Few things are as delightful as perfectly soft, decadent, super fluffy frosting on top of your favorite cakes or cupcakes.
Unfortunately, though, figuring out how to make frosting fluffy is a lot more challenging than it looks.
Truth be told, you have to really think about the kind of frosting that you’re working with, the kind of ingredients you have available, and the tools you have on hand in your kitchen to tackle this “project”.
Of course, learning how to make the perfect fluffy frosting from here on out becomes a whole lot easier when you use the inside information we highlight below.
In the rest of this detailed guide you’ll find tips and tricks for producing fantastic fluffy frosting every time you need to do a bit of dessert decorating – no matter what kind of frosting you’re working with.
Sound good?
Let’s jump right into it.
Fluff Up Buttercream Frosting
Buttercream frostings are some of the easiest to “fluff up”, but that doesn’t mean that you can just sort of wing things when working with this type of frosting.
Made from butter, powdered sugar, and any flavoring agents you want to throw into the mix – as well as some coloring agents if you really want to “get crazy” – buttercream is super simple, straightforward, and easy to make.
It’s also downright delicious.
Of course, you can also make the Italian version of buttercream if you want to take things to the next level, too.
Hot (cooked) sugar poured directly into whipped egg whites that are then allowed to cool can produce one of the most decadent and delicious buttercream frostings you’ve ever had.
Regardless of the approach you take to make your frosting, though, you can use the tips and tricks we highlight below to add a fluffy texture you wouldn’t have been able to pull off otherwise.
The first thing you want to do is sift the sugar that you are using as a base ingredient in your buttercream frosting.
Any lumps – any lumps at all, no matter how small – aren’t just going to add a lot of grittiness to your frosting. They also “deflate” the frosting a little bit, giving it a thicker consistency that doesn’t have that airy, fluffy kind of texture you’re after.
Sift your sugar thoroughly to work out all the lumps and clumps and you’ll be good to go!
It’s also important that you add the powdered sugar to your butter mixture slowly and deliberately.
Add everything into the mixing bowl all at once and you’re sure to generate the clumps you just sifted to avoid. You’ll end up with a frosting that is anything but consistent and (honestly) anything but smooth.
It might end up tasting okay, but you’ll have pockets of sugar tucked away inside that can throw the consistency and the flavor of your frosting out of whack.
Mixing the powdered sugar and slowly (and making sure everything has time to dissolve and be fully incorporated before you add more) helps fluff things up significantly. You’ll also stretch out the mixing time – introducing more aeration into the frosting – and that helps to get fluffiness, too.
Lastly, it’s not a bad idea deposit your mixing every now and again, lift up the mixing tool, and then scrape the bowl to better incorporate all the different ingredients.
Your mixer isn’t going to get right down to the bottom on every spin, and that means some ingredients are going to be “left behind” – ruining the fluffiness and consistency of your frosting along the way.
Stop periodically to hand mix these ingredients in and you’ll be good to go!
Fluff Up Whipped Cream Frosting
Whipped cream frostings are extra decadent and delicious but require a couple of different approaches to get the fluffiness you are shooting for.
First, you want to use frosting ingredients that are just as cold as you can get them.
No, this doesn’t mean you need to stick your ingredients in the freezer – it’s tough to mix a batch of smooth, fluffy frosting when it is frozen solid. But it does mean that you want them to have spent at least a night in the refrigerator to get those temperatures down.
Secondly, you want to be sure that you are using powdered sugar even in recipes that call for granulated sugar.
Granulated sugar just doesn’t dissolve quite as smoothly into whipped cream frosting as powdered sugar, so you end up with that gritty consistency that we were talking about a moment ago.
Substitute in powdered sugar and that problem disappears completely.
Lastly, you’ll want to mix in some kind of stabilizing agent to help keep your whipped cream frosting fluffy as long as possible.
Left to its own devices, this kind of frosting will “collapse” and fall right back into a liquid state. With a stabilizer (like gelatin, something that doesn’t add any extra flavor into the mix) you’ll be able to hold that fluffy consistency for far longer.
Fluff Up Store Bought Frosting
A great tip for fluffing up store bought frosting – in a matter what kind of frosting you’re working with – is to mix in a little bit of whipped topping or homemade whipped cream.
Throw your frosting and your whipped ingredient into a mixer, blasted for 30 seconds on medium to high speed, and you’ll introduce a much fluffier texture than what you would have been working with straight out of the jar.
Closing Thoughts
At the end of the day, figuring out how to fluff up your frosting really doesn’t have to be all that difficult.
Take advantage of the tips and tricks we highlighted above and maybe experiment a little with your own frosting concoctions.
Before long you’ll master the technique of aerating your frosting just enough to get the texture you’re shooting for without going overboard – or potentially “over mixing” and causing the frosting to get much thicker and much heavier (the opposite of what you want).
Best of luck going forward, you’re going to love the way these tricks work!