White chocolate buttercream – easy to make and perfect for piping onto cupcakes, layer cakes, macarons or special celebration cakes, including my white chocolate cake.
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.
- 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.
What You’ll Need
Before you start, make sure you have all of the equipment needed.
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Weighing Scales- Measuring Spoons
- Knife – to cut the butter
- Something to melt the chocolate in – either a bowl in the microwave, small saucepan, or bowl over a small saucepan.
- Electric Mixer (or a bowl and hand mixer or wooden spoon)
- Sieve
- Piping Bags – if you’re planning on piping the cupcakes
- Piping Nozzle – To pipe the cupcakes as shown in the pictures you’ll need a JEM 1B nozzle.
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White Chocolate Buttercream
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.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Free From/Suitable For…
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- 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.
Kristy Smith says
I love this recipe! I now use a modified version of it with equal amounts of butter, icing sugar and white chocolate to make it easier to both remember and to scale up or down.
It’s become my go-to recipe for most cakes and cupcakes. I’ve recently been doing a lot of baking for charity fundraisers, and always get positive comments.
With a good quality vanilla extract and reasonable quality white chocolate, it reminds me of posh vanilla ice cream.
With orange extract and a dash of orange colouring, it lightens up chocolate orange cake or cupcakes, since I find it a bit rich with regular chocolate-orange icing.
Leftovers freeze well and just need a quick whizz after defrosting.
Thank you!
Lisa S says
Worked perfectly! Not too, too sweet. Handled well. Set to a lovely consistency. Thanks for teaching me.
Deena says
I’ve just made a batch and f this buttercream – absolutely love it! Friends and family can’t get enough…. I’ve got some left over, how long can I keep this at room temp? Or what’s the recommended shelf life before I need to throw it away?
Charlotte Oates says
I wouldn’t recommend keeping buttercream at room temperature, you should keep it in the fridge. You can also freeze it if you want to keep it longer term. Either way, you will likely want to give it a quick re-whip before using it.
Kay Hart says
If you wanted this recipe to be a little less sweet could you use salted butter?
Charlotte Oates says
You can certainly add a little salt to this recipe although it will still be fairly sweet overall due to the nature of the white chocolate.
Nicole Coppin says
Hi, I’m wanting to use this for my daughters birthday cake but strapped for time. If I were to make this and decorate the cake on the Friday, would it be ok left out at room temperature till Sunday, or will it need to be put in the fridge?
Charlotte Oates says
Unless you have somewhere pretty cool to store it, as it’s summer I think you would be best putting the cake into the fridge at least until the Sunday morning or late Saturday night at the earliest.
Farai Taruvinga says
Hello…can this buttercream withstand high temperature was thinking of using it under fondant
Charlotte Oates says
The buttercream can absolutely be used under fondant but I’m quite sure how hot the hot is that you’re asking about. Any buttercream won’t survive extreme temperatures or being left in the sun all day etc. But because of the chocolate this is a fairly stable buttercream recipe.
Joanna says
Hi, I used this recipe and it is really good, but i made too much. Am i able to freeze it? Thank you
Charlotte Oates says
Yes you can freeze the leftover buttercream but it will need a really good whip again once its defrosted.
Elisha says
What white chocolate did u use please thanks And How much butter snd icing sugar do I need if I’m gonna do 6in tin in crumb coat please and thanks
Charlotte Oates says
I’m not sure of the exact quantities you would need for that specific cake but the amount in this recipe should be sufficient.
Sarah Cassidy says
How could I make orange white chocolate butter icing . I am worried about the white chocolate seizing if I add too much orange juice and it’s to cover a wedding cake so I don’t want to sue the zest as will look messy.
Please could you give me a recipe. It’s for a vanilla sponge rainbow cake which I’m making for my goddaughter .
Thank you
Sarah
Charlotte Oates says
I would advise using an orange extract rather than orange juice as this will not split or add significant additional moisture to the buttercream.
Katrin says
This recipe is amazing!
I have colored the buttercream in three different colors. I would just recommend to use a gel or powder dye that is suitable for both, buttercream and chocolate as well.
It worked wonders for me, the texture was absolutely perfect after adding 15ml of milk!
Charlotte says
Hello! How much of everything would I need for a 25cm cake?
Charlotte Oates says
I would expect you to need to multiply this recipe by 1.5 to get the correct amount of buttercream for a 25cm 2 layer cake.
oluwafunbi says
hi, my name is Funbi from Nigeria, I recently relocated to UK last year, I have been finding it difficult to get the right butter for baking cakes, right butter for butter icing and right ready made fondant for my cake. I have been having melting design cakes and too fluffy cakes for my covering both fondant and icing. what are the best butter to you and fondant here in UK. then with your recipe, what type of butter will i use and name of the butter for good result.
Thanks
Charlotte Oates says
For making buttercream the best butter to use in the UK is the 100% butter than is bought in blocks. Anything in a tub will be mixed with other ingredients to create spreadable and/or cheaper products. Any brand including those from discount supermarkets are fine to use. There are a couple of non-100% butter products sold in blocks but these will not be marker as “Butter” so they should be easy to distinguish. For making cakes, you can use almost any margarine or butter found on the shelves. A margarine, light butter or spreadable butter will usually produce a lighter crumb than using whole butter. Again you can buy pretty much any brand and you should still have great results.
April says
Hiya can you colour white chocolate buttercream? I would like to do a pink but don’t know if this is possible?
Charlotte Oates says
You can colour using a high quality gel colour – go slow with a little at a time and build up the colour slowly – you can add more but you can’t take it away.
Jordan Stevens says
Could this buttercream be coloured using gel colouring or will if affect the consistency?
Charlotte Oates says
A good quality gel colour will be fine to add to this recipe.
samantha schofield says
Love the chocolate version of this, it’s my go to buttercream! I want to use this for a small tiered cake and I’m wondering if there is anyway to make it whiter? Whenever I’ve made white chocolate ganache or a Norma buttercream it’s a bit too yellow for what I want to achieve!
Charlotte Oates says
You can usually add the tiniest amount of violet food colouring paste or gel to achieve white buttercream. I haven’t tested this with white chocolate buttercream but in theory the effect should be the same. If you do want to experiment, I would suggest just trying a very small test batch and making sure that the colour you use is recommended for the purpose.