How to make thick icing for cake

When baking, it's always wise to start with a thicker frosting and thin it out as needed, but a thick frosting comes in handy in various baking projects and applications. To build a structurally-sound layer cake, you'll want to use a thick, firmer buttercream between your cake layers, giving the cake height and keeping it level. When decorating cookies, a firm royal icing is crucial to piping elegant, clean designs and fine lines.

While it's relatively easy to thin out your frosting—a bit of water, milk, or cream should do the trick—regaining body and thickness in your frosting is slightly more challenging. But don't worry, it's not impossible. Frosting can go wrong for many reasons, but we're here best practices to return to fluffy frosting perfection.

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Some of our techniques for thickening frosting call for added ingredients, like powdered sugar, while others only require time. We're giving you the complete rundown on thickening frosting in a pinch, whether you're working with buttercream or royal icing. Keep these tricks in your back pocket for future baking mishaps.

When you are frosting a cake, it's crucial to work with buttercream that's reached the perfect consistency. If your frosting is too runny, it'll melt and slide all over the cake. If it's too thick, it won't spread easily. Think of building and frosting your layer cake as a construction process. You'll want to start by forming a solid base structure, then work from there. When making a cake, we start with a thick, firm buttercream, then as we move into the decoration, we thin our frosting out with a little bit of heavy cream to make it more spreadable.

How to Fix Thin Buttercream

If you're starting with a thin and runny frosting, don't fret: You can come back from this. There are a few different ways to thicken your frosting to ensure that your cake is sturdy, clean, and polished.

1. Chill and wait

Allow your frosting to sit in the fridge, covered with saran wrap, for 2 hours—this will help your frosting firm up.

2. Add powdered sugar

If the frosting has not reached your desired thickness after chilling, add a few tablespoons of sifted powdered sugar to help your buttercream stiffen.

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If you're making royal icing, often used for decorating cookies, mixing to the right consistency is key to achieving clean, pretty lines and decorative features. Icing with a flooding consistency, a looser icing used to fill in large surfaces differs from piping icing used for intricate designs because it is much stiffer.

Always start with a firmer icing, then gradually add water to make it more liquid. Add water—a few tablespoons at a time—until the icing reaches a spreadable consistency to achieve a flooding-consistency icing.

How to Fix Thin Royal Icing

If you accidentally added too much water at the onset, making your icing far too runny for the piping bag, and need to make the icing firmer rather than looser, there are solutions for this problem too.

1. Add powdered sugar

To thicken your royal icing, add more sifted powdered sugar—a couple of tablespoons at a time—until the icing reaches your desired consistency.

2. Add corn starch

If you want to thicken your royal icing without adding additional sugar, you can add a minimal amount of corn starch (less than a teaspoon) to help your icing thicken up.

3. Let it rest

Allowing icing time to rest and chill in the fridge can also help it gain more body—if it's not already in the piping bag, be sure to cover the bowl with saran wrap, so the icing doesn't form a crust.

Learn how to make buttercream frosting with this easy tutorial. This is the BEST recipe for homemade buttercream, it pipes perfectly, and makes a great base for other frosting flavors too!

Today we’re covering how to make buttercream frosting. Actually, we’re covering just how EASY it is to make your own frosting right at home. If you’ve been buying store-bought, you’ll want to ditch it after seeing just how easy it is to make your own.

I originally published this recipe in January of 2017, but decided it was finally time to update it with better instructions and more information. In today’s post, I’m breaking down everything you need to know about how to make the best buttercream frosting.

This recipe also makes a great base for so many different flavor variations. The possibilities are really endless, but I’ve included four different variations for you to try!

Recipe Ingredients

This easy buttercream frosting uses just 5 ingredients – butter, powdered sugar, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and salt. Here’s a simple overview of each ingredient:

Butter: I use unsalted butter in all of my recipes because the amount of salt in salted butter can vary quite a bit between different brands. By using unsalted butter, you control the amount of salt in your recipe. Make sure to use actual butter too and not a butter substitute like margarine.
Powdered Sugar: Also known as confectioners sugar or icing sugar, this helps to thicken and sweeten the frosting. It’s best to sift the powdered sugar beforehand, but if I’m being honest I usually skip the extra step.
Heavy Cream: Heavy cream or heavy whipping cream work best in this recipe. You can replace it with milk, but keep in mind that the frosting won’t be quite as creamy.
Vanilla Extract: This adds a little bit of flavor to the frosting. I recommend using pure vanilla extract for the best flavor. You can even use different extracts like mint, almond, lemon, etc.
Salt: This helps to balance out the sweetness of the frosting. I stick with just a tiny pinch of table salt, you don’t need very much at all!

How To Make Buttercream Frosting

To start, set your butter out ahead of time so that it can soften. This will ensure that the frosting is smooth and creamy. You will need two sticks of unsalted butter, which is equal to 1 cup or 230 grams.

Beat the butter with a mixer for about 1 minute, just until it’s nice and smooth. You can either use a handheld mixer or stand mixer for this recipe, either one works fine!

Next, you’ll mix in the powdered sugar. I typically only use 3 cups of powdered sugar for a batch of this frosting. Some recipes call for quite a bit more powdered sugar, but I’ve found that 3 cups is all you really need. Feel free to sift the powdered sugar, but as I mentioned earlier, I usually skip this step.

