The Best Frosting {a.k.a. Magical Frosting}
This magical frosting is simply the BEST frosting ever. It requires a bit more planning than every day buttercream, but the results are worth it.
I am rarely left speechless {if you are my husband you are seriously nodding your head right about now}. I like to talk {husband still nodding}. To dissect the details of important matters, such as great toenail polish and food {husband falling asleep}.
However, after taking a taste of this frosting, I was left completely speechless. No words. None. Just absolute, incredible tastebud bliss {husband shocked into silence himself}.
The Best Frosting of My Life
It is the best frosting I have ever tasted in my life.
You might have seen the phenomenon of this type of frosting swirling around. I tried the Tasty Kitchen version (highlighted by the Pioneer Woman) twice, and both times it was a disaster. I had given up on the so-called miracle of flour-based frostings until I saw and made this latest version.
It left me weak and trembling.
And do you know what tops it all? There is a chocolate version. Oh, heaven help me.
I slathered this frosting on the most decadent cake I’ve made to date (posting tomorrow!) and I can’t begin to describe the magical web of fluffy, creamy sweetness that is beholden in this frosting.
I am a self-professed frosting hater, which makes my testimonial of this frosting all the stronger. I abhor the greasy, filmy, overly-sugary taste of traditional buttercream. Even the adventurous seven-minute/marshmallow frostings of the world leave me wanting.
But this frosting…well, it belongs in The Best Recipe section no doubt about that.
My search for the best frosting is over.
I’ll be honest, it is a little more work and requires a bit more planning than throwing butter and powdered sugar together in a mixer but I’m promising you here and now that the results are worth every minute.
The real issue now becomes making sure any of this frosting actually makes it to the cake before being inhaled by my little lips.
One Year Ago: Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce
Two Years Ago: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
The Best Frosting {a.k.a. Magical Frosting}
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (318 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (36 g) all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups milk, I use 1% or 2%
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (340 g) butter, cut into 24 pieces and softened at room temperature (I use salted butter)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt. Slowly whisk in the milk until the mixture is smooth. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a medium saucepan and pour the milk mixture through the strainer into the saucepan. Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture boils and is thick enough that it starts to become difficult to easily whisk. This could take anywhere between 5-10 minutes, depending on your stove, heat, etc. It should bubble quite a bit at the end (be careful of the splatters) and thicken considerably.
- Transfer the mixture to a clean bowl and cool to room temperature – this is extremely important! If it is even slightly warm, the frosting won’t beat up properly. I refrigerated my initial mixture overnight. If you do this, make sure to pull it out in time to let it warm back up to room temperature. If you try to proceed with the rest of the recipe and the mixture is too cold, the butter won’t absorb into the frosting like it should.
- Once the frosting is completely cooled to room temperature (it should have no hint of warmth at all!), beat the mixture with the vanilla on low speed until it is well combined, about 30 seconds (a stand mixer will work best for this). Add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat the frosting until all the butter has been incorporated fully, about 2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-high and let the mixer work it’s magic. Beat the frosting for five minutes, until it is light and fluffy. Let the frosting sit at room temperature until it is a bit more stiff, about 1 hour. I suspect if you chill it for an hour or so, it would be stiff enough to actually pipe with instead of frosting with a rubber spatula.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Cook’s Country Oct/Nov 2010
I tried to save it with more flavoring and more powdered sugar, but the magic didn’t happen for me, I’m sorry to say. I really wanted it to, after reading all the raves. I guess I just tend to like the more traditional buttercreams. I really like your cream cheese butter-
creme. Thanks for all the experimenting you do for us, and for all the great recipes. Its nice to know that even if a certain recipe doesn;t work out, we can still be friends.
bluebaker – of course! We’ll always be virtual friends. I like it when people can post constructive advice/criticism on a recipe. I’m sorry you didn’t like this frosting. A hand mixer may not be able to whip up the magic like a stand mixer. But I am glad you have another standby that you love.
