Not everyone is a fan of traditional white frosting, and that’s fine. While knowing how to make traditional vanilla buttercream is essential, it may not be your first choice. This is your wedding! You should get to enjoy all of your favorite things on your wedding day. Plus, once your loved ones taste this wonderful orange frosting, they aren’t going to be left wanting for vanilla.
Now, even though you may not want to make traditional buttercream, it may be helpful for you to make a batch if you’ve never made frosting before. It’ll get you set up nicely to make this batch great! First take the time to read up on traditional vanilla buttercream and cream cheese frosting. This recipe is perfect for trying what you want before the big day, and for if your decide to save some money and make the cake yourself.
- Soften 2 ½ sticks unsalted butter
- Zest 2 oranges
- Cut and Juice oranges, removing seeds. Set juice aside.
- Sift 6 cups of confectioners sugar into a large tupperware for easy storage
- Use fine salt
- Keep a teaspoon with your orange extract
- Be CAREFUL with the orange extract (it can very easily make it taste like candy)
- These can be done with either a stand mixer or a hand mixer, though a stand mixer is easier.
This recipe makes enough to handily frost a 2-tier cake from 9-inch rounds. If you are making a 13×9 sheet cake, half the recipe. You will end up using less juice than you would cream in a traditional recipe, and much much less extract.
- Beat softened butter and orange zest together until fully.
- Add ⅛ teaspoon fine salt
- Add ½ teaspoon of orange extract
- Add 2 tablespoons orange juice
- Slowly beat in confectioners sugar, giving your frosting a whipping on high after each addition. We suggest adding about ½ cup at a time.
- At around 3 cups sugar, once your sugar is fully incorporated, taste your frosting. Chances are you will need much more sugar.
- Continue to add sugar ½ cup at a time, beating on high, tasting after each time.
- At around 4-5 cups of sugar, you will likely have your desired sweetness for a nice, creamy buttercream. You may want to add another tablespoon of orange juice.
- If piping, you may have to add the full amount of sugar and withhold the extra OJ, if more orange flavoring is needed, you can try ¼ teaspoon extract.
That’s it! If you followed your taste buds and your instincts, you are probably sitting on a huge batch of really awesome orange buttercream. This goes well on orange or lemon cakes, but we especially like it on dark chocolate, which may be a very decadent choice for your wedding instead of white cake.
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