Oh, buttercream frosting.
Now, most people are under the impression that “real” buttercream includes these ingredients: butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, maybe a little milk. It’s “real” because it uses butter instead of shortening. Only, it isn’t. That version is a “quick buttercream” and it is extremely high sugar: usually 4 – 5 cups per cup (1/2 lb.) of butter! It does make a good decorator’s frosting because it can be made very stiff. But is it, in any way, “healthy?” Not a chance.
Real buttercream frosting is very different. It’s a cooked frosting, made with beaten eggs (or sometimes just egg whites), a small amount of sugar, and of course, butter. But it is truly delicious, and has an amazing texture.
I’ve studied real buttercreams for awhile. I even tried making some once, almost 10 years ago. I knew nothing about baking or cooking and tried to follow a recipe, only to end up with slightly sweetened butter. Now, a good buttercream is sort of like that anyway, by its nature. But it should be more than that. I was disappointed and never used it.
I tried another recipe around Christmas last year. It was good, not the best. I sampled a few from local bakeries. I knew I had to make one that was good! I read every recipe I could get my hands on, and tried to learn how and why they work. Eventually, I figured out what the goal was, method-wise. Then I went into the kitchen to create.
What came out was, in my opinion, the best buttercream ever. If you’ve only had powdered-sugar frosting, it’s not like that at all. It’s completely smooth, buttery, sweet, and rich, without being that overly-sweet, gritty, heavy frosting. You just have to try it. It’s amazing.
The best part? Per pound of butter (2 cups!), it uses less than 1 cup of sugar, yet is still plenty sweet! That’s 10% as much as your standard powdered sugar version. Not bad, for a real food dessert. 
Read the recipe carefully — several times. I’ll note all the spots that were tricky for me so that hopefully you can make it without problems. Then enjoy!
Ingredients:
- ¾ c. sucanat or organic cane sugar (you could use honey or maple syrup too — just follow the directions but skip the water)
- ¼ c. filtered water
- 2 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks (room temperature)
- Pinch of salt
- 1 lb. unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
You will need:
- Large glass bowl (or stainless steel bowl from a stand mixer)
- Stand mixer or hand-held mixer with whisk attachment
- Small saucepan
- Candy thermometer
Directions:
Gather up all your supplies now, because you won’t have time to do it as this is happening. The temperature of the eggs and butter is very important, so set them out ahead of time. A stand mixer will make this quite a bit easier, but it is possible to do it with a hand mixer — I did.
In your saucepan, add your sugar and your water. I wanted a “pure” vanilla flavor, so I’m using organic cane sugar. I have used sucanat before too and it is yummy, it just adds a definite “flavor” to it. Attach your candy thermometer to the pot so that it is in the sugar but not touching the bottom. Turn it on medium high. Do not stir.
Meanwhile, add your eggs and yolks to a large glass bowl and add a pinch of salt, maybe 1/8 tsp. if you like measuring. I don’t.
While your sugar syrup is cooking, whip your eggs until they are thick, quadrupled in volume, and almost gelatinous — they should form very soft peaks, though because of the yolks they will never be a “meringue.” This is okay.
You are waiting for your syrup to reach 240 degrees, the “softball” stage. Watch the thermometer. Mine’s not quite there in the picture below, but almost. This process took 15 – 20 minutes.
When your sugar syrup reaches 240, remove the candy thermometer. If using a stand mixer, turn it on low so it’s constantly beating the eggs. If not, then grab your hand mixer in one hand and turn it on (in the eggs, please, so there’s not a mess!) and grab the pot handle in the other hand. You are going to pour the hot sugar syrup down the side of the bowl.
Notice how close to the edge I am. This is important. Running it down the side lets it cool off slightly before hitting the eggs, making it less likely to cook them. It prevents it from splashing up and burning you. It also allows it to incorporate slowly.
Beat the egg mixture constantly as you add the sugar syrup. It is cooking the egg proteins gently, making them fluffy. Once the sugar syrup is all in, the mixture should resemble marshmallow in taste and texture.
