add butter into a large bowl and cream with electric hand mixer for 1 minute. Add powdered sugar into the bowl, one cup at a time, and mix until fully combined. Add vanilla and milk and continue to mix until very fluffy, about 2-3 more minutes.
  • Spread (or pipe) on cupcakes, cake or sugar cookies. Enjoy!

Notes

Want to make it chocolate frosting? Add 1 1/4 cup cocoa powder when you add in the confectioners sugar.
Want to make it colored frosting? Add 3-6 drops (depending on vibrancy) of food coloring  when you add in the milk.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: buttercream icing
Did you make this?I love seeing what you’ve made! Tag me on Instagram at @BrooklynFarmGirl and don’t forget to leave a comment & rating below.
The BEST Cupcake Frosting

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4.88 from 104 votes (79 ratings without comment)

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  1. Stacey says

    October 23, 2025 at 10:34 am

    Can I frost the cake and cupcakes 1-2 days in advance and store in the fridge ? If so, how should I store them to keep the frosting fresh? Thanks

    Reply
  2. Elizabeth Lyon says

    October 5, 2025 at 5:14 pm

    So easy! So quick! So delicious!

    Reply
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Hi! I'm Pamela, an artist Mom who shares family recipes. My farm is a 1,000 sq ft apartment in NYC. Let's make dinner together.

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