Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

By Addie

Recipe courtesy Gale Gand
Show: Sweet Dreams
Episode: All About Frosting

Ingredients

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons whipping cream

Preparation

Step 1

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.
............................

REVIEWS: (343)



This is a perfect buttercream frosting! I first creamed my butter, and then added the vanilla and salt and one cup of sugar, blended slowly, added another cup of sugar and two tablespoons of half and half, blended slowly, and then added one more tablespoon of half and half and another cup of sugar. Then I whipped it for 20 minutes until it was airy and light. The result was an absolutely perfect frosting and one of the best buttercreams I've ever had. I used this for chocolate cupcakes and it was absolutely smooth and perfect for piping. This is my new go-to BCI.

Yummy! I followed another poster's advice and beat the frosting longer, about 20 minutes. I love my KitchenAid stand mixer! The frosting is light and fluffy. I did add a touch more vanilla, but that's because I love vanilla.

Best vanilla frosting I have ever made. I didn't have any whipping cream on hand, but I had buttermilk so I used that instead and it was still great. I think the key is whipping it for as long and as fast as you can to get it nice and light and fluffy!

Great Recipe. The Icing is very tasty, fluffy and easy to spread. My new go-to icing recipe!

The key is that you need to mix or whisk this recipe for more than 3 minutes....the longer the better. A grandmother of my friend made the best buttercream frosting and she said the key was to keep the mixer going for a 1/2 hr or more. I just made this a few minutes ago using a hand mixer and it took me more than 3 min to get frosting consistently and was very dense but I continued to mix for 10 more minutes and it was fluffy and really good.

Used this frosting for sugar cookies this Christmas and everyone made comments on how delicious it was! Just made a marble cake and new I had to use this recipe! Another hit! Love this, 5 star!

Best vanilla frosting I have ever made. I didn't have any whipping cream on hand, but I had buttermilk so I used that instead and it was still great. I think the key is whipping it for as long and as fast as you can to get it nice and light and fluffy!

Do not waste your time! This recipe is terrible! It's very very buttery and heavy. I'm not sure why so many people like it, and it has so many good reviews! I'm the kind of person who loves frosting and I will try and get the corner piece of the cake because of the extra frosting! This recipe disappoints. I tried adding more sugar, more cream, etc. but still it seemed too heavy and buttery. I beat it with the wisk attachment for a very long time and it still was very heavy. Now I didn't use unsalted butter because the recipe didn't call for it.

After reading some of the reviews I was a bit leary about it tasting too much like butter. Don't listen to them. I followed the directions exactly and frosting is awesome.....easy to make... taste... out of this world!

I just made this as a dry run for my son's first birthday. It is the best frosting I have ever made! It's easy, quick, and tasty. I will DEFINITELY be using this recipe for his birthday cakes and for future cakes as well!

This is without a doubt the best frosting I have ever made and will be the only recipe I use from now on. At first I thought it wouldn't make enough for a layer cake, but there was plenty - with a little left over. I took previous advice and creamed the butter first then added the sugar and beat it for several minutes. It was light and fluffy and not overly sweet (as other buttercream recipes are. Yes, it's buttery - but it's BUTTER cream. Thank you, Gale Gand for this easy, delicious recipe.

Freakishly easy and also delicious!

This was the first time I have made a buttercream frosting. This recipe was very easy to make and very tasty. It spread easily and looked great on the cake. The only problem I had was it had a very slightly grittiness from the sugar. I followed the directions exactly and even beat it longer thinking it would get rid of the grittiness but it did not. That's why I gave it only 4 stars. Other than that it was great. I will make this recipe again and try to figure out what I did wrong. One review I read said this recipe was "as good as store bought". I was pretty shocked by that statement. Store bought frostings, to me, are awful. So are box cakes. Home made is always better. That's just my personal opinion.

Super easy and delicious! I added a generous spoonful of raspberry jam to make a raspberry buttercream for lemon cupcakes and it was great!

