Classic White Frosting Recipe

Every baker needs this Classic White Frosting recipe on hand for frosting cakes and cupcakes.

The Best White Frosting Recipe

You may be asking yourself, “What’s going on here?  RecipeGirl is going cake-crazy!”  Yes, indeed I’ve been going cake crazy.  And I may just continue to do so!  I’ve realized that RecipeGirl.com needs a greater stash of cake and frosting recipes, and I’m on a mission to give them to you!

Everyone needs a good yellow cake recipe (you got that last week).  Everyone needs a most-excellent chocolate frosting recipe (last week as well).  And now you’re getting the best white frosting recipe.  So you can probably guess what might be coming next, right?  Yep, a chocolate cake!  Keep reading below for the chocolate cake!

Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe

• butter (I like to use salted)
• powdered sugar
• vanilla extract
• milk

How to make this Classic White Frosting recipe:

The butter is mixed until creamy and smooth with an electric mixer.  You can either use an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer. Then you’ll mix in the powdered sugar a little at a time, along with the vanilla and milk a little at a time too.  You’ll keep mixing and adding enough milk until you achieve the texture you’re looking for in a frosting.

This frosting turns out creamy and wonderful.  It’s perfect for frosting a two-layer 9-inch cake (generously so).  It’s not a good frosting for piping- I prefer my Wedding Cupcake Buttercream recipe for piping decoratively onto cakes and cupcakes.  But this one is just a good old-fashioned white frosting that is perfect for spreading smoothly.

How do you make white frosting super white?

It’s pretty tough to avoid grabbing a spoon and just going to town on eating this bowl of frosting.  It’s pretty delicious!  To achieve a nice white coloring, I use a brand of butter that is not terribly yellow (my grocery store brand is perfect for that), and I like to use a clear vanilla extract.  You can locate that in the baking aisle of craft stores (or on Amazon- Wilton makes a version of it), and if you have a good baking supply store in town, they would most likely carry it too.

Can classic white frosting be tinted to make other colors?

Yes!  It’s very easy to turn white frosting into other colors.  I try to avoid using traditional food coloring because it can change the texture of the frosting.  Instead, I like to use gel paste

Is this Classic White Frosting good for piping?

This white frosting recipe isn’t the best one for piping.  It’s best for spreading.  And it works very well on my Best Chocolate Cake recipe or this White Snack Cake!

If you’re looking for a frosting recipe that is great for piping frosting onto cakes and cupcakes, I recommend you try my Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting recipe or my Wedding Cupcake Buttercream recipe.With both of those recipes, you can scrape the frosting into a piping bag and pipe beautiful swirls with various tips.

How to turn Classic White Frosting into chocolate:

You can add 3/4 to 1 cup of cocoa powder to this frosting to turn it into Classic Chocolate Frosting.  Be sure to taste it to see if it needs any more sugar (since cocoa powder is unsweetened), and you can add a little bit more milk, as needed, too.

4.13 from 39 votes

Classic White Frosting

By Lori Lange

This is the best classic white frosting for cakes and cupcakes.

Prep: 10 minutes mins

Total: 10 minutes mins

Servings: 24 servings (enough for 24 cupcakes)

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1½ cups (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• ▢ 6 cups powdered sugar (16 ounces + 2 more cups)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 to 4 tablespoons milk

Instructions 

• In a large bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer), mix the butter until it is creamy and smooth.
• Mix in the powdered sugar, a little at a time, adding in the vanilla and 2 tablespoons of milk a little at a time too. If the frosting is too thick, add up to 2 tablespoons more milk until you achieve the thickness and texture you're looking for.

Notes

• *For the whitest frosting you can get, use butter than is more white than yellow, and look for clear vanilla extract (in the baking aisle at craft stores, or at baking supply stores). You can certainly use regular vanilla extract if you are unable to locate clear.
• This recipe makes enough to frost a two-layer cake or 24 cupcakes.

Nutrition

Serving: 24servings, Calories: 220kcal, Carbohydrates: 30g, Fat: 11g, Saturated Fat: 7g, Cholesterol: 30mg, Sodium: 102mg, Potassium: 6mg, Sugar: 29g, Vitamin A: 360IU, Calcium: 6mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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