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German Buttercream · GF (about 10 cups)
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Swiss meringue buttercream has become the gold standard of professional baking, but it’s not the only fabulous European style buttercream out there. Of course there are French buttercreams (made with egg yolks) and Italian buttercreams (made from pouring boiled sugar syrup over meringue) too, but lesser known is German.
German buttercream is perfect for those wanting to graduate from powdered sugar based frosting, but not ready to jump on the Swiss bandwagon. When making or eating Swiss buttercream for the first time, “it tastes like pure butter” is a common complaint. Though kind of ironic (um, yes, it is called a buttercream…), it’s a valid observation. With only sugar, egg whites, and butter it’s no surprise that butter dominates the Swiss flavor profile; especially in less involved flavors like vanilla or almond.
At any rate, German buttercream does not suffer from this problem. It’s made from whole eggs, yolks, and milk, in addition to butter. So even in its simplest form it has all the rich flavor of an old fashioned vanilla ice cream, but the silken texture of a Swiss buttercream.
No powdered sugar, no meringue, no boiled sugar syrup.
German buttercream makes an awesome filling and finish for cakes and cupcakes alike. You can use it to pipe boarders and write inscriptions, but it won’t hold up quite as nicely as other buttercreams when it comes to more intricate piping techniques like roses.
German Buttercream
16 ounces whole milk
2 vanilla bean pods, split and scraped, seeds reserved
10 ounces sugar
1½ ounces cornstarch
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
32 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ teaspoon salt, or more to taste
In a medium pot, bring the milk to a simmer along with the vanilla bean pods. Turn off the heat and set aside to steep for at least one hour, or as long as time allows.
After steeping, remove the vanilla bean pods and use a rubber spatula to extract the thick vanilla goo from inside each. Return the milk to a simmer. Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar, reserved vanilla bean scrapings, cornstarch, eggs and yolks in a medium bowl.
Whisk about a half cup of the hot milk into the egg mixture—it will be thick at first but will loosen as the milk incorporates. Continue whisking in hot milk until the egg mixture is fluid and warm. Now, return the tempered egg/milk mixture back into the pot of hot milk, whisking all the while. Turn the heat to medium and whisk until the mixture begins to thicken and bubble sluggishly. From that point, continue whisking and cooking for a full minute more; use a timer or you run the risk of not fully cooking out the cornstarch. When the minute is up, pour the custard into a large mixing bowl.
The custard may be cooled quickly by mixing it continuously in a stand mixer. If time isn’t an issue, you can press a layer of plastic wrap against its surface and refrigerate until cool. You can wait even so long as overnight or a few days.
Either way, once the custard has cooled completely, use a hand or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment to beat it on medium to medium high speed until creamy. (If you did not refrigerate the custard, please do take caution to make sure you’re not rushing things; if the custard has not been mixed long enough to cool to perfect room temperature, the butter will melt in the next step and you’ll have a very soupy mess on your hands.)
Once the cooled custard has been whipped until creamy, begin adding in the butter, one tablespoon at a time. Add the salt and continue to whip until the mixture is creamy and homogenous.
If you’d like to flavor the buttercream with any extracts, melted chocolate or other flavorings, now is the time. The flavor variations listed at the end of my Swiss meringue buttercream recipe will all work with this recipe too, so click through for specific instructions on making different flavors not mentioned here.
Use immediately or refrigerate until needed. When ready to use, whip until creamy before proceeding.
Caramel Variation
Before making the buttercream, you’ll need to make one batch of caramel, about 16 ounces. You can actually add quite a bit more more, up to 25 ounces so double the recipe if you like. After making the caramel, don’t wash the pot. Just add the milk for the pastry cream and put that caramel-y residue to good use.
Meanwhile, cool the caramel to room temperature. Make the German buttercream as instructed above. After whipping in the butter, turn the speed of the mixer down to low and drizzle in all of the caramel. Turn the speed up a little and whip until homogenous; adjust salt and vanilla to taste.
Cream Cheese Variation
To make the perfect cream cheese buttercream, use only 16 ounces of unsalted butter and add to that 16 ounces of cream cheese that has come to room temperature too. During the final minute of whipping, add in the juice of 1 lemon. This won’t give it a particularly lemony flavor, but rather a little bit of tartness that heightens the tangy flavor of the cream cheese.
