The Best Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting
Spice up your frosted desserts with this delicious The Best Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting. It is so easy to make and tastes sweet, spicy, and amazing!
This Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting is so delicious. It is the perfect topping for your pumpkin, apple, carrot, or spice cake, cupcake, bread, or bar. It is super delicious, so easy to make, and truly the best cinnamon frosting you’ve ever tasted. Sweet, spicy and so very yummy, your family will beg you to make this frosting again and again.
How to Make
Step 1: Add the butter and the vanilla to a mixing bowl. The butter needs to be what we call “slightly softened” which is somewhere between straight out of the refrigerator and room temperature.
Step 2: Mix the butter and the vanilla together on medium speed until thoroughly combined (about 2 minutes.) You really want the vanilla to meld with the butter to enhance the flavor of the frosting.
Step 3: Use a spatula to scrape the butter mixture down from the sides of the bowl, add the cinnamon and mix until combined.
Step 4: We use a food scale to measure 1 Pound of Powdered Sugar. If you don’t have a food scale, measure 4 cups instead. We normally do not sift the powdered sugar and instead rely on the mixer to do that work for us.
Step 5: Add the powdered sugar to the butter/cinnamon mixture in the mixing bowl.
Step 6: Here is a Two Sisters Tip – cover the mixer with a towel during this part of the mixing process to keep the powdered sugar from flying out of the mixer.
Step 7: Start your mixer (or electric beater) on the lowest setting and keep it on low until the butter and sugar are incorporated (about 30 seconds). Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and then increase the speed to medium-high and mix for another 30-45 seconds so the frosting gets light and fluffy.
Step 8: This is the fun part of the recipe where you get to taste your frosting. You are trying to determine if the consistency is correct or if it needs a little more vanilla extract or cinnamon. If it tastes great, test the consistency. Too thick? Add a teaspoon of milk and mix again to check to see if the consistency is better. The amount of milk to use depends on the state of your frosting and sometimes the time of year (if it is a hot humid day, you might not need to add any milk.) A good rule of thumb is to add the milk a teaspoon at a time. You can check out our FAQ section below to see some other advice on making the perfect batch of frosting.
How much frosting will you need? That always depends on how thick or thin you apply the frosting or how much decorating you do but here are a couple of guidelines. Our Cinnamon Icing should make enough icing to cover a 9″ x 13″ sheet cake or a two-layer 8″ cake. If you are making cupcakes, you should be able to frost 24 cupcakes if you apply the frosting with a knife. If you swirl on the frosting with a pastry bag and a decorating tip you should be able to frost 15-18 cupcakes depending on the size of the swirl.
Expert Tips and FAQ’s
No, the frosting does not need to be refrigerated. For example, brownies frosted with this Cinnamon Frosting would be fine left out on the counter for 2-3 days if the pan was tightly covered with aluminum foil. That said, we usually refrigerate our frosted desserts to keep the baked good from going stale even if the frosting would be fine. We think frosting tastes best at room temperature so we will then remove the item from the refrigerator a couple of hours before we will serve them.
Frosting stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator should be good for up to a week. If you carefully wrap the frosting in order to avoid freezer burn, the frosting should be fine in the freezer for 3-4 mon
Buttercream is a sweet frosting. One thing you can do if it seems too sweet for your palette is to add a pinch of salt to the frosting. But please note that a little salt goes a long way. We cannot stress enough that a pinch (10-15 granules of regular table salt) is all you usually need. Even 1/4 a teaspoon of salt would probably ruin the frosting. Add the salt and mix again and see if that has cut down on the sweetness level.
Add another teaspoon of milk and mix again. Continue to add the milk, a teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is the consistency that you like it
Temperature plays a big part in the consistency of frosting. A thin frosting could mean that the butter has gotten overworked and is too melted. The first thing to do is refrigerate the frosting for an hour and then check to see if the frosting has set back up again. If not, the next step is to add more powdered sugar or cornstarch. Start with either 1/2 cup of Powdered Sugar or 1 tablespoon of Cornstarch. Mix again and see if the consistency is better.
Other Frosting Recipes You Will Love
Did you Make This Recipe? Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @twosisterscrafting on Instagram so we can see it!
And don’t forget to follow us on Tiktok, Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram!
The Best Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting
Spice up your frosted desserts with this delicious The Best Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting. It is so easy to make and tastes sweet, spicy and amazing!
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter, softened (We use Salted Sweet Cream Butter)
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 pound Powdered Sugar (or 4 cups)
- 1-2 tablespoons Milk (if needed)
Instructions
- Add the butter and the vanilla to a mixing bowl. The butter needs to be what we call “slightly softened” which is somewhere between straight out of the refrigerator and room temperature.
- Mix the butter and the vanilla together on medium speed until thoroughly combined (about 2 minutes.) You really want the vanilla to meld with the butter to enhance the flavor of the frosting.
- Use a spatula to scrape the butter mixture down from the sides of the bowl, add the cinnamon and mix until combined.
- Use a food scale to measure 1 Pound of Powdered Sugar. If you don’t have a food scale, measure 4 cups instead.
