Similar to traditional vanilla buttercream frosting you’re keen on on muffins and cupcakes, this 5-ingredient cookie adorning buttercream is deliciously creamy and candy. It’s excellent for cookie adorning newbies, and soft-sets after a couple of hours. You may pipe designs onto cut-out cookies, like sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies, or just unfold it on and high with sprinkles! See video tutorial within the recipe for inspiration.
Whereas royal icing is my first selection on the subject of adorning sugar cookies, I do know it’s not everybody’s favourite cookie icing to work with. Which is why I developed this simple cookie icing, a beautiful glaze-like different. However typically you simply don’t need to mess with both!
It’s good to have choices.
If you need a creamy buttercream frosting, that holds its piped form and will be tinted any shade you want, then this cookie adorning buttercream is for you. And it tastes SO scrumptious on high of a cookie!
This Cookie Adorning Buttercream:
- Is fast and straightforward to make
- Might be tinted any shade with gel meals coloring (right here is my favourite model)
- Is good and creamy and flavored with actual vanilla
- Might be piped into designs with completely different piping ideas or just unfold onto cookies
- Is great on high of so many varieties/flavors of cookies
- Comfortable-sets after a couple of hours
The cookies you see listed here are my traditional sugar cookies. They’ve an irresistible buttery vanilla taste and gentle, thick facilities. Plus, they maintain their form when baking and have a flat floor that’s excellent for adorning.
However be at liberty to make use of this cookie adorning buttercream on one other taste of cut-out cookies, like:
Or just unfold it on high of one other type of cookie, like we do on these gentle and cakey sugar cookies.
Seize These 5 Components:
- Butter: You may’t make buttercream with out butter! Although salted is okay, I like to recommend utilizing unsalted butter so you’ll be able to management the added salt. Whichever you utilize, ensure you are utilizing correct room-temperature butter.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: Sweetens vanilla buttercream and provides stability and pipe-ability to the frosting.
- Heavy Cream: A little bit cream smooths out the frosting. Although complete milk or half-and-half are completely acceptable, use heavy cream for max richness. I take advantage of much less in at present’s buttercream than in my common vanilla buttercream, to maintain it thicker.
- Vanilla Extract: As a result of that is the primary taste within the frosting, I strongly advocate utilizing high-quality pure vanilla extract (not imitation vanilla). You could possibly additionally use home made vanilla extract.
- Salt: Only a pinch, to steadiness the candy.
Tips on how to Make It
American-style buttercream is fast and straightforward.
Ensure your butter is softened to room temperature earlier than starting. Use a hand or stand mixer to beat it till clean and creamy. Beat within the remaining elements, style, after which add salt. At this level, you’ll be able to add extra confectioners’ sugar to thicken, or a splash of heavy cream to skinny out. That’s it!
I’ve the complete written-out, printable recipe beneath.
Tips on how to Rid Buttercream of Air Bubbles
Over-whipping buttercream creates air bubbles. The style is not any completely different, however the buttercream is not clean and velvet-y. Right here’s the way to do away with air bubbles in your frosting:
Flip off the mixer and seize a wood or metallic spoon or silicone spatula and start stirring the buttercream by hand. Mash the frosting up in opposition to the edges of the bowl to “pop” the bubbles. Do that till many of the air bubbles deflate, about 1–2 minutes. This trick requires a variety of arm muscle!
Tint the Frosting and Fill Piping Luggage
You may preserve the buttercream white or tint it with gel meals coloring. To paint it, divide it into small bowls. Add gel meals coloring to every bowl and blend nicely. For lighter tints, I like to recommend utilizing the tip of a toothpick so as to add shade, reasonably than squeezing an entire drop into the bowl of frosting.
Seize a piping bag for every shade of icing. Match every with a coupler and piping tip. Once I’m utilizing a number of colours with the identical piping tip, I all the time use couplers.
What are couplers? Couplers are 2-piece units that connect to small piping ideas, and preserve them OUTSIDE of the piping bag. This makes it simple to swap piping ideas among the many completely different coloured luggage of icing.
Fill the piping bag: Spoon the buttercream into the piping bag, ensuring to depart a couple of inches of area on the high of the bag. A tall cup makes this simpler! Place the piping bag inside, with the tip close to the underside of the cup, and fold the tip of the bag over the edges of the cup, then fill with frosting. You may see me doing this within the video beneath.
Whereas not completely vital, I take advantage of these clips to safe the tip of the piping bag, so the frosting doesn’t leak out the tip of the bag.
Piping Suggestions I Use to Beautify Cookies With Buttercream
This cookie adorning buttercream holds form fantastically and works for intricate designs. To brighten the sugar cookies you see pictured at present, crew members Allison and Stephanie and I used piping ideas from this actual Wilton 55-Piece Piping Suggestions Set.
Once more, you may get all of the following pointers in a helpful Piping Suggestions Set, which additionally consists of the piping ideas I take advantage of to embellish cookies with royal icing.
You may pipe zig-zags, swirls, strains, or no matter your coronary heart needs! See video tutorial beneath for inspiration. We used white balls from these sprinkles for tree “ornaments” and coarse sugar on the “snow.”