The cream cheese buttercream benefits from at least 45 minutes of refrigeration before being used to decorate a cake. Cream cheese buttercreams are notoriously loose, and while this one has substantially more body than other cream cheese buttercreams (thanks to the power of cornstarch), it improves even more post-refrigeration. After chilling, simply whip until creamy before decorating.
Any questions?
Oct 09, 2011 · 1:48 PM
a whole cup of creamy goodness…..beautiful images
· a spoonful of yumm · aspoonfulofyumm.blogspot.com/
Oct 09, 2011 · 3:57 PM
Both sets of my Grandparents were Bakers with brick & mortar bakeries in Germany. Hence, both of my German born parents baked regularly, and my Mother’s favorite cake for special occasions was called Frankfurter Kranz. A cake in round form with German buttercream filling and frosting, sprinkled with crushed brittle. Many good recipes on the internet for this well known German cake.
Oct 09, 2011 · 10:28 PM
@Spoonful of yumm, thanks so much! I think Sarah Jane did such a lovely job with these too.
@Christine, thank you!
@GermanGirl, oh my goodness, that sounds awesome! I’ll be sure to look it up asap, thanks for the tip.
@amabilis, hahaha. The scary part is, you could. Unlike Swiss buttercream, which is kinda hard to eat by itself, this stuff is totally snackable. Grab a spoon and watch out! 
Oct 11, 2011 · 1:57 AM
Oh my, this looks good! I have been wanting to try something beyond the plain old powdered sugar frosting but just hadn’t done it yet. I think I will try this as opposed to French or Swiss. Thanks so much for sharing this!
· Janet@FCTC · www.fromcupcakestocaviar.com
Oct 11, 2011 · 10:18 AM
@Janet, I love this recipe cos if you can make puddin’, you can make German b-cream. No fussy meringues or boiling syrup, but sooo much better than the powdered sugar stuff. Hope you whip some up!
Oct 29, 2011 · 4:30 PM
@Tashva, you can by all means add liquor. Just drizzle it in a little at a time while mixing and wait for each addition to fully incorporate before adding more. Have fun!
Nov 18, 2011 · 8:51 AM
@jmanjenks, I haven’t timed it out specifically, I usually have so many other kitchen chores that I just forget about it for a while and come back when I remember… But I set it to medium low. Probably twenty minutes? I’ll try and set a timer next batch.
Nov 27, 2011 · 1:39 PM
This was the lightest, creamiest, fluffiest frosting… so fluffy some of the people I fed it to thought it was whipped cream! I made the cream cheese version. Not to be low brow or anything but what it most reminded me of was those cake toppings made of instant pudding, cream cheese, and cool whip… only way tastier due to the real dairy and eggs. But I couldn’t imagine using it for a layer cake cuz it would just smoosh right out the sides… but maybe I didn’t make it exactly right. Anyway, it was absolutely delicious and perfect for whipped cream fans (which I am!).
Nov 27, 2011 · 2:14 PM
@Katie, I’m so glad to hear how much you enjoyed it! Sometimes, depending on how cool the pastry cream is and how soft the butter is, a batch can be especially soft especially when you’ve just freshly made it. To use this for a layer cake, just refrigerate the buttercream until it’s firmed up (or even become completely solid), and then rewhip it until fluffy. It will be much thicker than when you started.
Dec 01, 2011 · 4:30 PM
@Katie, so glad to hear it! You can incorporate about 12 ounces of dark chocolate into the buttercream, drizzle caramel right in, or make the custard with coconut milk. It’s really adaptable. Also check out the variations for my Swiss Meringue buttercream, you can apply almost any of those to this recipe as well.
Jan 04, 2012 · 12:55 AM
Looks so yummy! How much do you think this makes? How large of a cake? Thanks!
· Justine · Www.potomacrivergoods.blogspot.com
Jan 04, 2012 · 5:52 PM
@Justine, it makes 10 cups, enough to generously frost a 3 layer 8” cake with some leftover, which you can freeze. I make such a big batch because everyone has a different plan for decorating and it never hurts to have a little extra in case of emergencies.