I stopped my mixer just to taste it and play with it for a minute. Keep beating it, though, until the mixture is cooled down to room temperature — this should take less than five minutes. And it is important.
Now, it’s time to add your butter. It’s important that it be room temperature and very soft (like mine above). We are creating an emulsion here, and if the ingredients are vastly different temperatures, it will not happen. It will fall apart into a soupy mess (which is possible, though annoying, to fix). If the egg mixture is too hot, it melts the butter and separates — put it in the fridge for a few minutes and resume beating. If the butter is too cold, it doesn’t incorporate well and you have the same issue — place it over a pot of simmering water to heat it up and then keep beating. Or, make sure your ingredients are the right temperature and skip all that.
Start adding butter, a couple tablespoons at a time. Your mixture will deflate and become very runny and strange looking — that is normal. It will stay thin and odd-looking until you are adding the last 1/2 cup of butter. Then, suddenly, it will thicken and whip up nicely. Frosting!
At this point, add your vanilla and mix again, briefly. It’s done! Transfer to a glass storage dish and keep in the fridge for a week or so, or in the freezer for a month or more. You will need to let it soften before you can frost a cake with it.
Store frosted cakes in the fridge or freezer. Try the chocolate cake I posted last week. I covered the outside of mine with sliced almonds!
**This post has been entered in Healthy 2day Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday.**
What’s your favorite use for frosting?
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TESTING!
Would this work with Splenda, Xylitol, or Stevia? I can’t have even a little sugar, but this recipe sounds delicious.
I might try xylitol. Splenda’s not especially healthy, and stevia doesn’t have the bulk/volume needed. Xylitol might work though. Let us know if you try it!
Just read an article about how terrible xylitol is. Double check that. I won’t buy it!
Xylitol, is not a healthy option! It’s chemically processed from wood, you would be better off just using sugar. Better to use honey or maple syrup.
Ooo, a french buttercream, I made one of those for the first time in February. The whole eggs make it SO yummy rich. Personally, we like just a little more texture to our icing and those cooked buttercreams are so incredibly silky and ethereal. It may just be our sugar addiction that makes us feel that way! But I made a tiny batch of a super simple butter loaded quickie buttercream that has heavy cream whipped into in it and is also very silky and fluffy light while still having some more oomph. When mixed together with the french one it was perfect for us and made the frosting a bit more temperature stable too.
I can’t wait to try this!! Thank-you!!
This looks amazing!! If you’re going to use maple syrup instead of sugar/water, would you use 3/4 cup?? I cook a lot with maple syrup these days…
Hi Susan, I think that should work well. I know it works with honey. I want to try it with maple syrup too someday.
I just made this frosting with 3/4 c of honey instead of sugar. It only took the honey a few minutes to reach soft ball, so my eggs were nowhere near ready for it. So watch out for that!
The vanilla is really good, but I also made some chocolate by adding cocoa powder and that is the best! Thanks for this recipe!
I just made this…..AMAZING! Best I have EVER tasted! Thank you!
I want to make a strawberry buttercream for my daughter’s birthday. do you all think i could add chopped or pureed strawberries to the finished product or would that mess with the texture?
Hi Sarah, it should work fine. Just make sure the puree or whatever is at room temperature, because if it’s too cold that could mess with the texture. But adding stuff in the final step is how you flavor this normally.
I just made Swiss meringue buttercream the other day for the first time. It’s very much like this, except only uses the whites. It was so amazing!
It is! The Swiss version is just a little bit lighter. I like that one too. But I prefer the French.
WOW! I have never made a butter cream frosting before, and this was an excellent tutorial. Thank you so much for including so many details, I just made half a batch, using honey (no water) and it is so delicious I can’t even believe it. Thanks!
This is sublime! Worked perfectly with 1/2c honey and 1/4 c maple syrup!
I tried this but it failed to thicken up.
/ I used 3/4 cup of honey instead of sugar. Is there anything I can do to fix it?
