I think everyone should know how to make homemade frosting.
You might be thinking, “frosting, really why do I need to know how to make frosting?”
Homemade frosting can make even the simplest cake or cupcake special. It is so easy to make and taste so good. It tastes like frosting, unlike the stuff that comes from a can.
I know there are some uses for canned frosting, but in my opinion cake is not one of them.
I know many of you will disagree with me on this. Some of you may like canned frosting, but if you are someone that likes canned frosting and have never tried to make your own, please give it a try.
What I love about homemade frosting is that it takes a simple homemade cake, or even a cake mix, and makes it special. If you don’t have time to make a fancy dessert or birthday cake, take a cake mix and make a cake or cupcakes out of it, but instead of using a can of frosting, make your own.
People can often tell instantly if a cake is made from a mix and a can of frosting, but homemade frosting covers up the fact that you used a mix. It turns a cake mix or other simple cake, into a nice dessert that will impress all most anyone.
You can frost almost any cake with homemade chocolate frosting or homemade cream cheese frosting and it will taste so good.
You can frost a simple banana cake or cupcake with homemade honey frosting and it will make it special.
For something a little different try Caramel Frosting on a cake.
And the things that you can mix in or add to these frostings are endless. Sprinkle nuts on top of a cream cheese frosting and shaved chocolate or M&M’s on top of a chocolate frosting. You can even stir things like toffee bits into a chocolate frosting like I do for my Chocolate Toffee Cupcakes.
When it comes to homemade frosting experiment, be creative, and have fun.
Now I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you make homemade frosting or buy it in the can?
As often as not, we don’t frost a cake at all. All of us here like them plain or maybe with a dusting of powdered sugar or a simple powdered sugar glaze.
But, when I do use frosting, I almost always make my own.
@Annie Jones, I love to do that also, especially with chocolate cakes. It looks so nice to have powdered sugar on a dark cake.
Unfortunately, right now, finding a homemade frosting I like seems to be the tricky part. Or at least, that’s what I’m going to guess is the problem. I made a homemade buttercream for several different cakes over the past couple of months. The buttercream held up beautifully for the princess castle cake and the yoda cake – but when it came to taste – eh. It was nice frosting to work with asthetically, but just sub-par when it came to the taste. When I made the next cake with canned frosting – it was the perfect taste of sweet that I wanted. I got this recipe from a well knowned blogger who makes fantastic looking desserts – but I’m guessing that I’m gonna have to try out a few more different homemade recipes before I find one that I like. Of course, I enjoy the actual CAKE of a recipe, and do not “enjoy cake just for the frosting!” I’ve even been known to take a bite or two of frosting and scrap the rest off onto the plate!
I love homemade frosting! Frosting in a can is full of soybean oil and hydrogenated this and that—ick. We have dairy allergies to contend with and while I don’t make buttercream anymore, i have figured out how to make a decent tasting “faux” buttercream with vanilla rice milk and non-dairy margering and powdered sugar. Yum!
I grew up with frosting out of a can (and box mix cake) and never felt like I was missing anything. Well, next time we bake a cake we’ll give homemade frosting a try. Of course, we only bake cakes maybe once a year so that may be a while. =P
Love homemade frostings – and I completely agree – I will use a boxed cake mix sometimes, but still make homemade frosting because it makes SUCH a difference!
Amen, Sista!
Canned frosting is not for me; even less-than-wonderful homemade tastes so much better than canned.
You are so right that good frosting will make even a boxed cake taste much better. And it really is easy to make, too.
I agree! Homemade all the way!!!!! and I absolutely love frosting. Especially butter cream
I agree that homemade frosting tastes so much better. When I realized how easy it was, I have never bought another can of frosting again. And there’s only a few pronounceable ingredients to homemade frosting. The ingredient list on canned frosting scares me, lol.
I always make homemade frosting. When my husband and I got married 7 years ago, his two children (ages 5 and 9 at the time) had never had homemade frosting. I was making it to put on a cake one day shortly after we married and my step-son wanted to know what I was making. When I told him it was frosting he excitedly replied “You mean you can make it yourself! I thought you had to buy it at the store!” Now for every birthday I’m in charge of making their cake with homemade frosting and an extra tub of frosting to use for “dip” later! I’ve definitely turned them into homemade frosting lovers!
I always make my own frosting, it tastes better and cheeper. The store bought kind tastes waxy.
Thanks for posting these recipes! Unfortunately, I cannot eat cream cheese. Do you have any versions of these recipes that don’t contain cream cheese?
Thanks!
@Tracy A, I do have some that I make that do not contain cream cheese, but I do not have any posted. I will try to post some soon.
I use to think oh it takes so much time to make homemade frosting until I had kids. I make homemade frosting all the time now and you can do so much with it. I have a recipe that I found online and have used it as my base for making frosting. I measured the recipe first, but I rarely measure a recipe I use my eyes and taste which I got from my grandma.
I’m a frosting snob. That icky canned stuff is not ok. I’ll use a basic buttercream, or a delicious pan icing from The Cake Mix Doctor cookbook. Her idea is to doctor up a boxed cake mix and make the frosting yourself, and it is SOOOOO much better that way. Homemade frosting isn’t hard at all, and I figure its faster than making a special trip to the grocery store for canned.
I always make homemade frosting. It’s so quick & easy if I remember to take the butter out for butter cream frosting. Also, sifting the powdered sugar results in a smoother frosting.
Yes, Yes, and Yes!
I can tell if it is from a can (or the cake is from a box, too) in the first bite- and I simply can’t eat it anymore. Homemade doesn’t have that weird taste that things from cans and boxes do.
Bought canned once. Blech! Didn’t taste like anything I recognized. Homemade is the only way to do it. I try to make a little extra for dunking homemade graham crackers in (for the kids…, you know…).
I grew up with Wilton baking products as a staple in the kitchen. My grandmother and aunt baked & decorated wedding cakes. My mother joined them in making family birthday and holiday cakes. Since my mother worked FT, our house usually had can frosting. Our favorite treat was to be at grandmothers whenever she had mixed frosting – gold! Now I make my own all the time – homeade buttercream icing is just too good to buy canned!
Favorites…
caramel frosting on yellow cake, fresh apple cake, or on sliced apples
strawberry cake and strawberry icing (icing mixed with strawberries)
any cake with buttercream icing!
Thanks for the toffee bits suggestion – as much as I love toffee, I hadn’t thought about adding it to icing!
Homemade frosting wins hands down every time. My kids will not even eat cake if it doesn’t have homemade frosting!
I am just loving reading your blog after finding you on MPM. I LOVE frosting, but have only made my own a couple times for a special pumpkin bread I make. Now I don’t think I’ll go back to canned! I am printing both your chocolate and cream cheese frosting recipes and can’t wait to use one on my son’s upcoming May birthday cake. Homemade is always such a good rule of thumb.
@Tracey M, Thank you! I am so glad that you are enjoying my site. I hope you enjoy the frostings. I agree homemade is so much better.
Have to laugh – working at a home where I made a chocolate cake and they had virtually nothing for things to make frosting — Finally found some butter, had milk, had found some powdered sugar and the only other thing I had to flavor it was peanut butter — Was dump and punt as never used peanut butter in frosting — made it up to the consistency of frosting — Put it on a chocolate cake — had some chopped pecans in the cupboard — put them on top and they loved it said it tasted like a chocolate peanut butter candy bar >> Guess punting worked