I always hear people say, “I’m not a frosting person.” And while part of me thinks that’s ridiculous, I can understand to a certain extent when so many frosting are sickeningly sweet and heavy- or greasy-feeling. My favorite frosting is the kind that is more like whipped cream. I used to actually fold whipped cream into classic buttercream to get that lighter texture and not-so-rich taste. Then I realized that I could get that same result with this very unusual method. I’d say it’s the perfect frosting. It’s not so thick and sweet that you need a gallon of milk to get it down your throat. It’s mild and smooth, and light as air. I also love it because it doesn’t take away from a good cupcake like other really rich frostings can. This frosting has a similar feeling and texture to a Swiss Buttercream, but with way less effort. It’s great as a filling OR a frosting. Take a peek at this…
Let me show you!
The frosting starts out with a mixture of all purpose flour and milk.
And even though I’m showing it here being whisked together, I’ve actually found you’ll get a much smoother result if you mix this part in a blender first and then pour it in your pan.
Now comes the weird part. You’re going to cook this mixture until it gets thick–it happens fast and you’ll want to have a rubber spatula and constantly smash/stir it to keep it smooth.
I usually take it off the heat when it looks like this photo above. There are still some wet spots but as you stir it all comes together like this:
Don’t taste it. It’s not frosting yet! Pop it in the fridge; it needs to cool completely (I sometimes pop it in the freezer if I want it to cool fast.) Put it in a bowl and smoosh it around and stir every few minutes to cool it off.
While it’s chilling, place some real, high-quality butter (definitely no margarine) and granulated sugar (not powdered sugar!) in a stand mixer.
Whip it up for a few minutes so it’s light and creamy. I use the whisk attachment on my kitchenaid, but any paddle should work. Then you’ll add that glob of flour. I know. Weird!
I’m warning you right now it’s going to look weird at first. Like, what the heck did I do weird. But keep going. You’ve got to whip it for a long time for all the sugar to dissolve and everything to come together. Don’t be startled if it looks curdled and weird. Eventually it will look like fluffy soft clouds of heaven.
I usually give it a little taste and if I can still feel quite a bit of granulated sugar I keep on whipping. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes, other times I let it go for almost 10 or so! It’s worth it for this silky, fluffy, magical mixture.
Pipe it or spread it or fill it or whatever. Anyway you eat it, it’s fantastic.
Helpful Tips
1. Use real butter, and a good name-brand. Cheap butter does weird things.
2. If you beat for the 6-8 minutes and the mixture still looks strange, beat longer and at a higher speed if you can. It should come together, but it takes a little patience!
3. I personally think this frosting is best eaten fresh. You can store for a few hours at room temperature, or try storing in the fridge overnight, letting it come to room temperature on its own, and then re-beating to fluff. If you want to frost cupcakes or a cake the day before, refrigerate and just let come to room temp after.
4. Add extracts to your hearts content; lemon and almond are both wonderful! Food coloring is also okay.
5. The white sugar can be exchanged for brown. Try 1/2 white 1/2 brown for a warm caramel flavor.
6. Do not try to make other substitutions or additions. Sour cream, fruit purees etc. can do disastrous things. Some people have had amazing success, just experiment at your own risk.
7. If trying to decide whether or not to double it- double it. Chances are you’ll want more. It’s a rather small batch, but on purpose.
1 batch will not look like much, but it can spread on (just with a knife, a normal amount) 24 cupcakes. If you want to pipe it thick, definitely double it.
Looking for Chocolate? This isn’t exactly the same, but very similar!
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Perfect Cupcake Frosting and Filling
Description
This light, creamy, dreamy frosting is THE perfect cupcake frosting and filling!
Ingredients
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk (whole milk is best, but I’ve used non-fat when it’s all I have and it’s actually fine)
1/2 cup real butter, slightly softened (I prefer salted, but you can use also unsalted and add salt to taste)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or other flavor if you wish)
Instructions
Whisk together the flour and the milk. Heat in a small sauce pan on medium heat.
Whisk continuously until it starts to thicken. Let it cook, while stirring with a rubber spatula, until you can start to see the bottom of the pan. Continue to cook until mixture has the consistency of thick pudding or paste.
Put mixture in the fridge and let it cool completely; it’s fine if it stays in there long enough to get chilly, you just don’t want it warm at all. As it’s cooling, feel free to stir it occasionally to speed up the process and keep it from forming a crust on top. You can also do this quickly in the freezer, just keep an eye on it so it doesn’t freeze.
Using the whisk attachment on an electric stand mixer, beat the butter and the sugar for a minute or two until well combined and fluffy. While beating, add in the thickened milk mixture and the flavor extracts. Beat to combine and then scrape down the sides. Mixture will separate and look messy, keep beating! Continue beating until mixture comes together and is light and fluffy, about 7-8 minutes, but time varies. Take a sample of frosting between your fingers; frosting is done when light and fluffy and sugar granules are dissolved.
