Whipped Buttercream Frosting is the best frosting ever! This flour frosting (ermine frosting) is made without powdered sugar. It has the rich creaminess of a buttercream & the light, airy texture of a whipped cream frosting without being too sweet!
This Whipped Buttercream Frosting recipe pretty much blew my mind. I’m not a big frosting person; most buttercream frostings are just ok, and I can take them or leave them.
Well, this buttercream frosting is amazing, and it uses (are you ready for this?) granulated sugar!
Yep! Regular, old granulated sugar. So, if you’ve ever wondered how to make frosting without powdered sugar, this is it!
Don’t worry – it’s not gritty at all. In fact, this ermine frosting has the texture of a light whipped cream with the flavor of a sweet, vanilla buttercream.
It’s honestly the best frosting (buttercream or otherwise) that I’ve ever had. It’s sweet but isn’t overwhelmingly, make-your-teeth-ache sweet.
I’ve put answers to a lot of the questions I’ve received in the recipe notes. Please take a second to read through those notes before making the frosting.
How To Make Whipped Buttercream Frosting
Whisk the milk and flour together in a small heavy saucepan before beginning to heat.
Once combined, heat the mixture over medium-low heat until it has thickened. At this point, it should be the consistency of a thick paste (far left picture above).
Remove from heat, and stir in the vanilla extract.
Let the mixture cool to room temperature before continuing. This step is key. If the mixture is warm, it will cause the butter to warm up, and you’ll end up with a thin, runny frosting.
In a separate large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and salt together on medium-high to high until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes (middle picture above). Be sure to scrape down the sides to avoid gritty frosting.
Add the completely cooled milk/flour mixture to the beaten butter/sugar mixture, and beat on medium-high to high for 5 minutes. It may look separated at first, but keep whipping the frosting until it is light and fluffy.
How Much Frosting Will This Recipe Make?
This recipe will make enough to frost a 2 layer 9-inch round cake or 24 cupcakes.
Do I Need To Chill The Frosting?
I recommend chilling any unused or leftover frosting because of the high dairy content (all of the milk and butter).
Answers to commonly asked questions
- Milk: I have used everything from skim to whole milk in this recipe. I’ve also used almond milk. All have worked well for me. Whole milk will give you a slightly richer frosting, but there aren’t any other advantages to using whole milk over another type of milk.
- Butter: I prefer salted butter in this recipe. I’ve tried both salted and unsalted butter, but I prefer salted. I highly recommend if you use unsalted butter, that you add a few pinches of salt. Otherwise, the frosting can taste bland or flat.
- Vanilla: I like to use a good quality vanilla because it provides a lot of the flavor for the frosting. You can also use different flavors of extracts to vary the flavor of the frosting.
Troubleshooting Tips
- Here are some some places where people have gone wrong with this recipe.
- First, not cooking the milk mixture long enough. The mixture should be a thick paste. If it’s too wet, the frosting will be too loose.
- Second, the cooked milk mixture needs to cool completely. If it’s too warm, it will melt the butter, and you’ll end up with loose frosting that doesn’t come together.
- Third, using butter that’s too warm. The butter should be at cool room temperature. It should dent if pushed, but it shouldn’t be too warm and certainly not beginning to melt.
- Fourth, using other types of sugars. This frosting needs to be made with granulated sugar, not powdered sugar.
- Fifth, not whipped the frosting long enough. The frosting needs to be whipped to get the right light and airy texture. Cutting the time short could leave you with a grainy frosting or a frosting that separates.
- If your frosting is still a little gritty after beating it for 5 minutes, go ahead and add the cooled milk/flour mixture. That will usually smooth out any remaining sugar.
- A couple people have reported that a film has formed on their milk/flour mixture. I haven’t had this happen, but another person said that she’s had good luck with blending the milk/flour mixture with a blender before cooking it. She said that it removed any lumps and helped prevent a skin from forming.
Can I Use Food Coloring In This Frosting?
Can I Use Food Coloring In This Frosting?I’ve never tried to use food coloring with this frosting. However, I have heard from several people who have successfully used both regular and gel food coloring.
