White chocolate buttercream, easy to make and perfect for piping onto cupcakes, layer cakes, macarons or special celebration cakes.
My buttercream recipes seem to be very popular on here. I’ve had a few requests for a white chocolate version so not wanting to leave you without the recipes you need, here it is! If there’s a flavour of cake or buttercream that’s not on here but you’d like to see, then let me know and I’ll do my best to add it.
This white chocolate buttercream is based on my yummy milk chocolate buttercream, where equal quantities of butter and icing sugar are beaten together and then lots of melted white chocolate is added. It gives you beautiful smooth buttercream that is the perfect consistency for piping.
Here’s a few tips for getting it just right…
- Melt your chocolate over a bain marie (in a bowl over a pan of simmering water). When I use milk or dark chocolate I’m happy to melt my chocolate in a pan on the hob, but I find that white chocolate is a bit temperamental and can easily go a bit grainy. The heat over a bain marie is gentler. You could also use the microwave using short bursts (20 seconds at first and then 10 seconds, stirring in between each one).
- Use chocolate from the baking aisle in the supermarket (it’s less temperamental than the chocolate from the sweet aisle).
- Make sure you let your chocolate cool to room temperature before adding it to the butter and sugar, otherwise it’ll melt the butter and you’ll end up with runny buttercream.
- You should find that your buttercream is the perfect consistency for piping. If it’s a little stiff then beat in a little milk (no more than 1 tsp at a time). If it’s a little too soft then pop it into the fridge for a few minutes to firm up slightly.
White Chocolate Buttercream
White chocolate buttercream, easy to make and perfect for piping onto cupcakes, layer cakes, macarons, biscuits or special celebration cakes.
Ingredients
- 250 g unsalted butter soft at room temperature
- 250 g icing sugar
- 200 g white chocolate
- A little milk to get the buttercream to the right consistency, this may not be needed
Instructions
-
Break the white chocolate (200g) and melt it over a bain marie (in a bowl over a pan of simmering water).
-
Once the chocolate has melted, remove the bowl from the pan and leave the chocolate to cool.
-
Beat the butter (250g) on a low speed until soft and then add the icing sugar (250g), 1 tbsp at a time and beat until fully combined.
-
Once the white chocolate has cooled to room temperature pour it into the butter and sugar mixture and beat on a low speed until fully combined. You should find that the buttercream has a soft, spreadable consistency, if not add a little milk a tsp at a time until it is soft.
-
Your buttercream is now ready to use.
Recipe Notes
This recipe makes enough icing for 12 cupcakes or to fill and coat a 2-layer 20cm round cake.
Here I’ve used this icing on my easy chocolate cupcakes, but it would go brilliantly on all sorts of cakes. Take a look at my mix-and-match cupcake creator to find all my recipes.
Free From/Suitable For…
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- Corn-Free
- Egg-Free
- Gluten-Free
- Nut-Free
The ingredients for this recipe are easily available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.
Is icing sugar the same as confectioners/powdered sugar?
Yes
Hi, just came across your fab site, I’ve got a question, I’m making a chocolate cake as a top tier for a wedding cake-this week. my question is, if I fill and cover the cake with this buttercream, can I freeze it, take it out night before, thaw it in the fridge before delivery to the venue- would this work?
I’ve not tried freezing a cake after decoration so I’m not sure whether this would work. Sorry.
Do you think this amount will be enough to completely cover a 9×5 inch cake, just on the outside?? I want to cover the cake in buttercream and use a swirl effect on the outside so it needs to be quite thick really, or shall I increase the ingredients? Thank you 🙂
It’s enough to cover that size of cake but not to do swirls as they need a lot more icing. If you’re looking to make the swirls a similar size to those you can see on my coffee and walnut cake then this white chocolate buttercream recipe is enough to make around 15 of those so work out how many you’ll think you’ll need to over the cake and then factor up the ingredients.
Hi I wanted to make this buttercream for a birthday cake that I’ll be making. I’ll be icing it with the butter ram, just one question though! Do I use compound chocolate or pure chocolate for this?
I’ve made this buttercream using Dr Oetker, Green & Blacks and Tesco own brand white chocolate from the baking aisle.
Hello, love your recepis, specially buttercream ones, and I have a question for you. What is your take on using salted butter for buttercreams? Once, by mistake I used salted and found the buttercream actually tasted better, no so sickly sweet as regular ones. I made your coffee buttercream with unsalted butter. liked it but I wonder, maybe unsalted would work even better.
I think it’s down to personal taste. The addition of a little salt can help bring out the flavour of the buttercream and offset some of the sweetness so using salted butter could be a popular choice, especially for anyone that likes salted caramel. However, it’s not how buttercream is traditionally made so may not be to everyones taste. I include salt in my coffee cupcakes as its helps to bring out the coffee flavour so I’d imaging a slightly salted butter could work well for the buttercream.
How will this buttercream hold up in some hot and humid weather?
It’ll hold up as well as any other buttercream, however in this especially warm weather I’d recommend keeping anything decorated using this buttercream refrigerated for as long as possible.
This looks great and I’m definitely going to give it a try! Just wondering for the reason behind the equal quantities of sugar and butter? Is that because the white chocolate makes up the extra ‘sugar’? My normal buttercream recipe is 250g butter to 500gicing sugar.
