whipped frosting

Light and fluffy buttercream frosting made without powdered sugar.

Whipped Buttercream Frosting

all-purpose flour

milk

vanilla extract

salted butter (at cool room temperature1)

sugar

salt

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk together over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. It will be the consistency of a thick paste2. Make sure that you whisk the flour and milk together well before you begin cooking it to avoid lumps. 

Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. This step is key. If your mixture is warm, it will melt your butter, and you'll end up with runny frosting.&nbsp;

Stir in vanilla.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter, sugar, and salt together until light and fluffy on medium high-high3, about 5 minutes4. Make sure that you scrape down the sides and really incorporate the butter and sugar to avoid gritty frosting.

Then add the completely cooled milk mixture.

Beat it for about 5 more minutes on medium-high to high until it looks like whipped cream. It may look separated at first, so keep beating it until it comes together and looks like a whipped cream.

https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/oosAEJDo.mp4

Whipped Buttercream Frosting is the best frosting ever! This frosting is made without powdered sugar. It has the rich creaminess of a buttercream & the light, airy texture of a whipped cream frosting!

Made from only 4 ingredients, this lightly sweetened whipped frosting is creamy and fluffy, yet holds its shape when piped with a piping tip. For best results, review the success tips above and recipe notes below before you begin.

Not-So-Sweet Whipped Frosting

ounces (170 grams) block full-fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature

cup (90 grams) confectioners’ sugar

In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with a whisk or paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed until creamy. Add the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla extract, and then beat on medium speed until combined and completely smooth (absolutely no lumps), at least 2 full minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to smooth out.

Switch to a whisk attachment (if you haven&#8217;t already been using it). Turn the mixer to low speed and with the mixer running, carefully pour in the cream in a slow and steady stream. After all of the cream has been added, turn the mixer up to high speed and whip until thick and stiff peaks form, about 1-2 minutes. This time can vary depending on exact temperature of ingredients, temperature in kitchen, and even the humidity. Do not walk away during this time and do not be concerned if your frosting takes longer to whip. You&#8217;re looking for a thick, airy consistency with stiff peaks. If you were to shimmy and shake your bowl, the frosting would hardly move. If your frosting appears soupy now or at any point you are working with it, it needs more whipping to introduce more air. If your frosting appears chunky or curdled, it&#8217;s over-whipped. To fix, stir 1 Tablespoon of heavy cream into the frosting by hand to smooth out again. Use more heavy cream if needed to smooth out.

Use it

After you make the whipped frosting, it&#8217;s ready to frost your cupcakes, cake, or other confections. After frosting a cake or cupcakes with this frosting, I strongly recommend refrigerating them uncovered for at least 30 minutes to help &#8220;set&#8221; the frosting (especially when using on a layer cake). Then you can serve or set out for a few hours before serving. And please note that you&#8217;ll notice the frosting becomes thicker and airier the longer it sits in your mixing bowl. This is not a problem and can easily be fixed by gently stirring it to pop any air bubbles. Likewise, if you notice the frosting really airy and looking over-whipped as you pipe it with piping tips, either &#8220;massage&#8221; the frosting while it&#8217;s in the piping bag (sounds weird, but this can help deflate air bubbles) or pipe back into the mixing bowl and gently stir it. You can even stir in a splash of heavy cream to thin/smooth out if needed.

Serve or Make Ahead

After the 30 minutes of refrigerating to &#8220;set&#8221; the frosting as instructed in step 3, frosted confections are fine to serve or sit out at room temperature for a few hours. If you plan to serve later than that, such as the next day, I recommend storing in the refrigerator. Lightly cover as best you can. Confections topped with this frosting can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to 2 days.

So runny. Went exactly as explained and it just would not set up.

This was the easiest frosting recipe to make and with incredible taste. So lite and airy and perfect for cupcakes!

