Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting

If you follow my blog, you may have noticed the vanilla cupcakes that I made for my sister Emily’s wedding shower. While I prepared the cupcakes late into the night, I did take the time to capture some photos so I could share my frosting recipe with you. So here it is!

I’m surprised I haven’t gotten around to posting a frosting recipe yet. It’s really quite shameful because I live to make frosting. Seriously. The sole reason I purchased a KitchenAid mixer was so that I could whip up larger batches.

To me, homemade frosting is absolutely necessary. If you want to make a cake with a mix, go ahead. But it’s unforgiveable to use frosting from a can.

And I love to make all kinds of frosting…buttercream, Swiss buttercream, 7-minute frosting, flour frosting, caramel, penuche, cream cheese, brown butter, etc. So I’m sure this frosting recipe won’t be the last that I share with you.

This recipe is for a basic vanilla buttercream with a little marshmallow crème added in to make it extra fluffy and white. I decided to go with plain vanilla for the shower cupcakes because everyone likes vanilla. Simple flavors are always crowd pleasers.

Here’s what you need:
2 cups of unsalted butter, softened (that’s 4 sticks or 1lb of butter)
Two 7oz jars of marshmallow crème
About 1 pound of confectioner’s sugar (approximately 4 cups)
2 tsp. vanilla
1-2 tablespoons heavy cream or milk

This marshmallow buttercream recipe can easily be used for plain buttercream – just leave out the marshmallow crème and add in another pound of confectioner’s sugar instead. The general formula for buttercream frosting is 1 pound of confectioner’s sugar for every cup of fat (butter, shortening, cream cheese, margarine). So simple yet so delicious.

First, beat the butter until it’s light and fluffy with a mixer.

Then beat in the marshmallow crème. Butter and marshmallow – yum!

Next, slowly add in the confectioner’s sugar with the mixer on low speed. Don’t add it all at once or you’ll end up covered in sugar. Also, you may not need to add all the sugar or you may need to add more than a pound. Judge how much you need to mix in based on the flavor and consistency and go with your gut.

Once the confectioner’s sugar is mixed in, turn the mixer up and beat until it’s creamy and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and the heavy cream or milk.

Plain buttercream made with only confectioner’s sugar and butter is pretty soft and doesn’t hold up very well in the heat. The marshmallow crème helps stabilize the frosting and makes it better for decorating, which is why I decided to add it to my buttercream recipe for the shower cupcakes. You can also substitute half the butter for shortening to make a more stable frosting and add in more confectioners’ sugar to make it stiffer. This is really only necessary if you don’t want the frosting to melt on a warm day or if you want to use your frosting for decorating.

I decorated the cupcakes by piping white buttercream drop flowers all over the tops. This is really easy to do with a 2D piping tip, yet it turns out looking quite pretty and delicate.

But not too pretty to eat!