Butterscotch Buttercream Frosting Recipe - Simply the BEST!
I call butterscotch buttercream frosting the twin sister of caramel buttercream frosting. While quite similar, butterscotch buttercream has a uniquely delicate and sweet flavor from the brown sugar. Also, it's much softer than a caramel frosting and goes well with some fantastic cake flavors such as banana, pumpkin, apple and even pure vanilla or chocolate cupcakes.
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If you love butterscotch sauce, then you probably love butterscotch buttercream too. And if you like caramel, then you love butterscotch buttercream! I must admit that I have a particular soft spot for butterscotch sauce, and especially butterscotch buttercream. If I had to pick between a caramel sauce or a butterscotch sauce, I'd choose butterscotch. LOVE!!
In my previous post, I shared in detail the similarities and differences between butterscotch and caramel. So I'll save you all the repeat on this post. And NO Caramel and Butterscotch are not the same... nope!!
Don't you love that color? Especially the smell.. yum. Sweet and luxurious!
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Two Methods to Make Butterscotch Buttercream Frosting (Save/Pin)
Yes, if you know me, I love shortcuts, and I know many cake decorators like me follow my recipes. So yes, you can make butterscotch buttercream using a premade buttercream. And you can also make it from scratch.
- First - If you are a cake decorator like me, then you probably already have buttercream on hand - why would you make from scratch? Right? Of course, this buttercream is a bit soft in-consistency because you are now adding a sauce ingredient. Please keep that in mind.
- Second - You can make butterscotch buttercream from scratch - I like to use this simple two ingredient method.
- A fair warning - This is rich, light and fluffy because you MUST whip it for at least three minutes.
- I love using this more than the first method because it's not too sweet.
- As you can see it's all butter so use it such that it complements the cake. Beautiful light and airy cake will be a better match than a dense cake. A dense cake with an all butter butterscotch frosting might be a bit too much. Unless of course, that indulgence is what you are looking for.
- This buttercream does not do so well with piping - it's much softer than regular powdered sugar buttercreams.
You must try these with my Butterscotch Cupcakes and drizzle them with more Butterscotch Sauce. Yum!!
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Let's talk ingredients (Save/Pin)
- Butter - I always use all butter in my frosting, but you can use high-fat vegetable shortening. The key here is to use high fat so it will whip some air in with the sauce and become light and fluffy.
- Butterscotch sauce - This is, of course, the critical ingredient. I always use homemade butterscotch sauce, but I think any store-bought might work just as well. By the way, it takes five minutes to make homemade butterscotch. I highly recommend not using very fresh made butterscotch sauce. Use one that's cooled completely but not chilled. Chilled butterscotch may not blend well in the butter. If the butterscotch you have is stiff, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes. If necessary, place in the microwave for 10 seconds only.
- Powdered sugar - It's best to use powdered sugar made from cane sugar, not beet sugar. Beet sugar tends to give a very grainy buttercream.
Useful Tips and Tools (Save)
- If you bake often, it would be a good idea to invest in a cake mixer. Because often we try to mix by hand and then we are too tired to give it enough creaming or mixing. So, if you are making this buttercream go head and remove that K-Mix or Kitchen Aid from your kitchen cabinet. And, you don't have to buy an expensive stand mixer, a simple hand mixer works great too.
- Having said that, a simple Bowl, whisk and Spatula with a little extra elbow grease will do too.
- Personally, I believe in weighing ingredients by weight, which makes my kitchen scaleone of the most valuable items when baking. The same goes for mymeasuring cups and measuring spoons. It's always a good idea to have these handy and use them when baking rather than trying to guess measurements.
- A good baking tray is always important. Try using a light colored baking trayBaking tray. Another option is to line the baking tray with Parchment Paper for easy clean up just in case of spillage.
- Every oven works differently. So the baking times are just guidelines. In case of muffins and cupcakes, it’s often a good idea to rotate the baking tray mid-way the baking, so they cook and rise evenly.
Recipe 1 - Quick Butterscotch Buttercream Made With Premade buttercream
If you already have buttercream readily made, why make more. Use it!! This method will give you a more soft buttercream consistency which is ok for cupcakes and frosting cakes. Depending on the consistency you may even be able to pipe some borders. You can use any of my buttercream recipes Swiss, Italian, American, French, or German buttercream.
Recipe
- Make and cool (homemade)1 cup butterscotch sauce. ( you can use commercial one as well).
- Add to 4 cups of buttercream frosting. (Swiss, Italian, American, French, or German buttercream.)
Consistency
The consistency of this buttercream will depend on the consistency of the original buttercream as well as the consistency of your Butterscotch Sauce. If you need to frost a cake or pipe swirls on cupcakes, this will work just great. However, if you need a firm or stiff buttercream, then you are probably better off using the recipe from scratch below.
Recipe 2 - The Perfect Butterscotch Buttercream Frosting - From Scratch (Save/Pin)
Ingredients
- Butterscotch sauce- 1 cup (recipe here)
- Unsalted butter - 450 grams ( 1 lb)
- Powdered sugar - 175 grams (1 1/2cup)
- Salt - 1/2 tsp
Method
Make buttercream
- Place the butter and salt in the mixer bowl.
