Brown Butter Frosting recipe - The Gold Lining Girl (2024)

Brown Butter Frosting is magical! A simple buttercream recipe gets a major upgrade. Made withnutty, caramel-like, fragrant, toasty, rich brown butter. This Brown Butter Frosting isliterally a perfect substance. Rich, creamy, fluffy, and beaming with brown butter.

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We’re eating all our problems this morning. Bring on all the butter and sugar. Hand me a spoon, and I’ll just dive right into this Brown Butter Frosting, nothing else necessary. I don’t want it on anything, I’ll eat it all by its lonesome.

This Brown Butter Frosting recipe is making my day.

We’re back from our “evacuation vacation.”

We spent the better part of Labor Day week staring down Hurricane Irma. No offense to any Irmas out there, but she was an absolute biotch. Our stomachs were in knots as we watched each updated track, and we lost so much sleep. We worked on getting our house ready, and packing our things in case we needed to leave – whether by car or plane.

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As we watched the track continue towards the Tampa Bay Area,and Irmawas unrelenting instrength and size, we decided that we were not sticking around to experience her destruction. Also, we were under mandatory evacuation anyway because of our flood zone – eek.

In nine years, I’ve never seen Floridians as freaked out as they were for Irma. I have never seen such fear and panic here. The mad dash to fill up gas tanks, buy water, and stop at the ATM. It was insanity. We became part of it too. We’d merely drive to work and back, and we’d stop to fill up the 1/16th tank of gasthat we’d used.

My S.O. would go out for it late around 10pm hoping to avoid lines. When water sold out, we bought Gatorade. Buying plywood at Home Depot, and figuring out how to get those big boards home and up on our windows. Filling up plastic containers of water. It was kinda mayhem.

We have enough peanut butter to last a year. Butwe already had that. 😉

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We looked for flights to pretty much anywhere, and snagged tickets at 11am last Friday to Baltimore for 7pm that same night. We stashed the cat in her carrier, and left. We stayed with friends in the D.C. area, and then drove up to our families in Buffalo and Erie.

It was helpful for distraction, but it wasn’t like a relaxing vacation. All we thought about wasfriends and family that stayed behind, and we worried for their safety, and we were concerned about damage to our home and belongings. I also worried about all the travel with my 18 year-old cat – it was so muchupheaval and confusion for an elderly feline. She’s still a bit miffed about it.

I cannot remember the last time, or ever a time, where I experienced so much stress, worry, and fear.

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For us, the saga ends well. Although we lost power, it came back on within a few hours of our plane landing back in Tampa. We were also lucky as far as our property. We barely had any branches down, and no roof or water damage. We’re so grateful. But lots of people lost a lot, and my heart goes out to all of them.

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So today, we eat Brown Butter Frosting. Just the frosting. It need not adorn anything but my spoon!

I’ve been in love with brown butter for a few years now, and you guys know this. So many of my all-time favorite recipes include brown butter. Honestly, I brown butter as often as I can for recipes – it’s magical. It’s nutty, caramel-like, fragrant, toasty, and rich. A perfect substance.

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You can find it in these recipes forGingerbread Latte Cupcakes with Brown Butter Buttercream,Brown Sugar Maple Bacon Scones, Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing, Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Pie, and a whole bunch more. All of those are truly incredible.

Update: Zucchini Bars with Brown Butter Frosting!

I made standard buttercream frosting, but with brown butter. I browned the butter, let it solidify, and then beat it into buttercream frosting with vanilla, powdered sugar, and cream. That’s it. It’s an extra step to buttercream frosting, but it’ll be the BEST frosting (tied with Nutella Buttercream! Oh, this Peanut Butter Frostingand this Cookie Butter Frosting rock too…) that you’ve ever had.

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Brown Butter Frosting

Sarah @ The Gold Lining Girl

Brown Butter Frosting is magical! My basic buttercream recipe gets a major upgrade. Made with nutty, caramel-like, fragrant, toasty, rich brown butter. This Brown Butter Frosting is literally a perfect substance.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hr 15 mins

Cook Time 10 mins

Total Time 1 hr 25 mins

Course Frosting

Servings 4 cups

Ingredients

  • 1 c. unsalted butter
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 4 - 5 c. powdered sugar
  • 1/4 c. heavy cream

Instructions

  • Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until golden brown. It will develop brown flecks and a nutty, caramel fragrance, about 10 minutes.

