It’s easy to write on cakes with this French buttercream frosting. You must allow it to come to room temperature before serving because it becomes hard when chilled. With this recipe, flowers are not possible. Every time I bake birthday cakes for my family, I use this recipe.
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 2 cups |
Ingredients
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup shortening
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon butter flavored extract
Instructions
- Mix heavy cream and flour in a small bowl. Heat mixture in the microwave for 45 seconds on high. Set aside to cool.
- In a mixing bowl, combine butter, shortening, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract, and butter extract.
- Using an electric mixer, beat on low until combined. Then beat on medium speed for 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add heavy cream mixture, and beat on medium speed for another 10 minutes. (Mixture will appear soupy at first, but will become fluffy.)
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 334 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 22 g |
| Cholesterol | 54 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Saturated Fat | 14 g |
| Sodium | 6 mg |
| Sugars | 20 g |
| Fat | 28 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Just to clarify… this is not a French buttercream by definition… its definitely an American buttercream as there are no eggs in this recipe which is what makes it a European buttercream but it works well for an American buttercream
I made these cupcakes for the 4th and tried this recipe. It was great! I think it tastes a lot like the frosting at grocery store bakeries. I would’ve added a little less shortening and more butter but it was smooth, mild, but sweet. Perfect recipe!
Terrible. I kept accidentally making it forgetting how bad it is. It dyes terribly.
Fantastic recipe! Perfect consistency with nice light texture and not-too-sweet buttery flavor.
This recipe is called Ermine Frosting NOT French buttercream. Ermine Frosting is the one where you thicken cream or milk with flour, cool it and then beat it into butter, shortening and sugar until fluffy. It is the original frosting for the red velvet cake, (not cream cheese, as everyone thinks.) I’ve been making this for over 50 years. Oh, and you CAN make roses and such with it.
I will stick to this recipe because I have been baking since I was 7 and looking for a good buttercream recipe and this is the best one that I could find do recommend that you do (tip don’t use the butter extract ) it helps:)
Very good recipe! Easy to frost a cake with!
I colored mine and added about a half cup more powdered sugar
I made cupcakes for my fathers retirement party. This icing was delicious and held its fold beautifully for a very hot day outside.
Pikachu makes it look all the better
I don’t do a lot of cake decorating but my gf does. She has a certificate in culinary and all that. She came across this buttercream frosting recipe the other day and has made at least a cake per day since. It’s a good thing we have family to give all these cakes to lol. She says it’s fluffy and structured enough to do what she wants it to and that it doesn’t bleed like a lot of other frostings do. In my personal opinion, it’s delicious. The only modification I’ve seen her make is to add a pinch of salt.
This isn’t french buttercream, French buttercream contains egg whites…LOTS of them.
This is a great recipe. Like a lot of others I cut down on the flour used and used butter flavored shortening. If you are looking for a sweet icing, this is not for you. This is a very light, creamy buttery icing, and I will make it again!
I love this recipe. It tastes light and fluffy like whipped cream but it’s stable. It has just the right amount of sweetness for me and has gotten rave reviews from friends and family. I made exactly as directed and found it necessary to refrigerate it just a little in order for it to hold its shape when decorating. I was able to do some simple piping and swirls. Probably not the recipe for doing fancy decorating but for taste, it beats every frosting recipe I’ve tried hands down. I’ve made it several times now.
I just made this frosting for the first time and it is AWESOME! I never made French Buttercream Frosting before but thought I’d try it as I’m trying a variety of frostings until I find the ones I like. I followed the directions as is, using both 1 lb of butter and 1/2 c butter flavor margarine, and whipped the dickens out of it in the mixer to make it light and fluffy, even added the cream and 4T flour together and thought it just fine. What I love about this recipe is how easy it is to frost a cake! I frosted my two layer cake after having just finished mixing up the frosting and it went on sooooooo smoothly! I was even able to make hard edges on my cake and smooth away the frosting lines, something I hadn’t been able to do before. This is definitely a keeper!
Lighter than what I normally think of when I think of buttercream, but that’s exactly what I was looking for in this case. I used this on a wedding cake and got rave reviews. Great for those looking for a less sweet, lighter buttercream!
This butter cream tastes amazing. I did, however, make some slight changes to the recipe. I use half and half instead of heavy cream and cook it on the stove. I tried in the microwave but I found that it was sometimes lumpy. I use all butter and no shortening (we love butter!) It is fiddly to get the temperature just right for piping but the taste more than makes up for it.
loved it!! easy and yummy!!
Made this with the”White almond wedding cake” recipe on site, for sisters wedding, Best cake and frosting I’ve ever done on a wedding cake to date! Tip: Make sure the flour/heavy whipping cream mix comes completely cool before adding so it doesn’t get”soupy” on you, don’t use butter flavored crisco, and reduce butter extract a little & add a little more vanilla instead. Can’t wait to try the chocolate version of this 🙂 Can’t wait for a reason to make this again, very happy, also only use unsalted butter. thanks all recipes!
So much to love about this recipe! Fluffy, but rich tasting, goes on beautifully, sets up well when refrigerated. I didn’t have butter flavoring so I used almond and it was terrific. Next time I will try cutting the shortening as some others suggested. Thanks for submitting.
this is best buttercream ever! sift your flour to make sure there are no lumps in that mixture. i added 3 heaping cups of powdered suger and it was a little stiffer to my liking. smooth as silk and delish!