- Using the paddle attachment - mix the butter until light and creamy.
- Next, add half a cup of butterscotch sauce - combine well.
- Add the remaining sauce - combine again.
- Lastly, the powdered sugar - combine well.
- Once all the ingredients have been added - whip for three minutes until the butterscotch is light and fluffy.
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Tips and troubleshooting
- The consistency of the caramel sauce you use will determine the consistency of the buttercream you get.
- Ideally, one way to get a firmer buttercream would be to add more powdered sugar, but this results in a lovely buttercream.
- If the consistency of the buttercream is too soft - use it as a filling first then add some regular buttercream to frost the outside of the cake.
- In my video below, I do share how to make the sauce in two different consistencies so you can use one for drips and pours and the other works best for buttercream.
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Butterscotch Buttercream Frosting, Butterscotch buttercream, Butter Scotch Buttercream Frosting, Butterscotch
Butterscotch Buttercream Frosting Recipe - 2 Methods
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Ingredients
From Scratch
- 250 ml (1 cup) Butterscotch sauce recipe here
- 450 grams (15.87 oz) Unsalted butter
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) Salt
- 175 grams (1.46 cups) Powdered sugar
With Pre-made buttercream
- 250 ml (0.87 cups) Butterscotch Sauce
- 4 cups Any Buttercream Frosting from Below
- (4 cup) American Buttercream Frosting OR
- (4 cups) French Buttercream Frosting OR
- (4 cups) Swiss Meringue Buttercream OR
- (4 cups) Italian Meringue Buttercream OR
- (4 cups) German Buttercream
Instructions
From Scratch
- Place the butter and salt in the mixer bowl.
- Using the paddle attachment - mix the butter until light and creamy.
- Next, add half a cup of butterscotch sauce - combine well.
- Add the remaining sauce - combine again.
- Add the powdered sugar and mix until combined.
- Once all the ingredients have been combined - whip for three minutes until the butterscotch is light and fluffy.
With Pre-made Buttercream
- Whip the butterscotch sauce with the premade buttercream until light and fluffy.
- You must whip to get a nice light and fluffy buttercream or it will be too soft.
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
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Tammie
Hi. I have a question regarding a filling that will pair well with the buttersctoch frosting. I plan to make a white cake but I'm not sure what type of filling (like a homemade jam or even a curd) would pair nicely with this frosting. Last week I did my first cake that had a dam and filling inside and now I can't wait to do more. ? I'm just having an issue when it comes to pairing flavor profiles that aren't as common. I'm looking for a filling that won't be too sweet but will work. Can you please give me some suggestions? Thanks!
Veena Azmanov
Hey Tammie. I have a post that has great suggestions for flavor combinations that you might like to check out.
For butterscotch, a great combination is a coffee, espresso or dark chocolate ganache.
The bitterness of coffee or dark chocolate does go well with the sweet butterscotch.
Another great combination with butterscotch are tart berries - like sour cherries, blackberries,
Personally, I do like orange curd with butterscotch but it's not very popular with everyone.
I hope these suggestions help.
Rajal Sharma
Hi Veena, I am planning to bake two 9" cake with 4 layers and use butterscotch buttercream for frosting. Can i use the exact amount give n in your recipe for both sauce and buttercream. will it be enough to cover the cake..it will be semi naked cake so i just need basically for filing and top and little on side.
Thanks in advance.
Veena Azmanov
Hey Rajal
This recipe makes for 3 x 6-inch layers. A 9-inch cake is about 32 servings.
Just adjust the serving size in the recipe card below (change 12 to 32)
it will automatically calculate the recipe for you.
Bake in two 9 inch pans then split those layers in two - so you have 4 layers.
If you want only to fill the cake - naked- the above sauce and buttercream will be fine.
For more frosting, you will need to adjust the recipe in the card below again.
Enjoy the cake and let me know how it was. Thanks
Aiswarya
Thank you so much for such a delicious recipe.. can I add food colors to the butterscotch buttercream icing?? Like blue color.. what ll b the end result. Thank you.
Veena Azmanov
Aiswarya. You sure can add color but since the base color is not white it will give you a different tone of color. I suggest adding to a small batch and see if its' what you like.
Janet
Looks yummy but How do I find your post about the difference between butterscotch and caramel? I've never seen a clear explanation. Thanks
Veena Azmanov
Thanks Janet. I think I speak about it in either my Butterscotch or Caramel Sauce post.
Mabel
Thank you so much for such a detailed explanation about butterscotch. I'm going to make it with my premade smbc, just to make sure I got the ratio right. It's 1 cup butterscotch to 1 cup smbc right? Thank you so much for your time reading this and sharing the recipe.
Veena Azmanov
Mabel the quantity can differ. If you use it for a filling a 1:1 ratio works great. If you use it as a frosting the consistency may be too soft. Perhaps a 1:3 or 1:4 may work better.
Daria
Oh my! I will end up eating this all up without bothering to bake anything. Haha. But I think this would be perfect for plain sugar or butter cookies.
Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
Veena Azmanov
I hear ya!! I have the same problem when I made it - it's so delicious on it's own.