If you wish to skip piping luggage and ideas, use a knife or icing spatula to frost the cookies.
It doesn’t absolutely crust, however it does “gentle set,” which suggests it units sufficient to be dry on high. You’ll nonetheless should be a bit cautious stacking the adorned cookies. To make a crusting buttercream, change half of the butter (1/2 cup) with shortening.
Sure, completely! Cut back the vanilla extract to only 1/2 teaspoon, after which you should utilize one other extract equivalent to peppermint, coconut, lemon, maple, or almond. I might begin with only one/2 teaspoon of any of those, style, after which beat in additional if desired.
Relying how a lot frosting you placed on every cookie, this buttercream is sufficient for a minimum of 24 to 30 cookies.
Sure, you should utilize this buttercream to embellish a gingerbread home. See my gingerbread home recipe. The recipe beneath doesn’t crust as a lot because the buttercream recipe I embrace within the gingerbread home recipe, as that one incorporates shortening (which aids in crusting). At the moment’s buttercream shouldn’t be excellent as a “glue” for the gingerbread home items. For that, you’ll want royal icing.
Extra Adorning Tutorials
Need to discover ways to embellish cupcakes? Watch my the way to use piping ideas video to study 5 fundamental however lovely methods to pipe frosting onto cupcakes.
Need to give royal icing a attempt subsequent? Right here’s my the way to embellish sugar cookies with royal icing video.
And these are my high really useful cookie adorning provides.
Cookie Adorning Buttercream
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Complete Time: 5 minutes
Yield: 2.5 cups (a minimum of 24-30 cookies)
Class: Dessert
Methodology: Mixing
Delicacies: American
Description
Similar to traditional vanilla buttercream frosting you’re keen on on muffins and cupcakes, this 5-ingredient cookie adorning buttercream is deliciously creamy and candy. It’s excellent for cookie adorning newbies, and soft-sets on the cookies after a couple of hours. You may pipe designs onto cut-out cookies, like sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies, or just unfold it on with a knife and high with sprinkles! See video tutorial within the recipe for inspiration.
Directions
- Have your cookies baked and cooled utterly. You may use this recipe, or your favourite recipe for cookies.
- Make the buttercream: With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium velocity till creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Beat on low velocity for 30 seconds, then enhance to medium-high velocity and beat for two full minutes. Style. Add a pinch of salt if frosting is just too candy. I all the time add 1/8 teaspoon. To thicken the buttercream, beat in additional confectioners’ sugar. To skinny out the buttercream, beat in additional heavy cream.
- Shade the icing: If you happen to’d prefer to tint the icing, divide it into separate bowls for every shade, or tint the whole batch one shade. A little bit gel meals coloring goes a great distance, so use a toothpick to dot the gel into the icing. Stir it in, after which add extra to deepen the colour if desired.
- Use piping ideas or knife/icing spatula: You need to use a knife or icing spatula to frost the cookies. Or, if utilizing piping ideas, match a piping/pastry bag with a piping tip (and use a coupler when you plan to change frosting colours and/or piping ideas). Spoon the buttercream into the bag, ensuring to depart a couple of inches of area on the high of the bag. Twist the tip of the bag or use a clip to seal it shut. You may pipe zig-zags, swirls, strains, dots, or no matter your coronary heart needs! See video tutorial beneath for some inspiration.
- When you have leftover buttercream, cowl it tightly and retailer within the fridge for as much as 1 week.
Notes
- Make Forward and Freezing Directions: Freeze in an hermetic container for as much as 3 months. Thaw within the fridge in a single day, then beat the frosting on medium velocity for a couple of seconds so it’s creamy once more. After thawing or refrigerating, beating in a splash of heavy cream or milk will assist skinny the frosting out once more, if wanted.
- Particular Instruments (affiliate hyperlinks): Electrical Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer) | Silicone Spatula | Gel Meals Coloring | Disposable or Reusable Piping Luggage | Couplers | Wilton 55-Piece Piping Suggestions Set | Bag Clips | Small Icing Spatula | White Sprinkles | Coarse Sugar Sprinkles
- Amount: Relying how a lot frosting you placed on every cookie, this buttercream is sufficient for a minimum of 24 to 30 cookies.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: In case your confectioners’ sugar is especially lumpy, I like to recommend sifting it earlier than measuring and utilizing.
- Heavy Cream: You need to use half-and-half or complete milk as a substitute if wanted. The decrease the fats, the much less creamy your buttercream can be. Whichever you utilize, make certain it’s at room temperature. In any other case your frosting may separate or seem grainy.
- Does This Buttercream Crust? It doesn’t absolutely crust, however it does “gentle set,” which suggests it units sufficient to be dry on high. You’ll nonetheless should be a bit cautious stacking the adorned cookies. To make a crusting buttercream, change half of the butter (1/2 cup/8 Tbsp/113g) with shortening.
- Can I Taste the Buttercream with Different Extracts? Sure, completely! Cut back the vanilla extract to only 1/2 teaspoon, after which you should utilize one other extract equivalent to peppermint, coconut, lemon, maple, or almond. I might begin with only one/2 teaspoon of any of those, style, after which beat in additional if desired.