Related Recipes:
Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes
Chocolate Glazed Cupcakes with Vanilla Creme Filling
Colorburst Cupcakes
can this icing be used to for crumbing before putting on a marshmallow fondant?
Wow, this is the absolute best frosting I have ever tasted! I didn't strain it (because the only strainer I have is a tiny play one for my daughter) and it turned out great. I didn't have enough the first time so I had to make more and it turned out fabulous as well. Thanks for the recipe!
I'm not sure what to tell you Danielle other than give it another shot sometime! I think having a stand mixer really does help, but I do know lots of people who have success with hand mixers. If it never curdled or separated then that makes me think there was a fluke from the get-go. I hope you're able to try again and that it comes out perfect, because it's amazing! Sorry I don't have a better answer for ya!
I made this frosting yesterday. Tasted delicious but the consistancy was more like a cake batter than a fluffy light icing. I used an electric hand mixer with whisk attachment as my standmixer died the other week. I used room temp butter (sat out for a few hrs before I used it). Icing looked normal, no curdling/seperation etc. I whipped the daylights out of it too, hoping it would finally get fluffy! At least 12 or 13 minutes. Any suggestions on what went wrong? Appreciate any input, you can respond to [email protected]. Thanks!
Oh, I forgot to say I dyed the frosting! My girl got cupcakes at school, and a chocolate cake with rainbow frosting for the family party later that evening… it dyes very nicely with about an 1/8 tsp of the gel color (red needed a little more) but it was super cute… on a 9×13 chocolate cake, I made sky blue to cover the cake, piped on white fluffy clouds, and pink lettering, and then made a rainbow by piping/spreading from the bottom up! It was awesome and she loved that, too!
Ok, the first batch I did was definitely undercooked, but was still usable. I was the only one who noticed the raw flour taste… the second, third, and fourth batches were much much better! You must cook it to the point where it doesn't fill in behind the spatula.
I added almond extract on the 4th batch and it was definitely my favorite. I had also chilled the milk/flour paste to a cold state on the 4th batch (rather than just to room temp), and while it was harder to get started in the mixer, it definitely came out lighter, fluffier, and had the whip-creamy taste & texture I was looking for! I will definitely make this again!!
Oh, and you can refrigerate the leftover, but if you want to use it again, you have to let it come to room temperature, and then whip it up again a bit… between the 3rd and 4th batch I did this, and it worked fine.
Wow! this is LOVELY! So creamy! I added raspberry extract for my niece's birthday cake and it is delicious!!! thank you! (Also- I used bread flour and skim milk as that was what I had on hand, and it still turned out beautifully!) I can't wait to hear the reaction tomorrow!
Retro mom- I'm guessing undercooked, but I'm not sure. A video is a great idea!
I made the rainbow cupcakes today as a practice set, for my daughter's birthday later this week, when I'm going to take 2 dozen to her class. They came out fine, really bright and vivid!
Then I made the frosting. I think you should put up a video of the cooking process for the milk and flour bit, because I was so unsure of whether mine was done or not… it got really thick and I could pull it with a spatula, see the bottom and then it would fill in again, so I took it off the heat. I let it cool on the counter, and when we whipped it up, it seemed to work, but… it wasn't as light or whip-creamy as I thought it was going to be (although it was very silky and smooth), and I thought it had a raw flour taste (only to me, hubby loved it), and a bit of an aftertaste… so does that mean I under-cooked it or over-cooked it?
Great Frosting!!!! I was a little uncertain about it but I am so glad that I tried it. The frosting came out great!!!
I'm am SO excited to have found this recipe. I have 350 cupcakes in the freezer for my daughter's wedding reception on Saturday and qualms about frosting these light delicate cupcakes with heavy, sickly-sweet frosting. I've googled light frostings before and this is the first time you came up. I am so HAPPY. Just tried with a beautiful teal color, decorator tip and voila. Perfection! Am a bit nervous about how much in advance I can make this…so I'm leaving it out overnight to see. Will let you know what happens after several days. I will definately be sharing this link with my blog readers sometime in the near future.
I just made this and it is DELICIOUS! I have to say, I was very nervous, I thought for sure it would be a disaster! I was using a hand mixer, so I wasn't sure if it would work as well. My flour/milk mixture was thick, so I stirred in about 1 tsp milk before I cooled it in the fridge to thin it out a little. This worked great! I used 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp almond extrace, and it has a wonderful flavor. Eight minutes with my hand mixer, and it was a wonderful frosting. My husband loves it! 🙂 Thanks for the great recipe!!
omg this is the best ever! i did this for the first time last week for my niece's birthday cupcakes with little butterfly marshmallow fondants on top, and they were a GREAT HIT.
not sure if this will help or means that i did it wrong, but when i cooked the white sauce base, i think i did it a bit longer than i was supposed to (because of the warning that most people undercook it). it was not runny at all – in fact the whole gob collected on the ladle i was stirring it with. i got so worried. i chilled it anyway and then dumped it into the whipped butter and sugar, and in TWO minutes at medium high, i got the nicest icing ever! maybe it was a fluke but the icing was light, fluffy and super yummy. because the white sauce was so thick, i couldn't sieve it. but the lumps were barely noticeable. maybe the next time i try it, i will cook it till runny, sieve it and cook a bit more?