More Granulated Sugar Frosting Recipes
- Whipped Brown Sugar Buttercream Frosting
- Whipped Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting
- Whipped Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Cream Cheese Frosting
If you’ve tried this whipped buttercream frosting recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below. I love to hear from people who’ve made my recipes!
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Whipped Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 7 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1 ½ tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups salted butter (at cool room temperature1)
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk together over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. It will be the consistency of a thick paste2. Make sure that you whisk the flour and milk together well before you begin cooking it to avoid lumps.
- Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. This step is key. If your mixture is warm, it will melt your butter, and you'll end up with runny frosting.
- Stir in vanilla.
- While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter, sugar, and salt together until light and fluffy on medium high-high3, about 5 minutes4. Make sure that you scrape down the sides and really incorporate the butter and sugar to avoid gritty frosting.
- Then add the completely cooled milk mixture.
- Beat it for about 5 more minutes on medium-high to high until it looks like whipped cream. It may look separated at first, so keep beating it until it comes together and looks like a whipped cream.
Video
Notes
- Make sure that your butter isn't too warm! The butter should be at cool room temperature. You want it to dent if you press it, but you don't want it to be so warm that it's near melting.
- When cooking the milk/flour mixture, you don't want it to look wet. It should be like a thick paste. If it's wet and runny, your frosting will be too loose.
- If you're using a hand mixer, beat it on high. This recipe work well with a stand mixer because it has the power to really whip the frosting.
- Please don't cut the mixing time short! I know it's tempting, but it's important to beat the butter and sugar together for the time the recipe calls for to keep it from being gritty. If you cut the mixing times short, you won't end up with the right texture of frosting.
- To get the best flavor, you'll want to use real butter and pure vanilla extract.
- Want to try a buttercream made with powdered sugar instead? Here is my favorite vanilla buttercream frosting that's made with powdered sugar.
- I recommend chilling any leftover frosted cake or cupcakes.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Nutrition Information
This recipe was originally published on 12/22/12. It was updated with new pictures on 7/25/16.
Shelby says
The icing was really good but when i made the milk/flour paste, I may have cooked it a bit long but it turned a bit chunky. Should i have continually stirred it while it was heating?
Kate says
Hi! Thanks! Yes, you’ll need to constantly stir it while it cooks/thickens. Sometimes things happen, and I’ve heard from people who put the mixture through a wire mesh strainer to get any lumps out. I hope that helps for next time!
Theresa says
I used about equal parts milk, evaporated milk and unsweetened coconut milk—because it was for a coconut cake and I had these ingredients left over. I also used 1 T of vanilla and 1 1/2 tsp coconut extract. It turned out perfectly! The cake is for my son-in-law’s birthday and he requested “not too sweet coconut cake”. I think he’ll really like this!
Kate says
Thanks for sharing your notes!
Mel says
I’ve just made this and it is amazing! I was worried about grittiness but as you say in the notes, adding the milk/flour paste sorted that out. Just one question: I’ve made it today for a birthday tomorrow – if I ice the cake and refrigerate now, will the icing be the same texture once it’s come up to room temp? Or am I better to refrigerate the icing, re-beat it and ice tomorrow?
Kate says
Thank you so much! The frosting will set up once it has been in the fridge. I set my frosted cake/cupcakes out to let them come up a bit in temperature so that the frosting can soften back up before serving. I find that it’s easier to do that than to try to work with the frosting once it has been chilled. Hope that helps!
Christine says
Hi,
Will this buttercream hold up like bakery style buttercream and pipe well? How many hours at room temp will it keep its shape?
Kate says
Hi! I’ve never had any issues piping with it. How well it holds up will depend on how warm the room is. If it’s true room temp (about 70F), it should hold up for about 3-4 hours without refrigeration. Any longer than that, and I would recommend chilling it for food safety reasons because of the high dairy content in the recipe.
Ruth Mayne says
Thank you for this recipe! I actually substituted cream cheese for half the butter, as I was doing a carrot cake. Who does not love cream cheese frosting on carrot cake! I love it! but its always way to sweet! this is the perfect frosting! I did add 2 tsp of powdered sugar and that made it the perfect cream cheese frosting!
