Easy to make, this sweet and basic buttercream recipe is the perfect topper to any birthday cake.

Basic Buttercream

unsalted butter, softened

confectioners' sugar

vanilla extract

Beat butter and 3 cups sugar with a mixer on medium speed until combined. Reduce speed to medium-low, and continue to beat, gradually adding remaining 6 cups sugar, 1 cup at a time. Raise speed to medium-high; add vanilla. Beat until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes more.

Was incredibly sweet, my children didnt even want to eat the frosting. Sets up pretty hard in the fridge too.  Will try with a salted butter and less sugar see if can make it more palatable.

This recipe does appear to be far too sweet and also an excessive amount.  I have a recipe that is similar and it won a first place in the Oregon State Fair one year.  Not my recipe.  
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 Cup (1 cube)  Butter
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 egg but you can use Egg Replacement equivalent of 1 egg

Beat all till fluffy.
Makes plenty to frost one cake
If you want chocolate frosting then add 3 ounces of bakers chocolate melted.  Add while mixer is moving slowly.

I tried this recipe for a 9x13 cake and it actually frosted the whole cake.  It's overwhelmly sweet and it does get hard when you refrigerate.. Must be taken out at least 15-20 minutes before cutting and serving.. Used on a yellow cake recipe and almond custard filling and all together great taste if we could avoid so much of the sugar.   Lesson learn.. next time I will use a more less sugary flavor.

Can i leave this frosting outside? because i tried to refrigerate it in a bowl and it became hard , so i waited until its softened again to put it on a cake,
thanks for your help i really appreciate it

I used 5 Cups of Confectioners Sugar instead of 9, and used 4 sticks of Butter instead of 6, and way more Vanilla, great recipe :)

Good basic frosting, a big improvement over canned frosting for little effort.  Cut the amounts in half because as written it makes enough for 2 cakes, not one.  I mxed it with the chocolate frosting recipe in the same article and it was wonderful.

When used for sugar cookies, this was the perfect frosting. Also, this is one of only two recipes Martha has done for buttercream that does not contain egg whites. Great for pregnant/nursing moms-and children.
  I've used this recipe on cakes, and often hear they are the best cakes the recipient ever tasted. I do know one thing, this is way better than the canned 
junk! Especially because there are no trans fats in butter(have you read those labels?Ew!) thanks Martha!

Waay to sweet. The cake was inedible once frosted. Even my kids didn't want to eat it. It mixed up nicely and frosted very smoothly, but even though I only used 1/2 of the recipe, the sweetness was overwhelming.

I made this recipe to frost Martha's Marble Cake.  I was able to frost a two-layer 9" cake AND a two-layer 6" cake and still had about a cup left over!

I used this on Martha's recipe for white cake with lemon curd, and ti was an awesome cake for my daughter's first birthday.  I received lots of compliments on it!  Also, I used a butter/margarine/shortening combination instead of all butter.

Martha shows an audience member how to perfectly frost a cake using four classic icings.

basic buttercream

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total: 10 minutes

Servings: 3.5

Cost: $4.85 /serving

Author : Martha Stewart

Ingredients

Instructions

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