Note: When you first start mixing the powdered sugar with the butter, mix it on low speed so you don’t end up throwing it all over the place. You may also mix the powdered sugar in 1 cup at a time to make it easier.

Once the butter and powdered sugar are mixed together, mix in the heavy cream, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. If needed, stop and scrape down the sides of your bowl and mix again to make sure everything is well combined.

Easy, right? At this point, you can go ahead and use this frosting to pipe onto cupcakes or decorate a cake. Or you can store it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

Recipe Variations

The best thing about this recipe is that you can change it up to make different flavors of frosting. I’ve included 4 different variations below, but keep in mind that you can do so much more with this recipe.

Vanilla: If I’m just making plain vanilla buttercream frosting to pipe on cupcakes or frost a cake, I like to add an additional teaspoon of vanilla extract to amp up the vanilla flavor.
Chocolate: Sift 1/2 cup (40 grams) of unsweetened cocoa powder, then mix into the frosting base until well combined. Add 1 to 2 extra tablespoons of heavy cream if needed for a smoother, creamier frosting. If you prefer your frosting sweeter, mix in an additional 1/2 to 1 cup of powdered sugar.
Caramel: Mix in 1/3 to 1/2 cup of homemade or store-bought caramel sauce. For a salted caramel frosting, you can use salted caramel and omit the salt in the recipe.
Strawberry: Add a 1-ounce bag of freeze dried strawberries to a blender or food processor and process until the berries are crushed into a fine powder. Mix the freeze dried strawberry powder into the frosting until well combined.

Storage & Freezing Instructions

This frosting can be made 1 to 2 days in advance. While it’s not necessary to refrigerate it, I do recommend covering it tightly and storing it in the refrigerator so it stays fresh longer. When you are ready to use it, bring it to room temperature, and mix well before frosting cupcakes or a cake.

This will also freeze well for up to 3 months in a freezer bag. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature and mix well before using it.

Baking Tips

You can add food coloring to this recipe if you prefer. If using liquid food coloring, I recommend using just a few drops as it can thin out the frosting. For a darker color, gel food coloring is a great option!
This recipe makes about 2 and 1/2 cups of frosting, which is enough to generously frost a batch of 12 to 14 cupcakes. If you prefer less frosting, you can cut the recipe in half. This recipe will also make enough to frost a 9×13 cake or lightly frost an 8 or 9-inch layer cake. If you prefer more frosting for decorating, then I recommend multiplying the recipe by 1.5.
You can find my full tutorial for how to prepare your piping bag and frost cupcakes here.

Different Ways To Use This Frosting

Here are a few of my favorite cupcake recipes that you can use with this frosting:

Chocolate Cupcakes
Vanilla Cupcakes
Lemon Cupcakes
Pumpkin Cupcakes

Video Tutorial

How To Make Buttercream Frosting

4.88 from 118 ratings

Prep Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 10 mins

Learn how to make buttercream frosting with this easy tutorial. This is the BEST recipe for homemade buttercream, it pipes perfectly, and makes a great base for other frosting flavors too!

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Ingredients

Servings: 2 1/2 cups

1 cup (230 grams) unsalted butter (softened)
3 cups (360 grams) powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons (30 to 45 ml) heavy cream or heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Tiny pinch of salt

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
Add the powdered sugar and mix on low speed at first, then increase to medium speed and continue mixing for 1 to 2 minutes or until fully combined.
Add the heavy cream (start with 2 tablespoons and add a little more if needed), vanilla extract, and salt and continue mixing on medium speed until everything is well combined, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Use the frosting to pipe onto cupcakes or frost a cake or cover tightly and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.

Notes

Storage Instructions: Frosting can be made 1 to 2 days in advance, cover tightly and transfer to the refrigerator. Remove from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before frosting cupcakes/cakes.Freezing Instructions: Frosting will also freeze well up to 3 months, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature and mix well before frosting cupcakes/cakes.Heavy Cream: You may replace the heavy cream with milk, but keep in mind that the frosting won't be quite as creamy.

What is the thick icing to decorate cakes?

Fondant is a popular heavy frosting that can be easily sculpted and is used mainly for celebration cakes. Basic fondant ingredients include water, gelatine, glycerine, water, sugar (icing or castor sugar) and shortening.

How do you make icing mixture thicker?

If there is one ingredient that is perfect for thickening icing, it's flour. All you have to do is add 1 or 2 teaspoons of flour to your runny icing and then stir the mixture over low heat. This method only works when making warm icing, as flour can leave an unpleasant taste if not fully dissolved.

How do you thicken icing with flour?

If you are making warm frosting on your stovetop, you can try thickening a runny frosting with a bit of flour. Sprinkle 1 tsp to 1 Tbsp (5 ml to 15 ml) of flour into the frosting and stir over low heat on the stove until it begins to thicken. Remove it from the stovetop and keep stirring until the frosting cools down.

Does milk make icing thicker?

If your finished frosting is too runny, per LeafTV, you can combine cornstarch with one or two tablespoons of milk before adding it to the frosting to thicken the whole thing up. The amount you should use depends on the amount of sugar in the recipe, as you don't want to actually be able to taste the cornstarch.