Just FYI, I used a hand mixer and it turned out perfectly. 🙂
I made this today, and the unbelieveable chocolate cake. The frosting seems too soft, but that could be because I only have a hand mixer. I added some conf, sugar to see if I could stiffen it up., and I added a little more vanilla and some almond extract ( my favorite)to see if I could punch up the flavor. This will be a good Sunday dessert for tomorrow, but I think at this stage of the game, I will stick to your cream cheese/ buttercream one (the one on the polar bear cupcakes) . Reading thru the comments, its funny that there are so many opinions about what is good, and best, but we’re all trying to do the same thing- please our family and friends with great homemade food. so,
I think if I had a stand mixer with more power it would have been better. It was fun to try this new method.
Do you know if this frosting would stand up to a chocolate ganache drizzle over it? Or will it just reduce/fall? Hope that makes sense.
I wanting to make a coffee infused chocolate cake with this frosting, a chocolate drizzle and strawberries on top. Thank you 🙂
Mesheala – As long as the chocolate ganache isn’t warm/hot, it should be fine. Good luck!
Hi! Had to stop by and tell you how well the recipe turned out for me. I read every comment and was a little terrified to try it. I saw comments saying it was a disaster to make in advance, so I got up extra early the day of the birthday party to make a batch. I doubled the recipe since I wanted to fill and cover a 5 layer cake. HERE is a tip! (I didn’t do this) since I doubled the recipe, it took three hours to come to room temp. And that was with me cheating and putting in the fridge for part of the time. I think if I make it again, instead of putting the cooked base in the mixer bowl to cool, I’ll spread it in a 9×13 baking dish or something similar. It took wayyyy to long to cool down in the mixer bowl. I should’ve trippled it, but I skimped on the layers and it was the perfect amount and looked lovely. Taste was good too. And for anyone wondering, it held up at room temp perfectly alllll day. And I put the leftovers in the fridge and there was no separation or anything. Still tasted great, but definitely not as fluffy. Next time I will make the frosting the night before and cover it and let it sit a room temp until I’m ready to use it. Thanks for a yummy alternative to buttercream! Oh! And it was perfectly pipable. Even without letting it sit to thicken. 🙂
Good heavens this stuff is amazing! Arianna wanted a chocolate cake for her 4th bday and so I did your chocolate cake with this frosting and it was utterly amazing! It’s funny because I got out some left over canned frosting from a bday party and told Kevin to try both and we were both just surprised at the fact that the canned stuff tastes like straight sugar/corn syrup…there is no other flavor. This stuff is so much better. And I did use it to pipe some swags on the cake and it worked great just tossing it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so. So so soooo yummy! I will have to go the extra step now for all my cakes, as I don’t think any other frosting will compare. Thanks Mel! 🙂
Hi Mel, how long we can keep this frosting in room temperature?
Cakeholic – This frosting doesn’t hold up well to extremely warm temperatures, but at cool room temperature I would say it is fine for up to 8 hours.
I made this frosting today to top a chocolate cake. I used caramel extract rather than vanilla. This is by far the best homemade frosting I’ve come across and very easy to make. This will be my go-to frosting from now on! I did not use a strainer nor did I have any lumps. Awesome, thank you for the recipe 🙂
Thank you so much of posting this recipe! I have made 2 batches now and it was a huge hit 🙂 I am not a fan of frostings at the supermarket, they are much too sweet, this is a very fluffy, buttery bakery-like frosting, and I love it!
I left my mixer going until I was happy with the consistency, and did not use a strainer in my boiling process and no problems here.
Once again THANK YOU 🙂
Hi, Mel. Should the milk be room temperature?
Hi Dee – I usually use milk straight from the refrigerator.
I made this frosting last night for cupcakes. It was delicious. Sadly, I didn’t frost them all last night and missed the “caveat” at the bottom of the post. That means that when I just let the icing come back to room temperature and rewhipped….nothing but separation. Oh well! I’ll just tell everyone to close their eyes and enjoy! 🙂
I just tried making this but it curdled. I dont know why.
This has been around since i was a kid. It is known to me as Mock Whipping Cream, a friend of my Dads would make this for my brother and me when we were little, When i started cooking i got in touch with her and go the recipe, it is to die for!
