American Buttercream Recipe

Also known as “decorator’s buttercream”, or “country buttercream”, American Buttercream is what most people think of, when they think “buttercream”. It's a cheaper, easier alternative to Swiss Meringue Buttercream, or other types of frosting.

Extremely quick and easy to make, this frosting whips together butter*, milk, and powdered sugar to produce a thick, dense, and very sweet frosting.

While I prefer Swiss Meringue Buttercream in general, American Buttercream works better for my Frozen Buttercream Transfers.

* You will read elsewhere that shortening is a suitable alternative/ addition to butter. While that may technically be true, just...don’t do it. Please. Frosting should never make the inside of your mouth feel like it belongs in a “BodyWorlds” exhibit.

Flavouring Your American Buttercream

No matter which way you're flavouring your American Buttercream, follow the recipe through adding the milk and sugar and beating it into a frosting. THEN do one of the following:

Extracts

You can swap out the vanilla for another flavour extract or flavour oil. Note that flavour oils tend to be more concentrated, so start with a smaller amount and adjust to taste.

Chai American Buttercream

Mix 1-2 tablespoon of Unsweetened Instant Black Tea with 1 teaspoon Cinnamon, 1 teaspoon Ground Cardamom, ½ teaspoon Ground Cloves, and ½ teaspoon of Ground Nutmeg. Add a tablespoon or so of hot water, mix to form a thick paste.

Once you've added the milk and vanilla to the mix - and have beaten it into an actual frosting - turn speed back down to low. Add the paste, beat to combine.

Chocolate American Buttercream

To make a Chocolate American Buttercream, melt a cup of chocolate chips, or about 6 oz of chocolate of your choice, and allow it to cool slightly. You want it to be cool enough to avoid melting the butter, but NOT hardened.

Once you've added the milk and vanilla to the mix - and have beaten it into an actual frosting - turn speed back down to low.

Making sure that the melted chocolate is no longer hot, slowly add it to the mixing bowl, pouring down the side of the bowl. Once all of the chocolate is in the bowl, you can speed up the mixer a little until it is all incorporated, and smooth.

Cocoa American Buttercream

If you don't have chocolate on hand or don't want to mess with melted chocolate, you can make Cocoa American Buttercream!

Once the milk and vanilla are incorporated into the American Buttercream, and it's smooth, add 2-5 tablespoon of cocoa (Good cocoa, preferably!) to the frosting. Turn mixer on low speed until powder is incorporated to some degree - to avoid getting cocoa everywhere. Turn the speed up and beat for a few seconds to fully incorporate it.

How much cocoa you use will depend on how chocolatey you're wanting it to get. Start with 2-3 Tbsp, taste, and add more if you like.

Colouring Your American Buttercream

You can use any food colouring you like for this, but I prefer to use a nice quality gel based colour, such as Americolor (what I used when I was in the USA), or ChefMaster (Which is the option more readily available here!)

Making Black Frosting

A quick tip for making black frosting: Start with chocolate buttercream!

I like to use Dutch processed cocoa and get it as dark as I can, before adding gel colour.

You’ll definitely want to use something like an Americolor or ChefMaster, rather than something like Wilton. I find Wilton is nowhere near as concentrated or vibrant.

Making White Frosting

If you’re using butter, your frosting will be more of an ivory, than a white. There are two ways around this (3 if you're having an emergency!):

1. Use shortening instead of butter. (Please don’t!)

2. Add some Americolor White Gel Paste .

3. Adding a VERY VERY SMALL amount of purple or lavender gel colour can neutralize the yellow from the butter. VERY VERY VERY small amount.

It is very easy to overdo it, so this should just be a worst case scenario. You can’t un-purple your frosting if you add too much!

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Cake Recipes!

Looking for some ridiculously delicious cake recipes that you can frost with this American Buttercream? As the "Evil Cake Overlord", I've got you covered! (Ps: Check out my instructions for making Marshmallow Fondant, as well!)

Tortes:
B-52 Torte
Bahama Mama Torte
Blood Orange Truffle Torte
Citrus Splendor Torte
Cookies N Cream Cake
Raspberry Tiramisu Torte
Schmoo Torte
Spumoni Cake
Tiger Tail Cake

Bundt, Sheet, & Upside Down Cakes
Bananas Foster Upside Down Cake
Brandied Apple Upside Down Cake
Deep N Delicious Cake
French Martini Bundt Cake
French Martini Upside Down Cake
Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake
Pina Colada Bundt Cake
Strawberry Mango Marble Cake

Cupcakes:
3D Monarch Butterfly Cupcakes
Black Velvet Cupcakes
Chai Cupcakes
Easy Butterfly Cupcakes
Fat Elvis Cupcakes
Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes
Pink Grapefruit Daiquiri Cupcakes

Fillings & Frostings
Milk Chocolate Whipped Ganache
Stabilized Whipped Cream
Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Also: I have Cake Decorating Tutorials, and posts about previous Decorated Cakes that I've made.