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.
Sherry says
Hi
Will this icing stack and stay, I have to make beehive cupcakes for a babyshower for sat
Thank you
Sherry
Danielle Green says
I’m guessing you are wanting to do something similar to these cupcakes? If so, I used this buttercream to create the swirl tops!
https://www.thecreativebite.com/best-birthday-cupcakes/
ash says
How much lemon do you use?
Angela Lisqum says
I am finally learning to do this which excites me to find your recipe as I could never find a good one that wasnt like (liquid) and end up always dipping my cupcakes and ending with boring flat cerfaces. Excited to give this one a try next week even more with all these great reviews maybe I’ll be back to comment with how it turned out!(please note i will be moving by end of month so maybe these cupcakes will have to wait until I unpack from the move lol) thank you for sharing:)
Zera says
Had to add milk extensively to make it look less like play dough. Adding a note to do this in the recipe would be helpful..
Danielle Green says
That is odd, I have never had that issue with this recipe. Even if you didn’t beat it for the 5 minutes it calls for, which is very important, it should be nowhere near the consistency of play dough.
Sally says
Have never tried piping a cake or cupcakes but seeing this recipe and reading the comments makes me want to try. Question: do I need to sift the powdered sugar first and then measure the 7 1/2 cups? Or straight from the bag?
Danielle Green says
One bag is 7 1/2 cups, so just use the entire bag.
Zera says
Had to thin with milk extensively otherwise it looked like play dough. Adding a note to recipe will help.
Sharon Baker says
That’s odd. I had to add 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar to make it thicker!
Michalene Everett says
I want to thank you for such a great recipe. This frosting tastes exactly like my mothets, brings back fantastic childhood me!pried watching my Mom decorate and sneaking some of the frosting.
Danielle Green says
That’s so nice to hear Michalene. There’s nothing quite like our mother’s recipes are there!
Michalene Everett says
I want to thank you for such a great recipe. This frosting tastes exactly like my mothets, brings back fantastic childhood me!pried watching my Mom decorate and sneaking some of the frosting.
Munsamy Soobramoney says
Exactly what is the right room temperature for frosting because I have tried your recipe but my flowers are sagging and the frosting with the borders, can you explain why this is happening
Danielle Green says
I don’t often do flowers, but when I did, I would do them in the walk-in refrigerator during the hot summers where I worked! Icing gets warm fast from our body heat holding the bag and it is important to work in a cool environment or at least transfer them to a cool environment quickly! Another thing is being sure to whip the mixture for a long time. This really makes it light and fluffy and not so heavy.
Sallie says
Once I pipe this icing on a cake do I need to keep it in the refrigerator?
Danielle Green says
Nope! The high sugar content preserves it and makes it fine at room temperature for a few days.
Cindy says
Nice texture!! I piped 35 ice cream cake cones with this recipe…perfect piping consistently!
Chantell says
Hi. Does anyone have any substitutions for the heavy whipping cream?
Danielle Green says
Milk works fine too!
Robin says
Should I use whole milk or would 1% work as well???
Danielle Green says
Any milk would work fine. It is just to thin the mixture to the right consistency.
Chantell says
Hi. Does anyone have any substitutions for the heavy whipping cream?
LaDonna Hughes says
I start with pink, never heard of adding yellow. Also as a few said, make the red a little ahead, longer it sits, the darker it gets.
J. Rygg says
Can you substitute Coconut Oil for the shortening and/or butter? It is supposed to be quite healthy for you and they claim you can substitute Coconut Oil in the same amount as butter or shortening. (I suspect it wouldn’t be as firm if you did).
Danielle Green says
I swap out coconut oil in my cooking all the time, but in this particular recipe I don’t think it would work well. It would really alter the flavor and texture.
Pam says
Is this stiff enough to use for making roses that have a crisp edge and holds their shape? I came to this recipe from a google search and the recipe states its a “piping” recipe, but everyone seems to be only using it as a frosting and no piping. Thanks for your help.
Danielle Green says
Hey Pam, I think most people use it for frosting just because piping is much more involved. I use it for piping all the time and have done roses in the past, which came out great!
Adela says
Hola!! Tengo duda, que quiere decir la C, por ejemplo en la receta dice 1c? Y donde dice mantequilla de sabo es manteca?
Gracias!!
Danielle Green says
Hi Adela, 1c. means 1 cup, which is a typical American measurement. I am not sure which savory butter you are referring to, but the butter is just plain butter. Good luck!
Adela says
Hola!! Tengo duda, que quiere decir la C, por ejemplo en la receta dice 1c? Y donde dice mantequilla de sabo es manteca?
Gracias!!
Sandy Luca says
I like a true red too and have discovered Aztec powder colors to be incredibly vibrant. I can even get a true black for fondant using the powder, as opposed to gel, version. I tried to give this recipe five stars, but my browser wouldn’t let me. Anyway, great recipe! It’s been perfect for intricate flower piping.
Danielle Green says
Happy to hear it worked great for you!
Crystal says
I used this recipe and LOVE it! How long can it keep in the fridge?
Danielle Green says
You can refrigerate it up to a week, but just be sure to bring it to room temperature before using it or it will be entirely too stiff.
Peggy Navey says
Made this today. DELISH!!