Less Sweet American Buttercream Frosting

Pastel pink frosted cake with festive colorful sprinkles on top. Smooth sides of cake with fluffy swirls on top. Homemade style. Cake is on a glass pedestal with a stack of plates, forks and the bloom of a pink hydrangea in the background.

Silky, satiny, fluffy, smooth, spreads easily and pipes like a dream!

Tina Verrelli - epicuricloud.com

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: American Buttercream, frosting, less sweet frosting

Prep Time: 30

Servings: 24 Based on cupcakes

Equipment

1 stand mixer with flex edge or flat beater I use my KitchenAid 7qt Stand Mixer with Double Flex Edge Beater

Ingredients

2 1/2 sticks (282 g) unsalted butter
3 cups (320 g) powdered sugar*
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup (120 g) heavy cream room temp.
1/8 teaspoon fine grained salt

To Make .5 or 1.5 batch: See Notes

Instructions

Take butter out of refrigerator, cut into tablespoon pieces and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. You want it to be a cool room temperature - about 65-67 degrees F. (So it holds the air when whipping.)
Combine butter, sugar and salt in stand mixer bowl and beat for 3-4 minutes on speed 4/5. Scrape down bowl and mix for another 30 seconds.
Add vanilla to heavy cream. With mixer running on speed 1 or 2, slowly drizzle in heavy cream, vanilla mixture to emulsify the mixtures. (If the mixture breaks and looks curdled - just keep mixing.)
Beat 12-15 minutes on speed 5-6, stopping to scrape beater and bowl occasionally. Stir speed at end or hand stir to get out large bubbles
You should see it getting very fluffy, thick, silky and more white in color.
Frost / pipe on your cake or cupcakes. If serving within 2 hours, I'll put in a cool place. For longer I refrigerate uncovered until it firms up and then cover. If refrigerated, allow to come to room temperature before serving.

Notes

Powdered Sugar aka Confectioners' Sugar aka 10x Sugar.

I didn't realize powdered sugars could vary in their textural fineness. Powdered sugar is sometimes called 10x sugar as the standard is for it to be "screened" 10x for fineness. However once when deviating from my usual brand name Domino's for a store brand, I ended up with disappointingly grainy frosting. Possibly not all brands screen to the standard 10x? And brands can also vary in the amount of corn starch anti-caking ingredient added. Corn starch is not very soluble at room temperature, so a higher percentage in the blend could add to graininess. I've recently learned from this article that most organic brands of powdered sugar utilize tapioca starch rather than corn starch as the anti caking agent which can help lead to less gritty results and tapioca starch is more soluble at room temperature.

This style of frosting has a closer ratio of butter to sugar. It won't crust over as will American buttercream with a higher sugar ratio. Also, it will get firm in the refrigerator and is best left to come back to room temperature before serving.

To Make Half Batch:

1.25 sticks butter (141 grams)
160 grams powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
60 grams heavy cream
1/16 tsp. fine salt

To Make One and a Half (1 1/2) Batch:

3.75 sticks butter (423 grams)
480 grams powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
180 g heavy cream
1/8 + 1/16 fine salt

Nutrition (approx. data estimated via online nutritional calculator.)

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