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Quick & easy recipe for Vanilla Frosting with powdered sugar is smooth, rich, and creamy. Make this vanilla frosting for brownies, red velvet cake, cookies and more!
Why We Love This Recipe
- Rich and Creamy: Luscious, soft and thick, this frosting is easy to pipe and sweet, but not too sweet.
- Perfect Vanilla Flavor: Cozy, comforting and delicious. The right amount of vanilla to go with everything.
- So Versatile: Works on cakes, cupcakes, cookie sandwiches and more!
Vanilla Frosting for Red Velvet Cake, Brownies, and More!
Okay are you LOVING all the frosting we’ve been making? From chocolate frosting to lemon cream cheese frosting and peanut butter frosting, we’ve been whipping, beating and making the best ever homemade frostings! Today’s vanilla frosting with powdered sugar is no exception.
This vanilla frosting for brownies, cake and more is rich and creamy, with luscious, perfectly pipeable thickness that’s sweet, but not too sweet, and silky smooth vanilla flavor that tastes great on cupcakes, cakes, cookies, and more! This easy, 5 ingredient recipe takes just minutes to make and is so much better than store-bought. Like, a million times better!
Vanilla Frosting with Powdered Sugar Ingredients
- Butter: use unsalted butter and soften it to room temperature before using
- Salt
- Confectioners’ Sugar: I’ve included a range so you can choose exactly how sweet and thick you’d like your frosting to be
- Heavy Cream: this ingredient adds richness and helps to smooth out the frosting
- Vanilla: make sure to use pure vanilla extract and skip imitation, as it does not taste good
How to Make Vanilla Frosting
It’s super easy to make rich and thick vanilla frosting not too sweet, with just 3 base steps and one final one to frost your baked goodie!
- Using a hand mixer and bowl or stand mixer, beat butter until creamy. Beat in salt.
- 1/2 cup at a time, beat in confectioners’ sugar until thickened and smooth.
- Stir in heavy cream and vanilla, until you get thick, creamy, perfectly pipeable texture.
- Pipe powdered sugar vanilla frosting onto cooled cupcakes, cakes and more.
Demeter’s Tips
- Make this frosting as sweet as you’d like: for vanilla frosting – not too sweet: use 3 cups confectioners’ sugar; for sweeter, use 5 cups.
- Only frost onto baked goods that have fully cooled. If there’s even a hint of warmth, the frosting will melt.
- Don’t skip the salt: it actually makes this frosting taste sweeter, with greater depth to its flavors.
- Like thicker or thinner frosting? Use more confectioners’ sugar and less heavy cream for thicker; the opposite for thinner frosting.
What to Use This Vanilla Frosting On
You can use this homemade creamy supreme vanilla frosting to sandwich in between two cookies, frosted onto cake and cupcakes as well as sweets like pound cake and monkey bread!
- Cakes & Cupcakes: red velvet, chocolate cupcakes, pumpkin cake, carrot cake cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, and more.
- Sweets: apple monkey bread, buttermilk pound cake, pumpkin donuts
- Cookies & Bars: spread onto cinnamon oatmeal cookies, gingersnaps, crispy chewy oatmeal cookies, peanut butter blondies, and brownie bites.
For more delicious recipe ideas like vanilla frosting for red velvet cake, follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. If you’ve tried this recipe, take a pic and tag us on Instagram using #beamingbaker. We can’t wait to see it! Sending you all my love and maybe even a dove, xo Demeter ❤️
More Frosting Recipes
You’ll also love: lemon glaze, streusel topping, apple spice dump cake, and vegan chocolate frosting.
Vanilla Frosting with Powdered Sugar
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 3-5 cups powdered sugar, or confectioners’ sugar (I used 4 cups)
- ¼ cup heavy cream*, more if desired
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Throughout this recipe, scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. With a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat butter until creamy. Add salt and mix until combined.
- Gradually add in powdered sugar, about ½ cup at a time, beating until thickened and smooth. Here, you can add more confectioners’ sugar for a thicker frosting, and less for a thinner frosting.
- Stir in heavy cream and vanilla until well mixed. For a thinner frosting, you can add more heavy cream. Spread or pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes or cake.
- ★ Last Step: If you made this recipe, leave a comment and review. It truly helps our small business keep running and it helps readers like you!
Notes
- *Heavy cream can be substituted with half-and-half or whole milk
- Storing Instructions: Store unused frosting in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 days or in the freezer for 1 month.
- For cupcakes: This vanilla frosting recipe makes enough frosting to thickly frost 12 cupcakes or thinly frost 24 cupcakes.
- For cake: This recipe makes enough vanilla frosting for a double layered 8-inch round cake. Make more or less depending on how thickly you want to frost the cake.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