Thank you so much, Sara!!! I can't wait to try it!
Yes, gel coloring works great! If you're making a huge batch, you might want to do it in 2 separate batches.
I tried reading through all of these posts… maybe i missed it… but, is it okay to add gel coloring to this? have you ever done so? would i need more flour? I plan on making a very, very large batch and dividing it in 4 and then making 4 different colors for a tropical themed bridal shower. Thanks for the response!!
Don't worry Aileen, I make my own bday cake too :). I have not tried it gluten free yet but was trying to figure that out since my mom is allergic to wheat. I did see a gluten-free all purpose flour at my local walmart, FYI :).
I would love to try this recipe for my birthday in three weeks (yes, I have to make my own birthday cake), but I want to know if anyone has tried it gluten free and/or dairy free. If not, I'm going to try it on my own and I can share the results.
I know it’s waaaaay past 2010, but I just found this recipe a few days ago.
I had no problem mixing up the frosting and the consistency was great. BUT, I bake gluten-free and this recipe DOES NOT work with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose flour. Bob’s has a funny taste to it that bakes out, but since frosting isn’t baked, it’s definitely noticeable in a bad way that people don’t want to eat. 🙂 I don’t know if this recipe works well with another GF flour, and I probably won’t try all the options to find out. But, I’d be thrilled if someone else has had a good experience with another blend and would share that info.
Ok, so I had avoided making this frosting for a LONG time. The whole milk/flour/let-it-cool thing turned me off… too much extra work! But last weekend I made Kate's strawberry cupcakes and since she specifically used this frosting, I thought I'd finally give it a try. Well, I was right about the milk/flour thing, but it was all my own fault. The first time I let it cook too long and it was pretty thick, though I think it would've still work [I was just too chicken to try it]. The next TWO times… well, it was late and I was tired and I somehow glazed over the whole mixing milk and flour and THEN turning on the heat and was adding milk to an already heated pan and… yeah, that didn't work. Fourth time was the charm!! [And I don't think I'll have any problems next time… got ALL my mistakes out of the way!] After that, it all whipped together quite nicely and easily. I whipped the crud out of it and it was very good, though I didn't think it was quite the "near-whipped-cream" consistency everyone was talking about, so I might let it go a little longer next time. It was, however, very silky and tasty and I will be making it again!
[Oh, and I want to try the chocolate, too!]
I just made a "trail run" batch for my boys birthday party tomorrow…DELISH!
Since it's supposed to be 112 degrees tomorrow, hopefully people can appreciate the cuteness of those big tops for one minute after we bring them outside before the frosting melts!
Made this tonight and it was so delicious! I'm very glad I found this recipe, and your site. I'll be stopping back again for sure. Cheers!
FYI, one batch of this is enough to fill the chocolate cupcakes, and doubling it is enough to fill and frost them if you choose to do that instead of ganache. Yummy!!!
By the way I use butter if I want more of a wedding cake icing and margerine if I make a devils food cake. Just as good!
I originally recieved this recipe from my mother. We call it wallpaper icing. Due to when heating the flour and milk in a sauce pan till it resembles wallpaper paste. It has always been the favorite recipe at our house and when I take it anywhere!
Glad your sharing it!
You were right, doubling was enough. I ended up making this twice. The first time I used a lot of organic food coloring that unfortunately changed the taste. So I re-made it and used less food coloring and more vanilla. Our ladybug cake wasn't very red, but it was very tasty. Thanks so much!
You just need 3 cups of frosting total? I think doubling might be enough, and x 3 should give you more than enough.
I need 3 cups of this to dye red (organically of course) for a ladybug cake, then I'm going to use it to fill the chocolate cupcakes. Any idea if I should make this x 4 or 5? Thx!
Fantastic! Very light and creamy. Worked the very first time I tried it and every time since. Definitely a keeper! Only thing that could be any better would be if it were more white instead of off-white- but that is what you get when you use butter. This is now my go-to buttercream frosting recipe. Thank you for this terrific recipe!!!
I made this recipe today, I even used walmart's butter. It came out perfect! Creamy, silky, fluffy and almost like whipped cream! I made yellow cupcake and used this recipe for its filling. Yummy!
I made this frosting today for my daughters and my birthday cake. I will admit I was a little nervous, but it was really easy and turned out great! I doubled the recipe and had no problems with it at all. It got rave reviews by everyone. My ex-husband said it was the best frosting I've ever made, and one of my friends, who does cake decorating like a professional said it is now her favorite frosting. Thanks so much!!