This dreamy orange buttercream frosting recipe is super simple, tangy and delicious! Made using orange extract, this homemade frosting is quick and easy to make, yet full of bright orange flavour.
This orange-flavoured American-style buttercream is made from scratch. Only 4 ingredients and ready in 15mins!
You can use either orange juice or milk to get a smooth, light and fluffy consistency.
Perfect for topping cupcakes, cakes, cookies, desserts and more!
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✏️ Recipe creation
This best-ever orange buttercream is creamy and dreamy, perfect for adding a zesty summer twist to your desserts and sweet snacks.
I use it on my double citrus lemon orange cupcakes and Terry’s chocolate orange cupcakes!
It’s simple to make and so quick, using butter and powdered sugar in a classic buttercream.
This deliciously light orange buttercream frosting is an easy way to pack tangy orange flavour into your desserts.
🥘 Ingredients
This buttercream recipe calls for the following ingredients:
- Unsalted butter
- Icing sugar (powdered confectioners’ sugar)
- Orange extract
- Orange juice (or milk)
- Salt (optional)
See the recipe card for quantities.
Ingredient substitutions
If you don’t have orange extract, swap this for fine orange zest (1 ½ orange’s worth / 2 tbsp). Be sure to also use orange juice (not milk) in the recipe.
For a creamier frosting (orange creamsicle style!), add milk to your frosting instead of orange juice. If you’ve got quite thick frosting, you can add a little of both (½ tablespoon at a time).
Use fresh orange juice over bottled where you can, but if you don’t have fresh oranges, you can swap for bottled in a pinch.
Ingredient tips
- Room temperature ingredients mix better than cold ones. Take your butter out of the fridge to warm to room temperature before you start. For me, this takes about 30mins.
- Using unsalted butter lets you control the amount of salt in your frosting. I like mine to be low salt so I add an optional pinch or ⅛ teaspoon of salt to taste.
- For a smooth frosting, sieve your powdered sugar (a.k.a icing sugar or confectioners’ sugar).
- To measure your ingredients, it’s best to use weights rather than cups for better accuracy.
🔪 Equipment
I use the following equipment for this recipe:
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer (or whisk / fork)
- Large mixing bowl
- Sieve
- Rubber spatula or wooden spoon
- Weighing scales (or measuring cups)
- Measuring spoons
Equipment alternatives
I usually use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a hand mixer.
You can instead swap to use a whisk, spatula or fork, but this will take longer to beat the butter.
Equipment tips
- I like using digital scales for weighing my ingredients as it's easy and accurate.
- It’s best to use actual measuring spoons. Cutlery teaspoons and tablespoons aren’t the correct volume (who knew?!).
- I’d also recommend levelling off any heaped scoops for a more accurate measurement.
- When using a stand mixer, I like to use the paddle attachment with a low or medium speed to remove air bubbles and reduce the chance of overmixing.
- It’s a good idea to scrape down the sides and bottom of the stand mixer bowl a few times to get an even mixture while you beat the butter and frosting.
- If you’re using an electric mixer, you can sometimes get a cloud of powdered sugar kicked up into the air. To stop this, stir your sieved powdered sugar into the butter with a wooden spoon or spatula briefly before using the electric mixer again. Though if you want to breathe tasty sugar air, I won’t judge!
📖 Method
Step 1: Beat the butter (either by hand, using an electric mixer or stand mixer) until pale, light and fluffy. This could take several minutes.
Steps 2 - 3: Sieve half of the icing sugar into the butter and beat until combined, then repeat this with the remaining half of icing sugar.
Steps 4 - 5: Add in the orange extract, juice (or milk) and salt (if using), mixing until only just smooth.
Steps 6 - 7: If using, beat in a few drops of orange food coloring until the desired colour.
Step 8: Use your buttercream to frost cupcakes, cakes, cookies and more!
🎥 Recipe video
Check out the short recipe video below for how to make homemade orange buttercream!
🍱 Storage
Your easy orange buttercream should last up to 4 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
You can also freeze your frosting for up to 3 months in an airtight container. It’s best to label your frozen frosting with what it is and when it was frozen so you don’t forget.
Defrost your buttercream and re-beat it before use.
💭 Top tips
- For creamy frosting, beat your butter until it’s pale, light and fluffy before adding your other ingredients. This could take several minutes.
- If your orange icing is too thick to pipe, then you can add more orange juice or milk (½ tablespoon at a time) to thin the frosting until you get the desired consistency.
- If your frosting is too thin, you can try chilling it in the fridge for 15-20mins before use. Alternatively, you can beat in a few more tablespoons of butter to thicken it.
- You can beat in ¼ cup / 40g of white chocolate (melted) to help thicken or fix split frosting. This will also add some delicious flavour to your orange buttercream!
- If you have any leftover frosting, freeze it and use it for cake pops and cakesicles later on!
- If you want a stronger orange colour, you can add orange (or red and yellow) food colouring to your buttercream. I recommend using a gel to prevent adding too much liquid.