- Add the powdered sugar to the butter/cinnamon mixture in the mixing bowl.
- Start your mixer (or electric beater) on the lowest setting and keep it on low until the butter and sugar are incorporated (about 30 seconds). Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and then increase the speed to medium-high and mix for another 30-45 seconds so the frosting gets light and fluffy.
- Taste your frosting. You are trying to determine if the consistency is correct or if it needs a little more vanilla extract or cinnamon. If it tastes great, test the consistency. Too thick? Add a teaspoon of milk and mix again to check to see if the consistency is better. The amount of milk to use depends on the state of your frosting and sometimes the time of year (if it is a hot humid day, you might not need to add any milk.) A good rule of thumb is to add the milk a teaspoon at a time.
Did you Make this Recipe? Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @twosisterscrafting on Instagram so we can see it!
I recently found myself with extra carrot cake batter so I made cupcakes but didn’t have enough cream cheese frosting for them so I made this frosting instead. Oh my goodness! The cinnamon buttercream frosting complimented the carrot cake deliciously making me think that this might be my new carrot cake frosting from now on! P. S. The people who ate them agree wholeheartedly.
Best cinnamon buttercream icing!!! I agree. I made this tonight. Even my son who is not a sweet eater asked to taste it and liked it alot. I make it and have frozen it ready to use in a decorating bag for a bridal shower. Oct 17 is the shower.. theme is “Fall in Love” as it is a fall wedding. I was looking for autumn flavors to match the cakes and cupcakes and thought of cinnamon never had it before and found your recipe and website! I am so glad that I did! Thank you.. It is very smooth tasting. Blessings..
This is a great, easy recipe! It was super easy to make and it came out wonderfully. I’m not a huge cinnamon person, but my husband is. We topped some banana muffins with this – even I liked it!
I’m a single dad and made my FIRST birthday cake today for my eleven year old son. He wanted a spice cake for his birthday and I decided to make this cinnamon buttercream frosting. IT WAS EXCELLENT!! Thank you so much for the clear instructions for us ‘baking challenged’ dads! I followed it exactly as instructed and it turned out perfect!
I used this frosting for a cake so I tripled this recipe and it was really good not to sweet and you could taste the cinnamon without it being overpowering.
If you dampen the towel, it works much better.
I’ve made this recipe twice now it’s so delicious and light! I do whip my butter first in the stand mixer then add the other ingredients. Thanks for the amazing buttercream
Can’t wait to try this recipe on my vanilla chai cupcakes!
Yum! That sounds delicious!
I’m curious if I can cut the frosting recipe in half…?
That should work.
I only have unsalted butter. Is that okay to use?
Sure. If you feel like you are missing the hint of salt you would have from the salted butter, add a tiny bit at the end.
I made an apple cake with this icing on for my twins birthday, and was amazing! I only needed to add one tablespoon of milk also.
Yay! So glad you liked the frosting!
I like it. I have one suggestion. I beat the butter at high speed for 5 minutes then added the vanilla. Mixed for another minute then added the powdered sugar milk and cinnamon. It seems to be smoother and easier to use this way.
Cut the recipe in half, was perfect for a spice sheet cake. This is such a great recipe. Extremely tasty!!
Yay! We are so glad you like it!
Absolutely delicious! Creamy and tasty. Added a little extra cinnamon and vanilla to my family’s taste. Have a new recipe to use time and again. Thank you!
You’re welcome! So glad you like it.
I can,t wait to try it on my spice cake.
Yum! Spice Cake is delicious!
OMG!! This frosting is very dangerously good!! I could eat the whole bowl, who needs the cake
I was wondering will this frosting set up so it’s not so tacky? I just put this frosting on top of a pumpkin sheet cake and need to cover it with either plastic wrap or non stick foil??
Thanks,
Nancy
So glad you liked the frosting. It is one of our favorites too. We alway cover a cake with something (like plastic wrap or foil.)
I made this icing for my Jewish Apple Cupcakes and it elevated the dessert! My client ordered two dozen more!!!
I’ve always loved Two Sisters’ recipes…thank you!!
I don’t think I will use all of the icing for my cake, so I’m wondering if it would freeze okay?
Sure!
I love your recipe! I am a huge fan of nutmeg, so I used 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp nutmeg. 🙂
I just love this recipe. I also added softened goat cheese from Costco to
lessen the sweetness.
Just made it for my spice cake and it is delicious
I used this frosting for a vanilla nutmeg cake. I almost ate the whole bowl of frosting. Delish!!!
So called you liked it!
I’m going to try it on my Carrot Cake cookies….
That sounds delicious!
How many cupcakes do you think this recipe could frost?]
It really depends on how you are going to frost the cupcakes. If you are going to do a swirl like the one pictured, it will probably frost 15-18 cupcakes.
This icing is the BOMB! I’ve used it on yellow cake and it’s amazing! It’s not too sweet. It’s my favorite icing!
Thanks, Julie!! It’s one of our favorites too.
Delicious! I ate a bowlful with a spoon..
Thanks!