Yes! Try refrigerating briefly to cool it down a little, then add more butter. It tends to stay soupy until it suddenly thickens. Did you make sure to heat the honey until it reached 238 degrees? If the honey wasn’t hot enough to cook the eggs properly and form the “meringue” then it may not hold its structure properly. (I wanted to find a way to do it “raw” but it can’t be done, as far as I know, for this reason. I tried it and it stayed soupy.)
I made this today after seeing the recommendation on gapsdietjourney.com Used organic sugar and regular salted butter (that’s all I had). First time I ever made a cooked buttercream frosting and it turned out awesome! I love the light texture and that it’s not too sweet. I can definitely taste the salt from the butter (also used a few shakes during the beating of the eggs), but I don’t mind the slightly salty sweet flavor. Although next time I’ll try it with unsalted butter. A definite keeper for a frosting recipe! thanks!
Wow! I just stumbled on your website and AM SO EXCITED to explore it more. I have been playing with a healthier version (aka less refined sugar) of a butter cream frosting for years and my attempts have been sub-par. I am so looking forward to trying this one! THANK YOU!
This was sooo good, thank you so much for the recipe. I had been wanting to make swiss buttercream GAPS-friendly and was so excited to find your post so I didn’t have to do the guesswork myself. I made half a recipe (with honey) and it was just barely enough to ice two layers of your pound cake recipe. I put vanilla in the center for the filling and then added cocoa powder to frost the outside with chocolate (my son couldn’t decide which he wanted). They were both terrific, but I think the chocolate was the favorite in our household. I will definitely be making this again, thank you so much!!
Wow, I just made this using the exact recipe (using honey) and directions above, and it came out great! I made the whole thing with my hand mixer and regular beaters (I don’t have a whisk attachment for any of my mixers!) and it worked just fine. I agree with another comment that the honey comes up to temperature faster than sugar/water, so be ready with your eggs; it took my honey probably less than 5 minutes to reach soft ball stage on medium heat. And of course I started to worry when I was adding the butter and it turned first soupy, then grainy and chunky, but it smoothed out into glorious silky frosting by the time I added the last piece of butter! I was really hoping to have an icing I could do ahead for my daughter’s 4th birthday (instead of a meringue or whipped cream that had to be prepared last-minute) and this is it! Thank you!
Hi Kate! This looks so good, I can’t wait to try it! I was wondering, would this recipe be amenable to a natural food coloring (i.e. red cabbage for blue or Matcha tea for green)? Does it do well as a decorator icing? Thanks so much! ~Cait
It’s sort of difficult as a decorator’s icing because when it’s workable, it gets too soft very quickly. It can be colored though.
Hi Kate! I’m really excited to try this recipe for my son’s birthday coming up! I was wondering, do you think it is amenable to adding a natural food coloring (i.e. red cabbage for blue or Matcha tea for green)? Does it do well as a decorator icing? Thanks, can’t wait to try this!
I’m sorry didn’t see your original reply! I didn’t think my comment posted properly
Thanks for getting back to me!
Could I use this as a frosting underneath fondant?
It’s very soft and melts easily, so you probably could — but you’d need to put the cake in the fridge after adding this and before adding the fondant so it would stay put, and it would need to stay refrigerated.
I am looking forward to making this for my sons birthday party! finally a frosting recipe that doesn’t use a ton of sugar! My question is does it keep well? In order to avoid a huge rush on party day I was going to try to make this today but was wondering if it would keep for a few days? I would assume it would need to be refrigerated and then come back to room temp to be spreadable.
wow, way to go me! Next time I’ll read the whole recipe before asking a stupid question! haha
When one works hard enough, something great usually comes from it, just like this seemingly wonderful version of buttercream frosting, I say seemingly because I haven’t made it yet, but I’m very happy to see that this version is lower in sugar and butter. Good job and thank you!