Alright, I’m sold.
I love that you throw everything together, even the sugar so it melts.
Going to give this a go with some test-baking I’m doing for my hubby’s bday.
Thanks!
BTW – Don’t forget to enter in my foodie giveaway. There’s still time!!
Made this last night and it is everything it claims to be. I stopped making buttercream and eating buttercream frosting a long time ago because I can’t stand the sickly sweet, greasy, gritty, taste of it. This frosting was mild in taste, light, and fluffy!! I used salted butter, and halved the recipe..amazzzing!
Also, this recipe wasn’t quite enough for a 3 layer cake. It would have been fine for a 2 layer but I think for a 3 layer I will make one and a half times the recipe.
I made this today to go on Strawberry cake and it worked so beautifully! I had also tried the Tasty Kitchen’s “Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had” recipe and, while I liked the flavor, the consistency wasn’t what I wanted. Then I found this recipe and the flavor is pretty much the same but the texture is just divine! It manages to be so light and fluffy yet creamy and silky all at the same time. When I first tasted it I thought it was too sweet and I went back to check the recipe and make sure I put in the right amount of sugar. That’s when I noticed that I had forgotten the salt! So I put in a good sized pinch of salt while I was letting it sit for an hour before frosting my cake. I made sure to mix it well with my spoon and it dissolved and mixed in beautifully. That little touch of salt took away the cloying sweetness and left it at just the perfect amount.
I like to frost my cake while it’s still frozen and then stack my layers and let it thaw several hours before serving. What do you think of that? I actually won’t have time to wait for a reply, but I’ll let you know how it went.
In case she doesn’t get to your answer in time, yes, it will melt if too hot, and no, it doesn’t crust over.
Hi! I see that this has been posted over two years ago but I luckily came across it and can’t wait to try it. I’m wondering, by the way, if it melts on humid summer weather? Or is this one of those crusting frosting/icing recipe that hardens? 🙂 I am looking forward to hour reply ! Thanks so much for posting this !
Hi Mel,
I was very excited when I found this version of the recipe, but I am a little sad over how it came out… I tried the tasty kitchen version and it came out really fluffy and good and tasty, but I didn’t like that the sugar didn’t completely melt and you could still feel it. So i tried this one, but i think i like the other version better.
What i didn;t like about this version is:
1. i can feel the starch flavor quite a lot and if also give a floury texture. It might be something that i am not used to because we rarely use cornstarch in anything…Can I only use flour and no corn starch at all? If yes, how much?
2. after the mixtures cools it becomes very very hard. i could barely beat it and the finished frosting was a little less fluffy. Maybe i let it boil to much? After i took it off the stove, it had a caramel like consistency and i thought it would be ok like that, but then it got extremely thick…
3. i absolutely hate butter creams and from where I am from (Romania) they are not very popular (maybe this is why i don’t like the taste)…. so i was hoping it would not have such a buttery taste, but it did… Can I use less butter? The thing i loved most about the tasty kitchen version was that it did not have such a strong butter flavor…
I will try it another time, maybe this time leave it a little less on the stove and perhaps use only 2 sticks of butter?….
Hi Cristina, sorry this didn’t work out for you. I haven’t tried any of the changes you suggested so if you want to omit the cornstarch or decrease the butter, you’ll have to experiment. Also, the base of the frosting (that you cook on the stove) should still be very soft and mixable after it cools. If your mixture was a caramel consistency and very hard, it sounds like it may have cooked quite a bit longer than it should have. It should just bubble and thicken before pulling it off the stove. If you really don’t like buttery frostings, this may not be for you. The finished frosting is very light and buttery. Good luck if you decide to experiment!
My Grandma used to make this all the time. She called it ” 7 minute frosting.” The whole family loved it; and she passed it down through the generations, and still going.
Just made this and OMG! So good! Hope it makes it to the cake.