Kate says
You’re welcome! I’m glad that it worked out well for you. =)
Kerri D says
I’ve made this a few times for cakepops. As regular frosting is just to sweet. The recipe is great. Your key notes are right on point. Everything you predict happened. Thanks for sharing!
Kate says
Thank you! I’m glad that the notes were helpful! =)
Veronica Mercado says
For some reason the frosting turned into liquid after beating it in a stand mixer for almost 20 mins. What did i do wrong? Btw i substituted milk with Rice milk instead just increased flour. Please help.
Kate says
I’ve used almond milk in place of the dairy milk, but I’ve never tried rice milk in this recipe. Rice milk tends to be thinner and more watery, so I’m not sure whether that was the issue or the mixing time. The frosting gets warmer the longer you mix it, so mixing it for 20 minutes would make a difference, too.
Susan says
Can you use food coloring in this recipe? If so, what kind is best?
Kate says
You can! Gel food coloring seems to be the best one to use.
Caleb says
Thanks for the recipe Kate! I’m not really a frosting person but my girlfriend wanted cake and didn’t have frosting so I told her I’d make some while she made the cake. I like this way more than most frostings I’ve had, nowhere near as sickly sweet. As a side note, I realized too late we’d run out of milk so I made it with our homemade oat milk and that presented no issues at all, consistency is still great.
Kate says
Thank you! And thanks for the note about using oat milk! It’s helpful to hear that that worked well.
Janice says
Used this recipe on my son’s birthday cake. I humbly say that I make a pretty mean cake, but everyone was oohing and ahhing over the frosting this time. (Not that the cake wasn’t good. lol.) My husband said it was perfect–cake and frosting. Thanks for being my secret family recipe!
Kate says
Yay!! I’m so glad to hear that!
Stacie says
This recipe was perfect! i have been looking for a simple frosting recipe in quarantine and this is amazing!
Kate says
Thank you! I’m so glad that you liked it!
Eli says
If I put it in the fridge for a few days what can I add to it to make it smooth again? or should I just toss it.
Also, the frosting was amazing! Not heavy or too sweet, great work. The only frosting I’ll be making from now on. :)
Kate says
Thank you! What happened when you chilled it?
Ivy says
Due to the butter, the frosting gets quite hard after refrigeration. It needs to warm to cool room temp and get beaten again. I added liquid food coloring during the process and it was pipe-able but not quite the same.
Kate says
Thanks for sharing that update!
Lisa Lee says
Could I use splenda instead of sugar in this recipe?
Kate says
Hi! I’m not sure how Spenda would work in this recipe.
Tracy says
Could you use gluten free all purpose flour? Not sure if the wheat ingredient is key to this recipe. Thanks.
Kate says
I haven’t tried using gluten-free flour in this frosting. I’ve had this recipe up for about 7 years, and I think that I’ve heard from a few people who have successfully used gf flour. However, I haven’t tried it myself.
Jules says
I just made ermine from another recipe, and it said to put saran wrap on the top of the milk/flour as it cools, touching the top so no skin forms and to refrigerate while creaming the butter. Also, that recipe had you dissolve thr sugar into the milk/ flour/ sugar paste, so it was reminiscent of the process for creme patissiere (minus egg) … anyway, do you see any benefit to creaming the sugar in the butter, instead of dissolving in the liquid?
Anyway, Ermine is my new favorite, as delicious/luxurious as meringue based buttercreams and far easier!
Kate says
I’ve never had a skin form. If they are using sugar in it, it may be more like puddings that form a skin. Absolutely, though, if that’s an issue, place a piece of saran wrap on the surface.
Also, I’ve never tried dissolving the sugar into the milk. This is the way that I learned to make the frosting years ago, and I’ve always made it this way because it’s always turned out well. I have heard from a few people who have done that, and they’ve said that it worked out well for them. So, I don’t know that there’s a benefit to one method over the other. I think it’s just a matter of which one you prefer.