Mar 03, 2012 · 6:55 AM
Looks a lot easier than the swiss… how well will it hold up in high humidity?
· josy · yahoo.com
Mar 03, 2012 · 9:26 AM
@josy, I wouldn’t say it’s easier than Swiss. With Swiss, all you have to do is whisk whites and sugar over a water bath, whip and add butter. But it does taste very different, a little more like ice cream. I don’t have any experience with it in humidity higher than what we go through during a Kentucky summer, but I haven’t had any trouble with it.
Mar 15, 2012 · 2:37 AM
omg that sounds so delicious!!! I just got a bottle of stonewall kitchen Butter pecan syrup. wanted to incorporate it in a buttercream and now im thinking cream cheese butter pecan german buttercream… GULP. do u think that d work? or would it be hyper sweet? or too gloopy with the addition of syrup? wnted to use it in a layer cake hence.. =) Oh yes also i used your strawberry reduction in a strawberry ganache and it was TO DIE FOR. =) tHANK YOU ever so much. PS – voted for ya. so glad you won. =)
Mar 15, 2012 · 10:50 AM
@elni, so glad you enjoyed the strawberry reductions! I think you could drizzle the butter pecan syrup into the regular German buttercream, it’s really amenable to additions like that. The cream cheese version, on the other hand, can be a little loose/fussy to work with and would probably suffer from the addition. (Though it sounds amazing!) You might get away with adding just a little cream cheese, maybe not doing half-and-half, but say 1 1/2 pounds of butter and a half pound of cream cheese, plus the syrup. In either case, you’ll have to let me know how it turns out!
Mar 15, 2012 · 3:12 PM
I made this and it turned out fine, but I used 2 tbs. of vanilla in place of vanilla bean. Also, I did the caramel version, but only got 13 ounces out of your recipe, not the stated 20. That said, it still turned out well, but you really do have to beat it a long time. I froze it and am hoping for the best when I need it in a few weeks….
Mar 15, 2012 · 5:04 PM
@Kathryn, Glad you liked it, even if it came up a little short! 
I made a batch of caramel today to double check the yield and got 16 ounces, definitely shy of the 20 ounces originally stated. Apologies for the discrepancy. That said, I wonder what happened to the missing 3 ounces between us?
At any rate, it does take quite a while to cool the pastry cream. When you need it again, just bring it to room temperature overnight and then beat it until fluffy. You can use the microwave to thaw it to, but it takes a careful eye, the buttercream can liquify in the center but seem a-okay on the outside. Slow and steady wins the race! 
Mar 23, 2012 · 10:04 AM
@Kathryn, I’m on the same page. I was describing what to do with the finished product too. I thought you meant you had to beat the pastry cream for a long time to get it cool before proceeding. My directions stand as is. Good luck!
Mar 30, 2012 · 10:27 AM
Last one – promise. Defrosted it, it was fine. Made the cakes last night. Frosted it this morning. All is well. Party isn’t till Sunday! Every instinct is screaming “REFRIGERATE” it, but I read your online tips about cakes and I can leave it out? It won’t fit in my microwave (great tip), so I put it on my large cake plate and covered with my hugest steel mixing bowl and saran. On the counter. It won’t melt? My friends all say my cakes are dry because I fridge them. But…this frosting seems…wet. It’ll be okay till Sunday night? Thanks Stella! Your new unwanted penpal, Kathryn xx
Mar 30, 2012 · 12:16 PM
@Kathryn, don’t hesitate to ask as many questions as you need. It’s fine sitting out, but whenever I know there’s a long wait and no one will eat it in the intervening time, I tend to side with refrigeration. So long as the buttercream thoroughly covers the cake, it won’t dry out. And so long as the plastic wrap thoroughly covers the buttercream, it won’t pick up funky odors.
Here’s my advice, refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes until the buttercream is no longer sticky. Wrap in plastic and store refrigerated until Saturday night. Then, remove it from the fridge, unwrap and store in your microwave until the party. Just be careful, if your microwave is over your oven, that it doesn’t get hot in there while you’re cooking dinner, etc.