Im not much of a cake eater, and when i do eat cake, i scrap most of the frosting off the cake because i just dont like it. My 2 1/2 year old wanted me to make chocolate chip cookies but i had no chips to make them so i made a cake instead (from scratch, boxed cakes taste like poo) so after i made the cake i decided i might as well make frosting too. I didnt quit have enough flour for this recipe so i just guessed on the measurements for everything. I also didnt have a strainer so after i mixed the firat ingredients i just slowly poured the mixture into the saucepan and avoided pouring in (most of) the thick part of the mixture. But even after all that, the frosting turned out amazing! Though i wpuldnt advise eating too much cause it made me feel a little sick. Also, after my first piece, i put the rest of the frosted cake in the fridge and had another piece the next day, and it was even better after the frosting got stiffer. Its not too stiff, but perfect texture in my opinion. Best frosting ive ever tasted! And im very picky! Oh, and im also terrible in the kitchen! (Sorry if this is a duplicate post, im doing this on my phone and its acting up)
Im not much of a cake eater, and when i do eat cake, i scrap most of the frosting off the cake because i just dont like it. My 2 1/2 year old wanted me to make chocolate chip cookies but i jad no chips to make them so i made a cake instead (from scratch, boxed cakes taste like poo) so after i made the cake i decided i might as well make frosting too. I didnt quit have enough flour for this recipe so i just guessed on the measurements for everything. I also didnt have a strainer so after i mixed the firat ingredients i just slowly poured the mixture into the saucepan and avoided pouring in (most of) the thick part of the mixture. But even after all that, the frosting turned out amazing! Though i wpuldnt advise eating too much cause it made me feel a little sick. Also, after my first piece, i put the rest of the frosted cake in the fridge and had another piece the next day, and it was even better after the frosting got stiffer. Its not too stiff, but perfect texture in my opinio. Best frosting ive ever tasted! And im very picky!
My great-grandmother called this Mock Whipped Cream which more closely describes it than frosting. My family has been making it for over 100 years, so it’s an old recipe! I can’t imagine how they did it without an electric mixer! She’d heap it onto a dark chocolate cake, very yummy!
I’ve made this icing for years, my recipe was called “French Cream Icing”, I really can’t remember where/how I got it. I use it to frost angel food cake.
the recipe that we used when I was a child was:
equal amounts of:
Milk, flour, butter, crisco beat together about ten minutes until it all comes together and looks like whipped cream, add a teaspoon vanilla extract. A 1/2 of each will frost a two layer cake or a 13×9″ pan.
Hii, the frosting tastes amazingg but when i use it on cupcakes it melts! I’m in distresss. Please help?
Nirmal – this frosting is fairly delicate meaning it needs to be kept cool and won’t fare well in hot temperatures so try keeping it cool and see if that helps.
Hey Mel, Faaaaantastic frosting. I made the chocolate version to top brownies and it was utterly perfect. I doubled the melted chocolate (on accident—i forgot I was halving the rest of the recipe) and it was perfect! I will double it every time now. Thanks a million. Love love love your site.
Can I add food coloring to this icing?
Annie – yes, you sure can!
I was wondering if you could share the frosting technique you used on this beautiful cake…you know for those of who are less than novice in the baking department.
Amy – it’s been a long time but I’m pretty sure I just used my small offset spatula and swooped the frosting into swirls. Pretty low key and super easy!
Hi, Im in love with swiss merangue buttercream, but am excited to try this. pls tell me( if you can,) how long can this buttercream stay outdoor. Im in singapore and wonder if this can withstand the humid weather here.. Not that I plan to bake the cake under the sun, but good to know if it can be left out for a while without me being worrying abt it melting. thanks. lina
Lina – this is a delicate frosting that won’t hold up super well in extreme heat so I wouldn’t recommend letting it sit out in the heat (75 degrees or above) for longer than an hour.
I feel so out of the loop! I only discovered this recipe earlier this year when a friend of mine requested it on a cake I will be making for her.
I tried it out the first time as written with great success; it turned out just like it was supposed to.
I am using the frosting on a wedding cake in a few weeks and due to the comments, have decided to make the frosting the day of the event in order to give it the best chance of holding up. I tried a few days ago to make the roux the night before and let it cool in the fridge. I then gave it several hours to come back to room temperature before whipping in the butter. The final product was not as good as the first try – the butter did not incorporate as well. I can only think it was because the roux was too cool still.
