Buttercream: Use An 1 ingredient to transform canned frosting into silky buttercream

Chances are you’ve browsed the baking section of your neighborhood supermarket and picked up a tub of premade frosting in a can when you need to make a cake or cupcake quickly. However, canned frosting can have a very sugary, waxy flavor that often leaves a lot to be desired, even though it’s a quick and convenient solution.

If you’re wondering how to make your canned frosting taste less, better, and more like the buttercream your grandma used to make, there’s an easy addition that’s probably already in your refrigerator: butter. It turns out that adding softened butter to your canned frosting can significantly improve its flavor, counteracting the artificial flavor of store-bought frosting and creating a smooth, flavorful, and exceptionally rich topping.

Additionally, you can create a lighter, fluffier texture with this trick, which makes piping and decorating easier, since canned frosting (even whipped versions) has a thicker consistency that is much harder to spread than its homemade equivalent. But for this fix, real butter, not margarine, is what you want to use or shortening, which lack the same richness in flavor and mouthfeel and you’ll have a delectable buttercream no one will believe you didn’t make from scratch.

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Adding Butter To Your Canned Frosting

Choosing the right type of butter is the first step to turning canned frosting into delicious buttercream using softened butter. As with most recipes, you want to use the best butter you can find; Adding European butter (which has more butterfat) or Grade AA (the highest quality) will give your frosting a rich, creamy flavor and help it taste handmade. Both salted and unsalted butter will work well, but if you’re using unsalted butter, you’ll need to add a bit of salt to tone down the excess sweetness and balance out the flavor.

After the butter is softened, simply add it to your frosting (don’t use more than two tablespoons per can of frosting) and beat with an electric mixer for about five minutes. Although you can mix it by hand for the same flavor boost, the air in an electric mixer helps lighten the texture of your frosting, making it fluffy and easier to spread because of the butter’s fat content.

Plus, whipping your frosting will increase its volume—sometimes almost double—enabling you to frost more or create a few extra cupcakes or cake layers. Plus, adding butter to the recipe will have the added benefit of preventing your frosting hardening as quickly after your cake is iced, allowing that soft, velvety mouthfeel to last for days.

Delicious Ways To Upgrade Your Newly Made Buttercream

There are many techniques for improving buttercream frosting, to enhance its smooth texture and delicious taste. Do you want to make a tasty frosting with fruit flavor? Before mixing, consider adding two tablespoons to a cup of your favorite fruit jam for each can of frosting. Adding butter and salt will increase the sweetness of the fruit.

It’s important to remember that adding jam will probably change the consistency of your frosting, so the thicker the jam, the better. You can thicken your frosting by adding a couple of teaspoons of powdered sugar if you think it’s too runny. Alternatively, you can add freeze-dried fruit, which is usually easier to mix into the frosting because it contains no water. As a result, your buttercream will be silky-smooth without being runny.

Not a fan of fruit frosting? For a party-cake twist, you can even amp up your buttercream by adding some crunchy toppings like chocolate chips, almonds of your choice, or even sprinkles. It’s easy to elevate canned frosting to a new level, but

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