My normal vanilla buttercream uses the 2:1 sugar and butter too but due to the sweetness of the chocolate I found it worked better with a lower amount of sugar for my chocolate versions. If you taste it and would prefer it a little sweeter than you’re fine to add a bit more. The extra sugar will make it stiffer so you might find you need to add a little milk to get it to the right consistency.
I made a chocolate cake with this white buttercream and it tasted amazing. I added some milk chocolate buttons on top and my daughter absolutely loved it. Great recipe.
How long would this buttercream last in fridge to stay fresh?
I’d happily eat it for about 5-6 days after I’ve made it.
Does the chocolate in the butter icing make it more stable on a hot summer day? Was thinking of this for a nude wedding cake I’m doing for September and then adding things like raspberry jam, lemon curd etc. for different cake flavours but I’d be making it one or rwo days before if pissible!
On a hot day I’d recommend keeping it refrigerated.
Hello Charlotte,
I used this recipe with your chocolate cupcakes recipe and they tasted amazing. I love white chocolate but you don’t often find cakes with white chocolate frosting. I fancy having a go at your chocolate orange cupcakes next, just need to find a good excuse.
Thanks
Wendy
You need an excuse to bake? I just do it because I feel like it 🙂
Holy Sh*t. This is the best butter cream I have ever made/tasted. There’s no looking back. This will now be my staple go to buttercream Base. P.S. I did use the wilton white-white icing colour in it and it’s come up a lovely off white ivory colour. I guess you could add more but I stopped where I was happy. Just about to make a second batch. Maybe to ice the cupcakes… Maybe to just eat. I’ll see how I feel when the time comes. Lol
I always make a little bit too much so there’s some for me while I’m baking, it’s very moreish 🙂
Hi Charlotte, I’ve just found your website and I have two questions about this recipe, I hope you don’t mind. I’m looking for frosting / decoration options for my wedding cake (and I’ve never made a cake before where the decoration mattered!). It will be a small chocolate cake for a small ceremony (picture the top tier from a big wedding cake on its own). Would this frosting be this suitable to cover the entire cake with a cake turntable and then stick sugar paste roses on top? And is it possible to make this whiter by adding (and I apologise for even mentioning the word) superwhite or something similar? Thanks for the brill recipe x
I’ve not tried adding any sort of whitening to this to know if it could be brightened up, sorry. If you want your cake to look really white then would you consider a layer of buttercream and then fondant on top. That’s what I usually do when I make cakes as I’m not fussed on the flavour of fondant so I have a nice layer of buttercream for the flavour and then the fondant is really just for decoration. If you’re happy with the colour and just want buttercream then you can definitely use it as the main icing with fondant flowers on top. It’s best to apply the buttercream in a few layers to get it really smooth and avoid getting crumbs in the icing, letting each layer harden before adding more.
Can I put the cake in the fridge once it’s iced or will the chocolate cause the buttercream to harden? I need to add raspberries to the icing so I’d like the cake to go in the fridge overnight.
If I have room I always like to store my cakes with buttercream icing in the fridge due to the butter in the but I’ve found that they’re fine stored outside as long as the room isn’t too warm. The icing will firm up more in the fridge but will still definitely be soft enough to eat, and it will soften a bit once it’s been removed from the fridge if it’s left to sit at room temperature for a little while.
Hi i was looking at making a white chocolate cake for my sons 3rd birthday but the amounts of choc needed for the cake and buttercream was crazy! I was thinking id make a plain sponge with rasberry jam and then this white chocolate buttercream in the middle and then dyed green for the sides. Do you think it would go ok with plain sponge cake or would it be too sweet?
It should go well and will be lovely with the raspberry jam. Usually buttercream is made with twice as much sugar as butter but this is very sweet once the extra chocolate is added. My version has equal amounts of sugar and butter so is slightly less sweet.
Hi Charlotte I’m debating whether to do your vanilla or choc sponge for my hubby’s bday next weekend. I’ve made the vanilla one a few times now so was thinking to make something different. But I’m planning to attempt making a bicycle out of fondant to go on the top (he’s a keen cyclist!) so don’t want to use choc buttercream as want a different colour to brown. (I’m a total beginner with cake decorating so don’t want to attempt fondant icing all over the cake!) Would I be able to add gel food colouring to this white choc buttercream or would I be better off using your vanilla one and colouring that like I’ve done in the past? I just thought that white choc might go better with the milk choc cake than vanilla. Thanks.
You’ll be absolutely fine adding gel colour to the white chocolate buttercream.
Thank you! I’m making the cake today, fingers crossed I don’t mess it up!
Has anyone tried this as a filling for the chocolate Birthday cake, would it work?
I haven’t but I’ve tried it on the chocolate cupcakes and it would absolutely work.
It worked a treat, was delicious and actually prefare it to the chocolate butter cream. About to make again this week, Sons wife has requested it for his Birthday. Thanks for sharing.
Can this be made the day before and pipped? The next day
I’ve not tried it but buttercream will form a bit of a crust once it’s been made so I don’t think it would pipe well the next day. If you stored it in the fridge in an airtight bag and then let it come up to room temperature before piping it may work.
This looks yummmm!! I love white cream especially on chocolate cake 🙂 Thanks for sharing