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.
Classic White Frosting
Recipe Details
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.
Delicious recipe!! My 12 year old son did not want store bought frosting so he made it and loved it on top of his homemade lemon cake!!
Does this harden and easy to travel with these topped with this
Hmmm, I haven’t made it in a while so I’m not sure. It definitely hardens when chilled, but sitting at room temp I’m sure it softens quite a bit.
Could You use half and half instead of milk ?
Yes
This recipe was delicious. My family has decided to use this & never use canned icing again.
Made this for my son’s birthday cake. I had him try it before frosting the cake and he was over the moon! I only had 4 cups of confectioner’s sugar and it was still delicious.
This recipe is quick, easy to work with and delicious!
The steps should be separated! Obviously it’s crucial to cream the butter alone before adding all ingredients. But with a glance at the recipe and it only being one step, we proceeded to add all the ingredients and mix – completely ruined! And wasted all of our ingredients so we cannot remake.
As requested, I split the instructions into two steps. Sorry that happened to you. Be sure to always read through a recipe before making.
Perfect white frosting! I used it on a chocolate cake, and it was better than my favorite store-bought alternative.
It was alright. Not the best frosting however.
This icing was way too sweet and lacked flavor. The consistency was off as well.
Worked great!!! I’m using it on my friend’s birthday cake and it’s perfect for what I need!!!
Can we make this frosting a day ahead?
I’ve not done that before, but probably!
Could you add coconut to this to make coconut frosting??
You could try! Here is my coconut frosting recipe: https://www.recipegirl.com/coconut-buttercream-frosting/
Thank you
Folllowed every step but didn’t turn out the way I like it.
Everybody should try this!!
Best tasting frosting ever amd soo easy to make Thank You! Worked so well on my little girls birthday cake.
Love it thanks
This was so perfect on my chocolate cupcakes!
Thank you so much for the recipe! I love how easy this is to make!
Such a great recipe to have on hand. Perfect to use on cupcakes and cakes. Thanks for sharing.
Everybody needs a gool ol’ classic frosting in their recipe box. Great recipe!
This was perfect on the cupcakes I made today! Thanks for sharing!
The proportions for this frosting are just right! It’s now our go-to white frosting!!
The simplicity of this recipe keeps me going to it over and over again!
Can this white frosting be refrigerated? Is so, how long before spreading it on the cake layers?
I haven’t tried refrigerating it. I would imagine if you did that, you’d need to store it in a tightly covered container and then let it come to room temperature before using.
Hi there! I really enjoyed how easy this was to make, especially for my kids! They were able to make all of it themselves, without the mixer (I wasn’t able to have one on hand, but that didn’t seem to bother them!) However, crazily enough, my kids thought it was a bit too sweet (I know right???) Is there something I can add/not add to cut down on the sweetness a bit? Thank you!
Salt!
What would I add to make classic chocolate frosting?
Barb
Here’s a chocolate cupcake recipe that has the chocolate buttercream recipe included: https://www.recipegirl.com/chocolate-wedding-cupcakes/
this looks great , although I plan to put it on top of sugar cookies then peppermint pieces on top of the frosting.
would that be ok with this frosting? would it hold up? please e-mail me a response to this inquiry to the email address I put in my contact information. thank you.
have a Merry Christmas.
Hi Heather, I haven’t tried frosting cookies with it… but I’m guessing it would be okay for that!
Can I make this a day in advance of frosting my cake or should I make it the day I frost?
Thanks!
I would make it the day of frosting.
I didn’t know there was different shades of butter. I have always wanted to get the frosting whiter. Where can I get whiter butter?
Thank you for the recipe!
Colleen
Maybe a more organic or high end variety?
Made it and added some peanut butter, spread it on brownies. And my dad said that they were the best brownies ever! (I think it was because of the frosting!)
That sounds delicious!
If I wanted to make an almond flavored buttercream would I just switch the vanilla extract to almond extract in the same quantity?
yes, that would probably be fine.
Just made this-cut it down to 1/3 since I only had a dozen cupcakes to frost. I got a wild hair and added about 1/2 cup of peanut butter. So delicious and soft and creamy!
Love this recipe but am really distracted by all the ads on your website. They really take away value of your content. Please lessen the ads!
Check back next week– the ads are getting reduced! 🙂
I tried the recipe today and it tasted very nice! However, my batch was not as white as yours and I wonder why? Do I need to whip it longer?
It’s hard to say… some butter is lighter than others. You can always use clear vanilla extract too.
This looks so good! Next weekend I have to make my niece’s first communion cake and cupcakes and although I usually eyeball my buttercream I am looking for one that is light and fluffy but thick enough to pipe with for the cupcakes and have it hold the “swirl” like you see the professional cupcakes have such as Georgetown Cupcakes. Anyways is this a good icing to pipe with?
The best recipe I have for piping is this one: Everyone adores this recipe, and it pipes beautifully https://www.recipegirl.com/2007/03/16/wedding-cupcake-buttercream/
Would you recommend salted or unsalted butter? Would one batch be enough for 35 cupcakes made into a cupcake cake?
Thanks in advance!
I like to use salted but you can use either. I think it would be enough frosting for 35 cupcakes, but it’s hard to say since I don’t know how much frosting you’re putting on each cupcake.
Will this frosting take good coloring well?
it should!
Thanks for the recipe looks delicious
I can’t wait to try! But. .. before I do, would you advise if it is unsalted butter use or salted? Thank you!
Yum~Pinned. 🙂
A classic white frosting is necessary in so many recipes. This looks so fluffy and perfect. I want to just take a quick spoonful 🙂
Very similar to my classic go-to recipe. Only this one is like a double batch – which is always great. More frosting is always a good thing- can’t wait to try this one Lori!
Looks easy and great!
I just want to dive head first into that bowl of frosting! It looks perfect!
White frosting is amazing! I saw a you tube video of someone putting a bit of blue coloring to make the white whiter… But yours looks pretty darn white to me. Thanks for sharing!!
@Emelreem Interesting- will have to check that out!
This is a classic for a reason — SO GOOD! Looking forward to tomorrow’s recipe now. 🙂
White frosting is the best, especially by the finger full! 😉 This one looks perfect! Pinned!
Love a creamy white frosting! It’s a classic favorite that always puts a big smile on my face 🙂 This looks like a dreamy cloud of yumminess that I want to eat by the spoonful. Pinned!
White frosting is my favorite…especially when eaten by the finger full! This one truly looks like perfection. Pinned!
Can’t beat a good buttercream — this one looks awesome, I’ll take the whole bowl. 😉
It’s so creamy! I could eat it with a spoon! You are right -everyone needs a good white frosting recipe and this one is a keeper for sure! Pinned!