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.
Rileigh Reynolds says
can you supplement the almond abstract for another one?
Danielle Green says
I would just add a bit more vanilla extract. If you are looking for a specific flavor like mint, you can certainly swap for any extract.
Jackie Kirby says
can you give this recipe in grams
Many Thanks
Regards
Kim Doster says
Thank you SO much for the recipe. Haven’t tried it yet, but I’m determined to up my baking skills after a binge of the Great British Bake-Off on Netflix. This should do the trick! For red food coloring – have you tried the Suncore Foods coloring powder? It looks like *maybe* it produces a deeper, Christmas-y red. It might affect the consistency of the recipe, but may be worth a try!
Valerie Williams says
This sounds great! Does this harden at all for cookies?
Danielle Green says
It doesn’t get hard where you can stack multiple cookies, but the tradeoff is that it is decadent and fluffy which can’t be achieved with hardening.
Marcia James says
I would like to have white frosting, how can I have that when adding butter?
Danielle Green says
You won’t be able to have a true white with butter and vanilla extract is also adding a very little color. After beating the frosting though, it is quite white.
Melissa R. says
Add a VERY tiny amount of violet food coloring. Purple cancels yellow kinda like how purple shampoo tones out brassy yellow hair. Like a teeny tiny amount.
Danielle Green says
Love the hair analogy, that makes total sense!
Sharon says
I use all crisco and add clear vanilla and butter extract for my icing. This goes to Marcia.
Bonnie M Garcia says
add white food coloring. places like Joanne’s sell it!
Patricia Dalley says
If you add a tiny bit of violet gel color,the frosting will whiten up. Just a little tiny bit.
Sharon says
I use all crisco and add clear vanilla and butter extract for my icing.
Lind says
I needed a great tasting frosting to pipe onto cupcakes. This recipe is perfect. The detail in the piping held up great. The only thing I can say is that if you use unsalted butter, add a dash of salt. It rounds out the sweetness
Ali says
sbould the butter be cold right from firdge or let it sit out a little while to soften?
Danielle Green says
Room temperature works best
Jean Barton says
If I use this icing on sugar cookies, do I have to then refrigerate those cookies once they’ve been frosted because of the cream?
Danielle Green says
Nope, the sugar acts as a preservative and you can keep them at room temperature.
Phyllis says
Hi Danielle, what if you don’t have shortening, can I use all butter? Thanks!!!
Danielle Green says
Yes! The consistency will be very slightly different and it won’t hold piping shapes quite as well, but it will be absolutely delicious on cakes and cupcakes.
Bonni says
Even though I’ve made buttercream frosting many times, I decided to try this one because I was making sugar cookies for a family gathering. I wanted to decorate them in a special way and I knew I needed an icing that would be good for piping but still delicious. And this is definitely it. It was great for the decorating and I got so many compliments about it. And it passed my own high standards when I tasted it. This is my new go-to recipe. Thank you!
Kendall Romey. says
Hey! I saw what you said about the red frosting, and I am making this recipe to dye it red! I recently Learned this trick.
So you have your frosting, and before trying to dye it red, dye it pink with PINK food coloring. Not red. Then you go in with the red and get it as dark as you can. You then microwave it until it gets darker. Your first time you have to play with it a little, but you can get the hang of it. It will be a bit separated, but put it in the fridge until it’s firmer, then whip it back up! It gets it SHOCKINGLY RED. I hope this helps!
Leslie says
This makes a great icing, I will be using this recipe again. The recipe made more than I needed, but half wouldn’t have been enough. How long will the icing last in the fridge, and can I freeze it? I’m assuming once it’s thawed I would just have to whip it back to a smooth consistency
Danielle Green says
This frosting will last in the fridge for 5-7 days and it can be frozen! You will just need to thaw and mix it well before using.
Ann Beavers says
I used seven cups of powdered sugar. When l asked my husband to taste it he said it was gritty. Do you know how this may have happened and how do l correct it?
Lill Mill says
Hi! I made this ahead of time for a camp I’m running. It was really thick today when the kids went to pipe with it. Any tips to help? How long can it sit at room temp, I’m wondering if it was maybe just too cold?
Danielle Green says
Yup, it was most likely too cold. You can refrigerate this well, but it needs to come back to room temperature to pipe well. It can sit at room temperature for a day or two because of the high sugar content.
Nessa says
Which attachment did you use on the mixer? Paddle or whisk?
Danielle Green says
Whisk
Karen Rhan says
Can I make this recipe a few days in advance of using the icing for frosting a cake and piping on decorations? If so, does this need to be refrigerated? If so, how do you get the icing back to the way it was when first made?
Danielle Green says
I make this ahead of time often. I refrigerate it and then take it out of the refrigerator a few hours before I need to pipe with it. Run a mixer through it again to fully soften it and its great.
Bnolt says
Thanks for the recipe! My only problem was I had to throw the first batch away as I couldn’t handle the fake butter flavor from the crisco… I made it with all butter and it was perfect! So advice if you don’t care for that flavor try plain crisco or all butter:)
Rachel Boothe says
Could you tell me the best temperature for frosting to successfully pipe roses? I am going to try your recipe. I have become so frustrated trying to learn to pipe roses. I can’t work on my technique because my frosting is too soft and keeps falling over when I try to pipe the petals. I have tried three different buttercream recipes, including one that is all Crisco and it was too soft like the butter-based ones. My kitchen stays at about 72 deg because my family members get cold, otherwise. I have tried putting my frosting bag in the refrigerator, but the piping tip gets clogged when it gets colder. By the time I get it unclogged and working, the frosting is warm again. I am going to try your recipe and see if it will work for me, but is there an optimum temperature at which it will work best? Thanks.
Danielle Green says
When I worked in a restaurant I actually piped roses in the walk in refrigerator one time and it worked like a charm! lol The problem with throwing the bag of buttercream in the fridge is that just the tip will harder. A cooler kitchen will definitely help. I say let your family freeze for a day! haha But in all seriousness, I keep my house at 68F and it seems to work well.
Ann says
Yes, please! Having the same issues. My frosting is getting too warm in my hands as I’m piping. I was wondering if I’m leaving my butter out too long… maybe room temp doesn’t truly mean “room temperature”, but just warming it up enough to work with. Help!
Karem\n says
Can you refrigerate leftovers and how long will it last?
Danielle Green says
Yes, you can refrigerate the buttercream. I’ve kept it up to 10 days and it was just fine. You can also freeze it for much longer!
Robyn says
Hi. I am in England could I ask what would be the best shorting to use?
Also what other extract could be used instead of almond due to nut allergies?
Thank you
Danielle Green says
Just skip the almond extract and I am unfortunately not familiar with UK products. You can use all butter though. It just will taste delicious but just won’t hold it’s shape quite as well as shortening, but still pretty good.
Kara says
Hello! i wanted to make a raspberry frosting so i was just going to use a buttercream recipe and add raspberry extract…would I still add in both the vanilla and almond extracts as the recipe says in addition to the raspberry? Thanks!
Danielle Green says
The almond and vanilla would be nice compliments to raspberry. You can keep them or just leave one of them out.