This is a simple and delicious recipe. I did do 1.5 of the recipe (as some suggested and had enough to cover my layer cake, with a nice layer in the center. I did add a splash more vanilla and cream too, which made the perfect consistency for a crumb-coat, then a final, flawless frosting. One of the best cakes I've ever frosted - thank you very much! For those complaining that it "tasted to buttery"... um... why are you making buttercream frosting if you don't want it to taste like butter? As for me, butter, sugar, vanilla, and cream? There's nothing not to love. :

Quick, easy & delicious. Now that's my kind of recipe.

This is the easiest and tastiest buttercream recipe. I followed the recipe exactly to frost my daughters birthday cake. The frosting was delicious and didnt have that lard taste that many buttercream frostings have. I recommend this frosting recipe, but I agree with the other reviewers who wrote that it needs to be beaten longer. I will do that next time!

Thanks to all the reviewers who recommended beating the icing longer. Great results. I am not usually a big fan of buttercream but this recipe is good. Super easy. A little orange food coloring and we all enjoyed pumpkin Halloween chocolate cupcakes. Wonder if anyone has tried something other than vanilla extract?

Very tasty, good balance of sugar and butter the whipping cream was key to a smooth spreadable frosting.. I did have to double the recipe to have enough to frost a 9" double layer cake. I ended up with a little left over but better than skimping on frosting.

This frosting was very heavenly! That is the only word that comes to mind when describing this! I did make some changes: First, I only used 1 ½ c of powdered sugar instead of the three. I find that most homemade frosting recipes have way too much sugar and halving the amount was just right. Second, since I didn’t have time to go buy heavy cream, I simply used 2 tsp of milk (I had 1% on hand. A few tips/reminders: It is essential that unsalted butter at room temperature be used. This should not taste like butter or be clumpy like others have said. I also recommend using the whisk attachment on the mixer to get a light, airy consistency.

OMGoodness, best, absolutely best and easiest buttercream frosting you'll ever make!!!

The texture is to die for and the color is beautiful (I mix food coloring in and it always comes out bright and pretty. My only suggestion is that its too sweet at least for my families food palates, so instead of the whipping cream I use 2 tablespoons of 2% milk. Doesn't change the texture and I'm still able to use it for decorating. Cheers!

The perfect "GO TO" Vanilla buttercream! I love vanilla so I added about 1/2 teaspoon extra and made sure to get some of the vanilla bean seeds from the extract to give the frosting that "real vanilla" look.

This recipe was so easy and taste great. The frosting did not melt at all out in the heat at a birthday party.Everyone loved it!

Yummy!!! I don't usually like buttercream icing but this was delicious. I made this frosting to cover cupcakes for my son's 4th birthday. I colored the icing blue and red (thomas the train cupcakes and they came out great. Even his teachers commented on how good the icing tasted. I'm making a 3-D thomas cake this week and i plan on using the frosting again. I've been looking for a go to icing recipe for a long time and I think I've found it!

I used this for my Red Velvet Cheesecake. IT WAS PERFECT, and easy to make. Just make sure to use unsalted butter and have it at room temp. DO NOT MICROWAVE IT!! I definitely will be using this recipe again and agian and again.... lol

Followed the recipe as given, using 2 tbsp of whipping cream and UNSALTED butter. I did add a dash of salt to cut the sweetness. It did the trick. Used the frosting for cupcakes- was nice and puffy. Very happy with the results.

This buttercream was delicious!!! I have tried other buttercream recipes & they had a bad taste to them. This one did not have a strong butter flavor. I used no-salt butter instead of regular butter. I also only used a 1/2 teaspoon instead of a whole cause I didn't want a huge vanilla flavor. Loved how quick & easy it was as well. This is my new go to buttercream recipe.

Fantabulous!!!

Pretty awful - all separated and wont stand up regardless of extra suger added... Just a buttery mess.

This is terrible! I used unsalted butter and still, WAY too buttery for me. The sugar didn't blend in. I added nearly half a pint of whipped cream and I suppose it is palatable. Using all that cream didn't appear to affect the consistency at all. Definitely NOT one of the better frostings I've tasted or made.

Delicous! Best one I've found!

This was a great recipe, easy, tasty and classic! **NOTE** for those of you who reviewed it was too buttery, try UNSALTED BUTTER instead of regular/salted butter. the difference is huge!