  • Remove from heat, and whisk in vanilla.

  • Cool for 10 minutes.

  • Transfer to a small heatproof bowl or jelly jar, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.

  • In a large mixing bowl, beat the browned butter until creamy.

  • Add 4 c. powdered sugar and 1/4 c. heavy cream, beating until light and fluffy. You can add a little more heavy cream if needed to achieve desired consistency. It should be thick and fluffy, but spreadable!

Brown Butter Frosting recipe - The Gold Lining Girl (9)Brown Butter Frosting recipe - The Gold Lining Girl (10) Brown Butter Frosting recipe - The Gold Lining Girl (11)

Related Recipes

  • Brown Butter Icing recipe
  • Butterscotch Blondies with Brown Butter Frosting
  • Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes with Brown Butter Buttercream
  • My Favorite Banana Cake with Brown Butter Icing
Brown Butter Frosting recipe - The Gold Lining Girl (2024)

FAQs

How to make metallic gold frosting? ›

A careful combination of yellow, red and green food coloring can make a shade close to the color of gold, but doesn't give icing the glimmer of gold. Gold luster dust makes gold icing decorations as realistic as possible. The shimmering dust must be applied in a layer on top of icing.

What is the trick to buttercream frosting? ›

6 Secrets for Perfect Buttercream
  1. Use the right powdered sugar the right way. ...
  2. Beat, beat, beat the butter! ...
  3. You can use cream OR milk, just use the right amount. ...
  4. Adjust the sugar to your preference. ...
  5. Never add too much liquid to your buttercream. ...
  6. Prevent your buttercream from melting on a hot or humid day.
Jan 15, 2018

Why did my brown butter frosting separate? ›

What is this? One common reason is using cold butter straight from the fridge, which can result in lumpy buttercream. To avoid this, it's best to use softened butter at room temperature, so it can easily mix with the other frosting ingredients.

What colors do you mix to make metallic gold? ›

The metallic gold colour is a royal colour and people are loving it recently. To make the colour, add yellow, orange, and brown.

Can you get gold icing? ›

Dr Oetker Decorating Icing Gold 50G - Tesco Groceries.

What is the hardest buttercream to make? ›

Italian Meringue Buttercream

This is considered one of the very difficult methods for making buttercream because the sugar syrup must be cooked to a specific temperature and then, while piping hot, poured into the whipped egg whites.

Which brand of butter is best for buttercream? ›

Where its buttery flavor really shines is in laminated treats like croissants (for the overachiever who is making those at home) and—my favorite use—buttercream. A buttercream made with Kerrygold is thick and noticeably creamier than one made with American-style butter.

Is milk or water better for buttercream? ›

Milk, water, heavy whipping cream, half-and-half

While you can use water, we suggest using milk, heavy whipping cream or half-and-half to add extra flavor and creaminess to your frosting.

Why is my brown butter all foam? ›

Butter contains a good 13 to 17% water, which has to go before the fat's temperature can rise enough to brown the milk proteins. Once the butter reaches a temperature of 212°F, the water in the butter starts to evaporate much more quickly. As a result the butter will start to bubble and splatter dramatically.

Can you overbeat buttercream? ›

Yes, this is absolutely correct. The longer you beat, the more air you incorporate in your buttercream, thus, it will have lots of holes or air-pockets, it will also make the colour lighter. If you will use your buttercream primarily for filling or maybe as simple swirls, then this is ok.

What does broken buttercream look like? ›

It is either curdled (looks “broken” or like cottage cheese) or soupy (looks like melted vanilla ice cream). This problem typically occurs after adding the butter to the meringue or when rewhipping the buttercream after cold storage in the fridge.

Can I add gold luster dust to buttercream? ›

Don't: Mix Luster Dust Directly Into Buttercream

If you try to mix the luster dust into your buttercream, the sparkle will get lost in the frosting. Sparkle only works as a coating or sheen; it needs to sit on top so the light can hit it in all sorts of glorious ways.

How to make a gold glaze for a cake? ›

This is how to do a super easy gold drop for your cakes that you don't have to paint and actually tastes pretty good! ✨ 6 tablespoon coconut oil 1 tablespoon powdered sugar (sifted) 2 teaspoons metallic gold powder Note: Do not microwave the powder once it's mixed in because the powder has metal in it.

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