This was PERFECT for macarons (I used your beginner recipe, also a success!). I halved it for a full batch of about 20 cookies, and probably could have done a bit less than that. I used half lemon extract and half vanilla. Tasted amazing and not too sweet, which was my gripe on my last macaron filling. Agreed that you can taste the cream cheese, but I love cream cheese frosting, so no complaints here :) Thank you!

I promised the kids cupcakes for st Patrick’s day and decided to try and make them myself. My older son also doesn’t really like frosting like from the bakery so buttercream is a no go. I decided to make this with your chocolate cupcake recipe and both are so good! The frosting easily took the color green from liquid food coloring and looked cute with sprinkles. My son even said it tasted just the right amount of sweetness. I could see this easily being adapted to a low carb frosting with erythritol confectioners sugar just a thought for any keto or diabetic readers. Thanks again for another amazing recipe!!

I recently made this frosting and followed the instruction on how to make it Strawberry Flavored, to decorate the SBA 2- layer Favorite White Cake.  I appreciated having a frosting recipe that was "not too sweet", but thought it was more "not very sweet".  I might amp up the sugar just a smidge next time - that's just me :)  I used the directions for scaling up the recipe to use 8 oz. of cream cheese (to avoid a lonely leftover 2oz. square).  I ended up using 1/4c of strawberry powder, but found it wasn't enough.  I added another 1/8c, but it really could have used much another 1/8-1/4cp. for optimum flavor.  Overall, I liked that the recipe was simple with few ingredients and held up well. Worth making.

Really the best ever icing. First time everyone had a second piece of cake , no left overs for us! Ices a 2 layer cake perfectly. Made a white cake, can’t wait to try it with devil’s food. Thank you Sally.

This is so easy to make and absolutely delicious!! I made it strawberry flavored using blended freeze dried strawberries and it came out great. As soon as my husband tried it he said “This is a keeper! We have to save this recipe!” This will definitely be my go to frosting from now on!

Delicious frosting! Easy recipe to follow, and the taste was amazing. For me personally, 1 batch of this frosting was just barely enough to frost a 2 layer 9"cake. I would have appreciated just a bit more. I would recommend increase the batch to 1.5x for a 2 layer 9" cake.

This recipe changed my entire attitude on making cakes!  It's perfect- so creamy, fluffy, lightly sweet, and easy to work with.  It's a game changer for those of us who can't stand buttercream.  I made a lactose free version with lactose free cream cheese and "plant cream" and even that was great!  This will definitely become my go-to frosting.

Delicious, not too sweet and very stable. Use this to top it Keylime pie. Thank you for this great recipe

Omg this is my new favourite frosting!!! It’s light, fluffy and tastes like cheesecake mousse. I’m in the UK and used the full fat Philadelphia in a tub. I found the cream cheese went quite thin when I mixed it with the vanilla and sugar. I fixed this by whipping the cream cheese mix on high for a little longer than recommended- fixed it right up! Then added the cream according to the recipe. Delish!!

My family loves whipped cream frosting, and this is THE BEST recipe I’ve used. 

A tip for the cream-cheese-haters: substitute MASCARPONE cheese for the cream cheese. I love cream cheese, but I’m allergic to the stabilizer gums in most brands.  When I can’t find my “unstable” cream cheese (Nancy’s brand FYI) or I’m baking for cream-cheese-haters, I use mascarpone from the fancy Italian cheese section of the grocery store. It has NO detectable flavor, so your frosting just tastes like whipped cream. Just make sure the heavy cream is REALLY cold because…obviously…no stabilizer gums to help it thicken up. I have piped this onto cupcakes for several  summer birthdays and it has held up beautifully despite the heat.

Hello, and thank you so much for this recipe. We made it to top a lemon cake and some cookies, and it has been a smash hit in my house! We are using the extra to top our coffee until it runs out. It was perfect for my semi-sweet household!

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Whipped Buttercream Frosting

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Top 2 whipped frosting recipes from across the web

The most viewed whipped frosting recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Whipped Buttercream Frosting

Not-So-Sweet Whipped Frosting

The most viewed whipped frosting recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine