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.
Vanilla Extract: If you want pure white frosting, make sure to use clear vanilla.
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.
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.
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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Buttercream Icing for Cupcakes (Vanilla and Chocolate)
PrintIngredients
- 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 colored frosting? Add 3-6 drops (depending on vibrancy) of food coloring when you add in the milk.
Patty Z says
I cut this in 1/2 and there was plenty of frosting … wanted to make both vanilla and chocolate frosting … plenty leftover … Can you freeze?
Pamela Reed says
Yes, you can absolutely can. Just scoop the frosting into smaller portions, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap, and place the wrapped bundles in a freezer-safe bag or container. Label and freeze for up to 2–3 months. When you’re ready to use it, let the frosting thaw in the fridge overnight or at room temperature for a few hours. Once softened, give it a good stir before spreading or piping. Hope this helps!
Jeanne says
Awesome recipe! Thanks for sharing!
Kathy Benish says
This turned out perfect! I substituted 1/2 & 1/2 for the milk because I only had 2% & I wanted it rich tasting. Thank you.
Morgan says
Going to use this recipe but add in pureed fresh strawberries…..we will see how it turns out. Fingers crossed 🙂
Pamela Reed says
That sounds sooooooooooooo good! Enjoy!!
Brandy Farbrother says
For some reason mine did not “fluff”? Any suggestions? Thank you
blaire says
so yummy
Tara says
I made this icing for my homemade funfetti cake and OMG it did not disappoint. It was exactly what I needed and balanced the sweetness of my cake perfectly. Thank you for a easy recipe.
Hannah Alber says
I love this recipe so much it never fails to impress me. It’s the fluffiest and tastiest frosting I have ever made!
Kelly Carper says
Delicious and easy!
Bonnie Maxson says
This turned out really well. I added red and yellow food coloring for Halloween. Plus sprinkles.
Rachel Jacobs says
Can You Make This Frosting A Day A Head/Or Evening Ahead & Used The Next Day On Cupcakes.?
Pamela Reed says
Yes, you can! Just keep in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Tammy E says
This is so good and easy. It did end up being a little sweet for my taste so I added 2 ounces of cream cheese. It turned out perfect. Next time I will just try using a little less sugar.
Jenn says
This is my go to buttercream for cupcakes and sugar cookies. I’m going to be making a carrot cake in 3 weeks and going to add cream cheese to it and see how it goes. I’ll do a trial run next week.
Alyssa says
I made the vanilla and it was delish – everyone loved it! I tried the chocolate and it ended up extremely thick – was I suppose to only do 2 and 3/4 of confectioners sug with the 1 1/4 cup cocoa powder? I used the 4 cups confectioners sug and 1 1/4 cup cocoa powder and it seemed really thick at that point but I thought maybe it would thin out with the milk and it did not.
Ramona says
Just tried this recipe and they came out perfect for my granddaughters cupcakes!
Jindy says
Excited to try this recipe. Any thoughts on using heavy cream instead of whole milk? I have both on hand and mostly just curious. Thanks!
Jenn says
I have done both, just remember less is more.
Peggy says
This icing is out of this world. I had some trouble spreading it on cupcakes but I think that was caused by my lack of experience.
Heather says
I added 2 big scoops of peanut butter and it turned out amazing.
Diane Francis says
It was so easy to make and really good. I did the chocolate icing. I used 1/2 the amount of cocoa powder and it was delicious. It will now be my go to icing.
Tilly says
This post does note give amounts to make this icing which is frustrating! Don’t post anything if you don’t add measurements.
Pamela Reed says
Tilly, there’s a BIG recipe card at the bottom of the post with exact measurements. You can also click the “jump to recipe” button at the top of the page which takes you to the recipe card. 🙂
Anne Marie Lix says
I just made this for my granddaughter’s birthday and it’s absolutely delicious! Such an easy recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Pat R says
You saved my day….I thought I bought a brownie mix…got it in the pan and realized it’s a chocolate cake. Looked up an easy frosting recipe and yours has all the ingredients I have on hand. Happy Fathers Day to my husband. He gets cake….thank you
Pamela Reed says
Yay, this makes me so happy! Happy Father’s Day – hope you all enjoyed the cake! 🙂
Vicki says
Delicious and easy to make! Made yummy yellow cake cupcakes for Easter with pink buttercream. They disappeared quickly.
Melanie Kennedy says
First time I’ve successfully made buttercream!!
Pamela says
That makes me super happy! 🙂
Joy says
I used this frosting for cupcakes for a school Christmas party and they were such a big hit! Multiple parents thought I bought them from a bakery!
Emily Engle says
The texture was perfect until I added the milk and vanilla and then it became runny and kinda curdled looking. If I add more sugar, will that help? I hope it can be saved. I hate wasting ingredients.
willy says
So easy to make and it taste great too
Heidi L says
Would I be able to use almond milk or oat milk instead?
Tina biel says
It was Amazingly good 😊
Amy says
Using this recipe for my daughter’s reception…what milk did you use? Whole milk, 2 %, half and half??
Pamela says
Hey Amy, I use whole milk for this recipe.
Brenda Thomas says
Can I save unused icing in refrigerator? If so, for how long