Wilton’s Classic Buttercream Icing Recipe

For the longest time, I completely avoided decorating cakes. I would just slap a thin, messy layer of frosting over a cake with a butter knife and call it “rustic.” The truth was, every time I tried to pipe those beautiful, sharp stars or rosettes that you see in bakery windows, my frosting would immediately melt. It would slump over into a sad, greasy puddle five minutes after leaving the piping bag.

I thought I was just bad at piping. Turns out, I was just using the wrong frosting.

If you want frosting that actually holds its shape, you cannot use a 100% butter recipe, especially if your kitchen is even slightly warm. You have to use a “crusting” buttercream. Wilton’s classic buttercream recipe is the industry standard for a reason. It uses a specific ratio of butter to vegetable shortening. The butter gives it flavor, and the shortening gives it structural integrity. Once piped, the outside layer dries into a very thin, perfectly smooth crust that seals the moisture inside and stops the design from melting.

I use this stuff on everything. If you are baking a massive batch of cupcakes, this is what you want. You can even use a dollop of this to sandwich two of my Pistachio Dream Cookie Bars together. If you prefer your frosting baked straight into the dessert rather than piped on top, go make my Vanilla Magic Custard Cake instead. But if you need sharp, professional-looking cake decorations that won’t slide off in the sun, this is the only recipe you need.

🧁 Prep Time · Frosts 24 Cupcakes · Crusting Buttercream

Prep time: 15 min · Yield: 3 cups of icing · Calories: 140 kcal (per 2 tablespoons)

The Nutrition Breakdown

Let’s just be honest here. This is professional bakery frosting. It is made entirely of fat and powdered sugar. You do not eat this for your health. Here is the estimated breakdown per standard serving (about 2 level tablespoons of piped frosting):

• Calories: 140
• Protein: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 20g
• Total Sugars: 19g
• Fat: 7g
• Saturated Fat: 3.5g
• Sodium: 5mg

If you are currently looking at those sugar numbers in horror and want a holiday snack that has some actual protein in it, I highly suggest making my Birthday Cake Batter Protein Balls instead.

The Right Tools for the Job

You cannot mix this by hand. If you try to hand-beat four cups of powdered sugar into solid vegetable shortening, your arm will fall off before the frosting is smooth.

The Mixer: A stand mixer is ideal, but a strong electric hand mixer works too. Crucial rule: Use the paddle attachment, not the whisk. The whisk attachment whips massive air bubbles into the frosting. You want smooth, dense icing, not a sponge.

The Sifter: You need a fine mesh strainer or a flour sifter. If you dump powdered sugar straight from the bag into the bowl, you will get hard little sugar rocks in your frosting. When you try to pipe it, those rocks will get permanently lodged in the tip of your piping bag.

The Ingredient Lineup

For 3 Cups of Stiff Icing:
* 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
* 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
* 4 cups powdered sugar (confectioners’ sugar), sifted
* 2 tablespoons milk (or water)

The Shortening: This is non-negotiable. Standard vegetable shortening melts at a much higher temperature than butter. That is exactly why this frosting holds those sharp ridges even if the cake is sitting in a warm room. Do not buy butter-flavored shortening. It tastes incredibly fake. Buy the plain white stuff.

The Butter: It must be room temperature, but not melting. If it is greasy and sliding around the wrapper, it is too warm and your frosting will be soup.

The Vanilla: If you want pure, snow-white wedding cake frosting, you *must* buy clear imitation vanilla extract. Standard real vanilla extract is dark brown. If you use it, your icing will be an off-white, ivory color. (If you don’t care about the color being pure white, real vanilla is perfectly fine to use).

The Liquid: Milk makes it taste a bit richer. However, if you are making a cake that is going to sit outside at a summer party for six hours, use water instead of milk so it doesn’t spoil.

