Buttercream, Basic American Frosting

By MarieR

Bake From Scratch, May 2017
What you coat your cake with is as important as the cake itself. As timeless as they are delicious, buttercream and meringue are two of our favorite frostings.
There are many buttercream options for frosting your cake, such as Flour Buttercream with a pudding base that is added to beaten butter, French Buttercream made with egg-yolk foam, German Buttercream with a custard base, and Italian Buttercream with an Italian meringue base. Made with butter, confectioners’ sugar, and heavy whipping cream, American Buttercream is our favorite.

Ingredients

• Makes about 5 cups.
• 2 cups (460 grams) unsalted butter,
• softened
• 1 (2-pound) bag (907.2 grams)
• confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon (1.5 grams) kosher salt

Preparation

Step 1

Instructions
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter at medium speed until creamy, 5 to 6 minutes. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar, cream, and salt, beating until smooth.
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Try out these flavor variations for our Basic American Buttercream recipe:

Vanilla Bean Buttercream: Add seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean.

Strawberry Buttercream: Add ¼ cup finely chopped strawberries. (If mixture begins to separate, add more confectioners’ sugar, ¼ cup at a time.)

Cream Cheese Buttercream: Reduce butter to 1½ cups (345 grams), and add 8 ounces softened cream cheese. Beat together butter and cream cheese until creamy before adding remaining ingredients.

Lemon Buttercream: Add zest of 2 lemons and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. (If mixture begins to separate, add more confectioners’ sugar, ¼ cup at a time.)