My question is this: do you think I could make the roux the day before and then, instead of refrigerating it, just letting it rest at room temperature until I am ready to whip it up the next day? Would the roux spoil? Do you have an recommendations?
Hi Ruth – instead of letting it sit out overnight, do you think you could refrigerate the roux and then pull it out a few hours before you want to make the frosting so that it comes back to room temperature? I’m kind of a freak about food safety and don’t like to let milk products of any kind sit out overnight, but having said that, as long as your house isn’t really hot, the roux should probably be ok sitting at room temperature for a short amount of time (as long as it isn’t a couple days).
Looking for a great recipe for my son’s wedding cake. How is the consistency of this frosting? Will it work well for that?
Hi Tami – I hesitate to say yes without knowing what kind of cake you are making and what consistency you are looking for. The consistency of this frosting is very light and creamy.
Mel! I have been looking for this recipe for years! I remember my mother made this on her Red Velvet cakes when I was a little girl. Your photo looks just like I remember it. I lost her recipe & all I could remember is that it had flour in it & that she cooked it on the stove. I think she might have used a double boiler. She always used it for my birthday cake as it was my favorite! Not too sweet! I laughed at all the comments about how do you store the left over cake? Or not needing that much frosting….Really? We never had too much or any left overs!
Cristina – I have made this frosting milk free since I am allergic to milk. It turned out great. I assume you could use shortening and/or margarine instead of the butter but I would make sure you add some other flavor such as bit of orange or lemon rind to jazz it up a little.
I find that the trick to substituting milk or cream is to use something that has a great flavor. I substitute coconut cream/milk mixed with some water or a little soya milk. Too much soya milk gives it a strong bean taste so I prefer more coconut milk.
I also made a homemade vegan coconut pudding with 1 T cornstarch, 2 T Birds Custard Powder, 1/2 c sugar along with 2 T margarine or shortening and 1 tsp vanilla. I mixed in this thick pudding into the frosting to reduce the greasy taste and make it into an amazing frosting. You have to make sure to keep the frosting cool if the weather is really hot or it gets a little soft.
I hope all the readers can try out some of my suggestions and a big thanks to Mel for sharing the original great “magical” frosting recipe.
Thanks for your help! As you said, adding the butter helped a lot to get rid of it, and it tasted just like raw cookie dough, which I love! I used the Piña Colada oil by Lorann to flavour it and fill and frost a cake and it’s been a HUGE hit!! Also, it didn’t melt or “de-puff” even after a 2-hour travel by car, which is quite awesome considering it’s about 100F here in Spain. Thank you SO much for this recipe!!!
I found your recipe a few months ago and I’ve been meaning to stop by and leave a coment. The first time I made it I knew I was in love! I have made it dozens of times since then and everyone loves it as well. I have also made the chocolate version and I went a little crazy and made it in caramel, cheesecakes, white chocolate, lemon and lime flavors! Thank you sooooooo much for posting this!
Hi, did you add cream cheese to this frosting? when and how can you please guide me a little? 🙂 thanks.
No, this frosting does not have cream cheese.
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve been looking for something like this for years!! Just one question… I made the flour-cornstarch-sugar-milk mix yesterday and I got a nice, thick cream, but it still tastes a bit of raw flour? Is that normal? Should I boil it longer?
Daniela – you can try boiling it longer to get rid of some of the flour taste but adding the butter at the end will definitely make it taste more like frosting. Just keep in mind, this has a bit of a different taste and texture than every day buttercream.
Mel!!
I made the most incredible cake yesterday! I must tell you all about it. I used your chocolate cake recipe and it made 3-8 inch layers. I cut each layer a little less than an inch with my horizontal cake saw thingie. I made a ganache filling by taking a bag of ghirardelli semi sweet choc chips and pouring 1 3/4 C just boiling cream over them. Wait 2 mins. Stir in slowly and thoroughly. Refrigerate 3 hrs. Take out an hour before youre ready to use. Spread this thickly between the cake layers. More than 1/4″ but less than 1/2. Finally frost it with your Magical Frosting. I scraped a vanilla bean in the frosting cuz I’m crazy that way. This cake is not from this world. I don’t know where it’s from but I’ll be moving there as soon as I find out! I have dreams about it.