Apr 05, 2012 · 4:12 PM
So I made the pastry cream last night and refrigerated it until this afternoon so it’s definitely cool. I whipped it in my stand mixer, but how “whipped” does it need to be? I’ve been slowly adding room temp butter chunks but it isn’t mixing in very well. If I refrigerate the whole thing until it’s the same temp and then whip it will that help? Any other ideas?
· molly · cakestacks.blogspot.com
Apr 05, 2012 · 6:31 PM
@molly, I just realized I didn’t specify the mixer speed in the recipe; I’ll go change that to make it more clear. Beat the butter into the pastry cream at a medium to medium high speed. If you’re just mixing it in (at low speed) then it will have a hard time coming together. Between the speed and the shape of the whisk attachment, it will homogenize after a few minutes. Just crank up the speed and let it go until it smooths out.
Apr 06, 2012 · 8:00 PM
Well that made a difference, thanks! One last question…what did I do wrong if I added 8 oz of melted white chocolate (and I let it cool a little bit before adding) but it got kind of curdled looking again and a little liquidy…
· molly · cakestacks.blogspot.com
Apr 06, 2012 · 8:46 PM
Stella, have you tried a chocolate version? Like Molly, but I’m thinking 8 oz. of a bittersweet, maybe an 85%?
· Judy · www.lifeonthefoodchain.com
Apr 07, 2012 · 12:50 PM
@molly, hmmm, that is weird! I’ve made a white chocolate version before, no problem. My only guess is that despite cooling it a bit, it was still warm enough to melt out some of the butter. Generally speaking, with a buttercream as stable as German, a lot of high speed whipping can save it. Usually buttercreams break over temperature imbalances.
I am working on a tutorial on how to save a broken buttercream. I don’t know how long it will be before I can post, but stay tuned!
@Judy, you can definitely make a chocolate version! I’d actually recommend something not quite so dark. This buttercream is only barely sweetened (10 ounces of sugar to 48 ounces of milk/butter) so I think using an 85% would result in a pretty flat taste because there wouldn’t be enough sugar to carry the chocolate flavor. I’d aim for something in the low to mid 70s. But that’s just my best guess, it depends on what you want to do with the buttercream ultimately.
For adding chocolate to the buttercream it’s important to remember two things. 1) if the chocolate it too hot, it can melt the butter and negatively change the texture of the buttercream. 2) if the chocolate is too cold, or if the buttercream itself is too cold, it will “chip up” in the buttercream. Melted, room temperature chocolate is ideal. Once the chocolate is added, crank up the mixer speed as fast as you can and beat it on medium to medium high. If the chocolate just sits idly in the bowl, you run the risk of it setting up into chips against the beaters/bowl.
Apr 16, 2012 · 4:19 PM
guess what? i saved my german buttercream! i scooped out about 1/3 of the stuff and microwaved it for 20 seconds to make it just a little warm. then, with the mixer on medium-low, i beat in the warmed buttercream and it whipped together perfectly! and oh, my goodness. i think i’m now in love!
· molly · cakestacks.blogspot.com
Apr 16, 2012 · 5:07 PM
@molly, I am soooo glad after all of that you were able to salvage it!! And even better that you enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me know it all worked out in the end.
Apr 19, 2012 · 10:49 AM
I’ve got a question about room temperature. I’m usually cooking in a room that’s 70-75 degrees and if I let the butter get there then I have trouble with buttercreams and things breaking. Should I aim for something more like 65 degrees on the butter and try and keep the temperatures a little lower or is the answer to turn the mixer up and move faster?
Apr 19, 2012 · 1:09 PM
@cindy, generally, buttercreams only break when they’re too cold. It’s about 85-90 in my kitchen and when I make buttercream with room temp butter, whether Swiss or German, it comes together a bit soupy, but it definitely comes together. Usually it’s not a problem cos I’m making it to store and use later anyway.
If you’ve got experience with butter, you can absolutely play around with the temperatures. I just don’t recommend it for people still getting to know buttercream. I often use cold butter straight from the fridge, but just add it when the mixture is still a bit warm. It takes a decent amount of experience to learn how to strike a balance with cold butter and hot pasty cream (or hot meringue)…
At any rate, moral of the story: if you’re comfortable making buttercream, you’ve got a lot of latitude to experiment with your butter temperature. Let me know if you run into any problems.
