Name: Perfect Piping Buttercream Recipe
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 5 servings
Ingredients: 1 c. shortening butter flavored; 1 c. butter; 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract; 1/2 tsp. almond extract; 7 1/2 c. powdered sugar; 1/3 c. heavy whipping cream; gel or paste icing dyes

Perfect Piping Buttercream Recipe

Perfect Piping Buttercream is the absolute best recipe for frosting cakes and cookies with a great consistency just right for piping your beautiful designs. This luscious buttercream frosting is light and airy with added flavor from vanilla and almond extract.

Prep15 minutes

Total15 minutes

Serves5

Published 30 Nov 2015

Perfect Piping Buttercream is the absolute best recipe for frosting cakes and cookies with a great consistency just right for piping your beautiful designs. This luscious buttercream frosting is light and airy with added flavor from vanilla and almond extract.

Best Buttercream

Frosting cut-out cookies for holidays is both my favorite and most dreaded activity. I LOVE frosting the first couple dozen cookies with beautifully ornate piped designs with buttercream.

I am alone in this process though because no one else in my family is willing to help. They claim they “can’t do it as well” and therefore are unwilling to even try. Total cop out!

cut-out cookies

Frosting for cookies

So 5-6 dozen cookies and hours later I am completely burnt out. The cookies are beautiful and taste amazing, but man oh man are my hands tired and eyes weary.

Frosting cookies should totally be a family affair and it would be much more fun. When I have children, I will happily let them slather on the frosting in the ugliest of designs, mostly because that means I won’t have to frost as many cookies! 😉

Best Buttercream for piping designs

Over the years my mother and I have perfected the recipe for frosting. We were looking for a balance of taste and how it piped. We used to use a royal icing, but it didn’t taste as good.

We later moved to buttercream for flavor but our original recipe was too thick to get nice piping shapes from. We altered that recipe over the years and finally landed upon this recipe that is absolutely perfect.

This perfect piping buttercream is our go-to frosting for everything from cookies to cupcakes!

Best Birthday Cupcakes are the perfect dessert recipe for your special celebration! A moist vanilla homemade cake is topped with rich whipped buttercream for a sweet treat everyone will love.

How to make the best buttercream?

I could pretty much lick a bowl of this buttercream and be one happy woman. The addition of vanilla AND almond extract gives it a great flavor that we all love. It sets it apart from plain frosting.

It is important to only use gel or paste food dye when making your frosting, because the liquid dyes will alter the consistency a surprisingly great deal. Liquid dye will take your luscious buttercream from the perfect consistency, to a runny consistency that won’t hold it’s shape in a quick hurry.

These Frosted Sugar Cookies are the best you will ever try! These adorable spring cut-outs have a cake-like softness topped with a rich buttercream frosting and the perfect balance of sweetness.

How to pipe buttercream?

I separate my batch of buttercream into 5 or 6 bowls and dye each bowl of frosting to my desired consistency. I have never found a dye that will get me a true red, so if you have any secrets for a rich Christmas red, I would love to hear them!

Grab your piping bags and decorating tips and you are ready to fill them up. I like to turn the bag half way inside out and set it in a tall glass. This makes it easier to scoop the buttercream into the bag if I am doing it along.

After your bags are filled it’s time to dream up all sorts of amazing designs for your cookies or cake that have the added bonus of tasting great!

More baked goods perfect with buttercream!

While we could eat buttercream right from the spoon, it’s probably best to serve it on a cake or cookie. Here are some other great recipe that you can use buttercream with.

Pumpkin Cake Bars – Swap out the cream cheese frosting for buttercream

Notes

This makes a very large batch for a layered and decorated cake. If you are making 24 cupcakes or a small cake, cut the recipe in half.

Ingredients

1 c. shortening butter flavored

1 c. butter

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. almond extract

7 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1/3 c. heavy whipping cream

gel or paste icing dyes

Steps

In a large bowl, beat the shortening and butter until smooth and fluffy. Add the vanilla, almond extract and cream and mix until smooth.

Add the powdered sugar 1-2 cups at a time, mixing well between each addition. Beat the frosting for an additional 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy.

Using a toothpick, add the tiniest amount of dye at a time to the bowl of frosting to control your color. These dyes will color the frosting quickly, so there is no need to add too much.