I am wondering if this would work for decorating cookies? i am hoping to have the kids decorate their own cookies at my son’s bday party, and i could probably keep the icing cold (relatively) until decorating time – hmm. also can you freeze this like you can w/ the other buttercream?
It can be frozen, yes. You also don’t want to keep it too cold, it takes a good hour to soften enough to be appropriate for decorating. It will not be as firm as “normal” decorating icing and will melt as the kids touch it, of course. But it should work well enough that they’ll enjoy it. Add some naturally-dyed sprinkles or something and I’m sure they’ll love it!
Would this work okay for cupcakes…Looking for something a little more healthy for a company picnic. I’ve always used the usual powdered sugar buttercream. I need something that will hold up to put an edible image on top.
It would have to be refrigerated before and after adding an image to hold it. It will get very soft after it has been sitting out for an hour or two.
YUM! I just made this to go with your white bean cake and it was delicious. My only change (and admittedly, it’s a big one) was that I used about half the amount of butter you suggested and it still emulsified beautifully. It’s VERY rich – I can’t imagine how buttery it would be if I used the full amount? I also used coconut sugar and it was delicious – gave it a real toffee kind of flavour. Thanks for the great recipe, I’ll use this again!
After a bit of trepidation, I just made a half batch of this. I was afraid of ruining it on the first try as I seem to be good at doing, and I did not want to waste precious butter and honey. Ha ha! However, I followed your instructions to a “t” and, just as you said, it came together into perfectly whipped frosting at the last minute. Amazing! I can honestly tell you that I have never been a big lover of frosting my entire life, including childhood. Well apparently that is because I had never experienced REAL buttercream before. I daresay that I may never make a different frosting after this. You’ve made a convert out of me.
I almost never comment on recipes – though I find the comments of other readers’ extremely helpful – and I certainly don’t ever gush. I honestly think many bloggers think too highly of their recipes, so I have learned to go into it with tempered expectations. Well congratulations for completely exceeding my expectations beyond what I ever thought possible for frosting. LOL. Okay I’m done now. I just had to comment. Thanks so much for your very detailed instructions. I probably would have ruined it otherwise. 
~ Amelia
P.S. We’re frosting leaf shaped sugar (cut out) cookies (made with almond flour and honey) after nap time today with my girls!
))
Just clipped this one! Thanks!
Is there any way you know of to not use eggs? We are gluten and egg free and I always find these amazing baked goods recipes, but they almost always call for eggs. Thanks!
Did anyone ever answer this for you? Just found out my baby boy is allergic to eggs, so I’m trying to learn how to make egg-free things so we can switch over as a family together as time goes on. Thanks!
Thank you, thank you, thank you !!! You are a cooking genius!!! I am the mother of four boys and our family has been following the GAPS diet for almost two years therefore any icing containing sugar has been completely out of the question. I have been looking for a replacement to traditional icing for most of our time on GAPS. I made this one tonight to frost our heart shaped Valentin’s day cake and it was absolutely divine! The boys loved it so much they were eating the icing by itself. A few notes on how I made it: I used honey and omitted the water as per the recipe and I also used room temperature ghee instead of butter. It is the middle of winter here in Northern Canada therefore the ghee was not completely liquid. The only difference I noticed with these changes is that the icing did not form much peaks when I was done all the mixing as it did in the photos of the post but it hardened up nicely once in the fridge and was very easy to use to frost the cake.
Thanks again,
Angèle
I just tried this for the first time. I totally did something wrong! The sugar syrup turned into a candy like texture after adding to the eggs… any idea what I did wrong?
I was just wondering about the texture and consistinsey after putting the frosting in the fridge once it’s done? I’ve made a lot of different BC icings (never one like this) and never had any luck with it having that smooth texture when I bring it out of the fridge and get it to room temp, it doesn’t spread nicely on the cake or look good. Thanks for any pointers you might have.
Hi Lara, if it’s fully softened, it will be very smooth and work well. Since it’s mostly butter it behaves very similarly to butter.
This sounds wonderful! Where did you get the recipe?