Cream, Sift, Mix

1. Cream the fats.
Put the softened butter and the solid vegetable shortening into your mixing bowl.

Beat them together on medium speed for about two full minutes until they are completely blended and smooth. Stop the mixer and use a silicone spatula to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl.

2. Add the flavor.
Add the clear vanilla extract (and any liquid food coloring, if you are using it) to the butter mixture. Beat for another 30 seconds.

3. Sift the sugar.
Do not skip this. Sift your 4 cups of powdered sugar through a mesh strainer into a separate bowl to remove all the hard lumps.

4. Add the sugar gradually.
Turn your mixer to the lowest possible speed. If you leave it on high, the paddle will launch a cloud of powdered sugar directly into your face and all over your kitchen counters.

Add the sifted sugar about one cup at a time. Let it fully blend into the butter before adding the next cup. The mixture will start to look incredibly dry and stiff. That is normal.

5. Add the liquid.
Once all the sugar is in, add the 2 tablespoons of milk (or water). Keep the mixer on low/medium speed and beat it for about one minute until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Do not overbeat it. If you beat it for five minutes, you will introduce huge air pockets that will pop and ruin the look of your piped designs.

What I Got Wrong First

My very first batch of this was a disaster because I refused to use shortening. I thought I was above it. I used a full cup of butter instead. The frosting tasted fine, but the second the heat from my hands touched the plastic piping bag, the butter melted. I tried to pipe a rose, and it came out looking like a melted puddle of yellow wax. The shortening is the structural rebar of this recipe. Respect it.

My second massive mistake was ignoring the sifting rule. I dumped the sugar straight from the bag. I filled my piping bag, squeezed it, and a tiny rock of hardened sugar completely jammed my star tip. I tried to squeeze harder to force it out, and the entire plastic piping bag exploded out the back, covering my shirt in frosting. Sift your sugar.

Quick Frosting Troubleshooting

Why is my icing too stiff?
This recipe produces a “stiff” consistency, which is perfect for piping upright flowers or sharp borders. If you are just trying to spread it flat over a cake with a spatula, it will tear the cake apart. To fix it, simply add more milk, one teaspoon at a time, until it reaches a spreadable consistency.

Why is my icing too soft?
Your kitchen is too hot, or your butter was melting before you even started. Put the entire bowl of frosting in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up the fats, then beat it again. If it is still too soft, add another half cup of sifted powdered sugar.

My frosting is full of holes and air bubbles!
You beat it on high speed, or you used a whisk attachment. To fix it, take the bowl off the mixer. Take a heavy silicone spatula and manually press and smear the frosting against the sides of the bowl back and forth for about two minutes. You are literally squishing the air bubbles out by hand.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Buttercream is the ultimate make-ahead ingredient.

Fridge: You can make this up to two weeks in advance. Store it in an airtight container in the fridge. Because the fats harden in the cold, it will be rock solid when you pull it out. You must let it sit on the counter until it reaches room temperature, then throw it back in the mixer for a minute to whip it back to life before you pipe it.

Freezer: It freezes beautifully for up to three months. Thaw it in the fridge overnight, then bring it to room temperature and re-whip it.

If you piped this frosting onto a cake or cupcakes, they are perfectly safe to sit out on the kitchen counter for up to 3 days. The high sugar content and the crusting nature of the frosting act as a preservative.

Variations and Tweaks

Chocolate Buttercream: Add 3/4 cup of sifted unsweetened cocoa powder to the bowl at the exact same time you add the powdered sugar. You will likely need to add 1 or 2 extra tablespoons of milk, as the cocoa powder makes the frosting very dry.

Almond Wedding Cake Flavor: Swap half of the vanilla extract for pure almond extract. This immediately makes the frosting taste like a slice of high-end wedding cake.

Fruity Frosting: Instead of milk, use 2 tablespoons of the concentrated syrup/juice from a jar of maraschino cherries or strawberry jam. If you have extra fruit sitting around from making my Fluffy Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes, blend them up and use a tiny bit of the puree as your liquid.