The Frosting Recipes Every Southerner Should Have on Hand This Holiday Season

With the richness of cream and the slight tang of fresh cheese, cream cheese takes a simple buttercream frosting and adds a layer of complexity that complements the dense sweetness of most cakes. It pairs especially well with spiced confections like carrot cake and gingerbread. If you prefer your frosting to be less thick and more satiny, beat 1-2 Tbsp. corn syrup into the frosting after you incorporate the powdered sugar and allow to beat for 2 minutes.

Recipe: Cream Cheese Frosting

Vanilla is a flavor that is both exotic and delicate in flavor. This makes it the ultimate companion to a wide range of desserts—from fudge brownies to a light strawberry cake. It can both compliment other flavors or stand on its own. The key ingredient to this recipe is vanilla bean paste. It has a thicker consistency than vanilla extract and contains thousands of vanilla seeds that lend more flavor to the buttercream.

Recipe: Vanilla Buttercream

When it comes to chocolate frosting, you must use a recipe that calls for actual chocolate. Most chocolate frosting recipes only use cocoa powder, but the melted chocolate in this recipe makes the frosting extra silky and über chocolatey. The thick mix of chocolate, sugar, butter, and cocoa is thinned out by milk to make it more spreadable.

Recipe: Chocolate Buttercream

The nutty rich taste of browned butter and cooked sugar enhance everything from cakes to cookies, and we are convinced that our Caramel Frosting for our Sea Salt-Caramel Cake Recipe is as good as it gets (just follow Step 3 in the recipe linked below). The mix of light and dark brown sugar make the caramel flavor even more pronounced, and the sea salt helps cut through the sweetness of the sugar for a more balanced frosting.

Recipe: Caramel Frosting from Sea Salt-Caramel Cake