❔ FAQs
Your orange buttercream should last for up to 4 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
Yes! You can freeze your orange buttercream frosting in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Defrost and re-beat before use.
Yes, you can make your orange frosting ahead of time and either keep it in the fridge (up to 4 days) or freeze it (up to 3 months) until you’re ready to use it.
To get rid of air bubbles in your frosting, beat it on a low speed using a paddle attachment before using it. The whisk attachment can sometimes add too much air.
Alternatively, you can stir it with a spatula or wooden spoon by hand for a few minutes.
Troubleshooting
If you’ve got any specific questions on making your dreamy orange frosting, please feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll try my best to help out!
Alternatively, you can get in touch via my Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest – I’d love to hear from you!
♻️ Variations
Flavour options
For a boozy orange frosting, you can swap the lemon juice for Cointreau (orange liqueur) – perfect to make grown-up treats!
To make blood orange buttercream, swap your regular fresh orange juice for blood orange juice. You can also tint your frosting with a few drops of orange and red colouring to help the colour match.
You can make orange blossom buttercream by swapping the orange extract for orange blossom water extract instead.
Vegan option
To make vegan orange frosting, you can swap the butter for a firm dairy-free butter (baking block). You must use the solid kind rather than a liquid or soft variety.
Gluten-free
This is a gluten-free orange buttercream recipe. Be sure the goods you’re frosting are gluten-free too. For example, check out these gluten-free chocolate cupcakes!
🧁 Frosting uses
You can use this orange butter icing to frost your cupcakes, cakes, cookies, blondies or brownies. It’s especially great as a macaron filling!
For layer cakes, try using it as an orange cake filling as well as a cake topping.
Frost your baked goods with this homemade buttercream by spreading it on generously with an offset spatula or knife.
Alternatively, you can pipe your buttercream using a piping bag and a piping nozzle of your choice. When I frost cakes and cupcakes, I usually use the nozzles from this large piping tip set.
Amounts
This recipe makes enough to frost roughly 12-14 cupcakes or a 2-layer 8-inch cake (frosting outside).
Scale up by ½ the recipe if using it for a filling as well as outside the cake 2-layer 8-inch cake.
To frost a cake fully (outside coating and between layers), you’ll need to double this recipe (scale up by x2) for a 3-layer round 6-inch cake.
For a 3-layer round 8-inch cake, triple this recipe (i.e. scale up by x3).
Depending on how sweet you like your traybakes, you’ll only need half the amount of this frosting recipe for an 8-inch square-sized traybake.
Spread a thick layer across your cooled traybake before cutting it into slices.
Make sure you’re using cooled desserts to frost, not ones fresh from the oven!
Great goodies to frost
Orange buttercream would go great on the following:
- Gluten-free chocolate cupcakes
- Funfetti cupcakes
- Bailey’s cupcakes
- Vanilla melting moment heart cookies
- Lemon loaf cake
- Vanilla cake pops
Toppings and decorations
There are a lot of great options for topping your tasty citrus buttercream.
You can use your orange frosting to top cupcakes and cakes, then decorate with orange zest or peel.
You can coat pieces of orange peel in hot syrup to make candied orange peel too!
Another classic idea is to drizzle melted white chocolate, milk chocolate or semi-sweet / dark chocolate on top.
Decorate with fun and colourful sprinkles or chocolate chips too!
🍪 Other goodies
Looking for some other goodies to make?
A big citrus fan? Why not check out this lemon curd? It’s also a perfect cake filling. Swap in the orange buttercream to this lemon curd cake recipe for a delicious double citrus curd cake - the perfect summer birthday cake!
Chocolate and orange are a match made in heaven. Swap the chocolate orange ganache for orange frosting in this chocolate orange cake – yum!
For some other great frosting ideas, why not check out this lemon white chocolate no-cream ganache, lemon buttercream, raspberry buttercream, Bailey's buttercream and matcha buttercream.
Looking forward to some new recipes? Check out my Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest pages for a few sneak peeks and some sweet inspiration!
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📋 Recipe
Orange Buttercream with Orange Extract
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Equipment
- Hand mixer (optional)
Ingredients
- 175 g (¾ cups) unsalted butter softened
- 425 g (3 ½ cups) powdered icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
- 3-4 tablespoon orange juice or milk
- ⅛ teaspoon salt optional
Instructions
- Beat the butter (either by hand, using an electric mixer or stand mixer) until pale, light and fluffy. This could take several minutes.
- Sieve half of the icing sugar into the butter and beat until combined, then repeat this with the remaining half of icing sugar.
- Add in the orange extract, juice (or milk) and salt (if using), mixing until only just smooth.
- Use your buttercream to frost cupcakes, cakes, cookies and more!
Notes
- This recipe makes enough frosting for roughly 12-14 cupcakes, or to frost the outside (i.e. top and sides) of a 2-layer 8-inch cake.
- Scale up the recipe by ½ to fill and frost a 2-layer, 8-inch cake generously.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate based on an online nutritional calculator, actual values may vary.
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