Perfect Piping Buttercream is the absolute best recipe for frosting cakes and cookies with a great consistency just right for piping your beautiful designs. This luscious buttercream frosting is light and airy with added flavor from vanilla and almond extract.
Best Buttercream
Frosting cut-out cookies for holidays is both my favorite and most dreaded activity. I LOVE frosting the first couple dozen cookies with beautifully ornate piped designs with buttercream.
I am alone in this process though because no one else in my family is willing to help. They claim they “can’t do it as well” and therefore are unwilling to even try. Total cop out!
Frosting for cookies
So 5-6 dozen cookies and hours later I am completely burnt out. The cookies are beautiful and taste amazing, but man oh man are my hands tired and eyes weary.
Frosting cookies should totally be a family affair and it would be much more fun. When I have children, I will happily let them slather on the frosting in the ugliest of designs, mostly because that means I won’t have to frost as many cookies! 😉
Best Buttercream for piping designs
Over the years my mother and I have perfected the recipe for frosting. We were looking for a balance of taste and how it piped. We used to use a royal icing, but it didn’t taste as good.
We later moved to buttercream for flavor but our original recipe was too thick to get nice piping shapes from. We altered that recipe over the years and finally landed upon this recipe that is absolutely perfect.
This perfect piping buttercream is our go-to frosting for everything from cookies to cupcakes!
How to make the best buttercream?
I could pretty much lick a bowl of this buttercream and be one happy woman. The addition of vanilla AND almond extract gives it a great flavor that we all love. It sets it apart from plain frosting.
It is important to only use gel or paste food dye
when making your frosting, because the liquid dyes will alter the consistency a surprisingly great deal. Liquid dye will take your luscious buttercream from the perfect consistency, to a runny consistency that won’t hold it’s shape in a quick hurry.
How to pipe buttercream?
I separate my batch of buttercream into 5 or 6 bowls and dye each bowl of frosting to my desired consistency. I have never found a dye that will get me a true red, so if you have any secrets for a rich Christmas red, I would love to hear them!
Grab your piping bags and decorating tips and you are ready to fill them up. I like to turn the bag half way inside out and set it in a tall glass. This makes it easier to scoop the buttercream into the bag if I am doing it along.
After your bags are filled it’s time to dream up all sorts of amazing designs for your cookies or cake that have the added bonus of tasting great!
More baked goods perfect with buttercream!
While we could eat buttercream right from the spoon, it’s probably best to serve it on a cake or cookie. Here are some other great recipe that you can use buttercream with.
- Fresh Strawberry Ombre Cake
- Frosted Sugar Cookies
- Pumpkin Cake Bars – Swap out the cream cheese frosting for buttercream
Perfect Piping Buttercream Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 c. shortening butter flavored
- 1 c. butter
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. almond extract
- 7 1/2 c. powdered sugar
- 1/3 c. heavy whipping cream
- gel or paste icing dyes
Instructions
- In a large bowl, beat the shortening and butter until smooth and fluffy. Add the vanilla, almond extract and cream and mix until smooth.
- Add the powdered sugar 1-2 cups at a time, mixing well between each addition. Beat the frosting for an additional 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Using a toothpick, add the tiniest amount of dye at a time to the bowl of frosting to control your color. These dyes will color the frosting quickly, so there is no need to add too much.
Paula Stockley says
Hello, I don’t have Butter Flavor Shortening available in my area, can I substitute with anything else?
Danielle Green says
Plain shortening will work, I just prefer the little added flavor of butter shortening.
Natalie says
This is wonderful! Thank you for this recipe! As for RED RED, use Wilton No Taste Red, a lot of it. Mix. Place in microwave 30 sec. Will be runny. Stir, place in freezer 5 min. Repeat. You will get a BRIGHT RED RED!! Keep going until you get your desired color.
autumn says
since it is the same just not artificial, can I use ghee in place of the butter flavored shortening?
Danielle Green says
Ghee has a different texture and I’m not sure that it would make a good substitute.
Dawn Thompson Bridgeford says
Hi, Danielle. I have been asked to make 48 vanilla cupcakes with lemon flavoured frosting for a bridal shower. Your wonderful frosting recipe calls for vanilla and almond flavourings … can I use fresh lemon juice instead to give the frosting a lemony tartness? Thank you!
Danielle Green says
I would use lemon zest to impart a good lemon flavor. That little bit of lemon juice won’t add much flavor and adding too much will mess with the texture.
Colleen says
The absolute best recipe I have found to date. Delicious, smooth, and easy to pipe. This recipe is now my go to any time I need to make cake. Fabulous!!!
Suzanne says
Is it possible to remove the shortening entirely, and just use butter as a substitute?
Danielle Green says
Yes! It will have a slightly softer texture that won’t hold it’s piping shapes quite as good, but if you are just using it to frost a cake or cupcakes, it’ll be great.
Mo'Nice says
I was reading, and you mentioned trying to find a true red for food colors. have you ever tried red bean powder or red radish powder?? I have heard of people achieving great results in some red velvet cakes with such products.
Danielle Green says
I’ve never tried those. Do they add a flavor to the recipe at all?
Tania says
can you decorate the cake and freeze it and will it be OK?
Danielle Green says
You will get the best results by freezing the unfrosted cake and frosting separately. You can freeze a cake frosted, but it often doesn’t look so great after thawing.
Michelle says
I just made this and it tasted good, but it was pretty soft. I wanted to try flowers but it didn’t have enough structure for it. should I use something different? add something?
Dawn Thompson Bridgeford says
Hi Danielle! I am making a large batch of cupcakes for an outdoor birthday party and look forward to using your recipe, since I’m told the addition of shortening will help the frosting hold up better. Thank you for this great (large) recipe! I do not have a hand mixer, but have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, which I hope will beat the frosting just right, using the paddle attachment. Am I right?
Danielle Green says
I usually use the whisk on my stand mixer.