Apr 20, 2012 · 1:08 PM
Tried the cream cheese variation last night and it came out great! I do have another question though. How fast do you add the tablespoons of butter (or cream cheese)? I’ve seen admonishments about waiting for each piece to disappear completely before adding the next on some recipes and I think that might take over an hour of babysitting at that point. I dropped a piece in every 20 seconds or so but I was curious about how fast can the butter be added without causing trouble.
Apr 22, 2012 · 11:12 AM
@cindy, sweet! I’m glad to hear of your success! Most people use butter that’s too cold and then add it too fast, causing the buttercream to break, so recipes try and combat the most common problem by slowing everyone down. I chuck it in pretty fast, maybe 5-10 seconds between additions. It’s always super soft butter, so risk of breaking is low. The biggest point is to keep an eye on the overall texture of the mix and to slow down if you see it looking a little curdled.
If you ever do find that you’ve gone too fast and the buttercream looks broken, just set the bowl over a waterbath until the buttercream gets melty around the edges, then whip it for a few minutes. It should smooth out straight away.
May 01, 2012 · 10:34 PM
I’ve been totally inspired by your brown butter carrot cake, german buttercream, and sage caramel sauce recipes! In school we were always told german buttercream was made with fondant. This version sounds 100x better. Since the custard makes up such a large portion of the icing I assume the icing has to be refrigerated – do you know if it freezes well like Swiss? Thank you Stella!
· Jason S · www.TheAubergineChef.com
May 02, 2012 · 9:14 AM
@Jason, really, someone should write a book about the details of cooked dairy and storage. My assumption is that because it’s cooked, the custard poses no more danger at room temp than the egg whites pose to Swiss. At work, everything is served the day it’s prepared, but at home I routinely leave cakes frosted with German (or Swiss) buttercream at room temperature for 3 or 4 days. So far so good!
May 02, 2012 · 3:50 PM
Thank you Stella! Yes I agree – there needs to be a guide or something. I recently sent in a package to the Dept of Agriculture to get approved for home baking and they require a list of sell-by/use-by dates and how the products are stored. Not easy. Thank you for the quick reply! I will post on your fanpage if it all goes well this weekend!!
· Jason S · www.TheAubergineChef.com
May 03, 2012 · 8:39 AM
@Jason, awesome, please do! Yeah, it seems most food safety courses strictly cover savory things. :p
May 03, 2012 · 3:52 PM
Hi Stella. Juuuuust bumped into ur blog via foodbuzz via foodwishes. Your beautifully swirled frosting and the carrot rose drewwww me in. Knowing its a carrot cake, i thought that frosting has to be cream cheese and if it is, how in the world is it so beautifully stiff?!? So i just had to know and here I am 
…..
As a matter of fact, recently ive been going mad searching for ways to make a pipeable cc frosting.
The butter, cc & powdered sugar version will never be stiff enough unless u put HEAPS of that sugar in, which is an absolute no no for me.
Then I tried to make a cc version of the flour frosting which also didnt work AT ALL…it curdled somehow ….
Then I tried the one with whipping cream…which also turned into creamy soup after some 20-30 mins even after being refrigerated.
I should write a script for a CC horror flick!!! 
Is your cc frosting in this picture, your german one or swiss? ….cuz after looking at this, i feel like there is still little hope…
May 04, 2012 · 8:49 AM
@Saima, the one in the photo is the cream cheese version of Swiss buttercream. The German is the most stable, though. Both the Swiss & German cream cheese recipes are softer than the if made with 100% butter, but still considerably more firm than the powdered sugar versions, and infinitely more enjoyable.
May 09, 2012 · 9:06 AM
@Saima, oh my gosh, you poor dear! And I thought I had it bad when it got up to 32° C in my kitchen! Good luck!
May 12, 2012 · 11:38 AM
@tjbakes, it goes back in with the milk. I always add that step because I’ve seen people just pluck their vanilla bean out of the milk and throw it away, and it’s so sad! All the best flavor’s still inside.