I am making a cake for my daughter’s birthday tomorrow, can I make this frosting tonight and let the complete product sit in the fridge until I need to use it tomorrow?
Kim – the finished, whipped frosting was runny?? If so, it might be that the frosting base wasn’t quite cool enough.
HI! I feel like I’m missing something since most everyone seems to be over the moon about this frosting. I made it yesterday and I have to say I was disappointed. I didn’t have any problems with the recipe, it seemed to whip up just fine. The texture was nice, but the flavor was a little too floury/cornstarchy for me. My brother said it reminded him of raw cookie dough. Not horrible, but not what I’m looking for in frosting. It does seem to taste better the next day, which is unfortunate since ideally you are supposed to use it shortly after making it…
That’s interesting – wonder if it was the butter? Mine was very buttery – seemed to settle in after being in the fridge over night and then was PERFECT…did you use real butter? weird question maybe – or maybe it wasn’t cooked quite long enough?
Cindi – Yep, I use real butter.
I made this today for my daughter’s birthday cupcakes. I followed your directions… brought it to a boil over medium heat until it thickened and let it cool to room temp. Sadly, it did not work out for me. Soooo runny. Any suggestions?
Could soy milk be used instead of regular milk?
The frosting is not too sweet using the above standard recipe but it does have a strong buttery taste. I think it is a great recipe because of the flour to make it less sweet and with a light whip to it. I modified the recipe to by folding in a little bit of a homemade milk-free coconut vanilla pudding made extra thick (a little more than half of the liquid that the recipe called for – 2 1/2 cups reduced to 1 1/2 cups). I also added about 1/4 teaspoon of gelatin dissolved in a little cold water and then heated in a bowl over hot water to make it smooth (next time I may increase the gelatin to 1/3 or 1/2 teaspoon).
The result was fantastic, I got a nice light frosting with a slight buttery taste that becomes firm when chilled and becomes soft when let sit for 15 minutes before indulging. I also added a few tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice and a little finely grated orange rind which gave it a very mild orange taste which went great when I topped my dairy-free homemade moist carrot cake.
I got a great frosting with a lighter sweetness and lighter buttery taste since I added a little of my thick homemade coconut pudding. I think everyone should try this recipe and experiment a little like I did until they find the taste that they are extremely happy with.
enjoy
I look forward to trying this recipe since I do not like cake frosting that is too sweet. I am thinking of making this recipe and then folding in a little bit of a homemade milk-free coconut vanilla pudding made extra thick. I am hoping for a frosting that has a slight buttery taste with a low sugar moist pudding like consistency.
Cristina – I would suggest substituting the milk with coconut milk and a about 1 or 2 Tbsps of sugar to make up for the lack of sweetness. If you do not have enough coconut milk for 1 1/2 cups, just add water to make the same amount of liquid. I am allergic to two of the three proteins in milk so always bake without using milk. I prefer coconut milk more than soya milk because the end result tastes better.
Thanks, Mel and Lien, for the lemon help. I used 1 C. Milk and 1/2 C. lemon juice in the initial cooking phase. It was wonderful! My husband didn’t think it was sweet enough, but my dad and I couldn’t stop eating it. I loved not having the taste of powdered sugar in my frosting.
It also dyed just great for the turquoise bat cake. (Thanks for the cake design idea, too.)
I am wondering, does this frosting dye well? I’m making a lego cake for my son’s birthday and I’d like to use this frosting – however I need the frosting to be yellow, blue, red, and green…can you dye this frosting? Thanks!
I’ve made it into lemon frosting by taking out a few tablespoons of milk, waiting until the mixture thickens, adding lemon juice, whipping up, then adding zest and pure lemon extract. Worked beautifully and tasted divine!