Maple Buttercream Frosting

This Maple Buttercream is an easy frosting that’s the perfect balance of buttery, sweet, and rich maple. It’s the perfect addition to fall and winter baked goods and quick to throw together.

My number one favorite fall flavor is maple. I look forward to maple lattes as soon as the weather cools down and really, really love the flavor in baked goods like maple cookies. 

This maple buttercream is a super easy way to incorporate it into other complementary desserts. It’s my go to frosting for pumpkin cupcakes, and would be amazing on spice cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, or a pumpkin layer cake.

The fluffy, creamy frosting is a balance of buttercream sweetness and rich maple flavor, without being overpowering, and it only takes minutes to make.

Ingredients and Substitutions

I found these ingredients created the best balance of air and richness, while still being a perfectly sweet frosting. It makes enough to frost a dozen cupcakes, but it can also be easily doubled or tripled to make more.

• Unsalted butter – I prefer to use unsalted so I can control the level in the frosting.
• Maple syrup – I use a little pure maple syrup to help amplify the flavor in the buttercream. Despite what you might think, Grade A is actually the most mild, I prefer a darker amber or Grade B option if possible.
• Maple extract – This packs BIG flavor in SMALL doses. It’s powerful stuff and too much will make your frosting cloying. If it’s not ‘mapley’ enough, you can add ⅛ of a teaspoon at a time.
• Heavy cream – I prefer this to help with fluffiness and thin out the powdered sugar and butter.
• Powdered sugar – This is essential! The superfine sugar is incorporated without grittiness. If you don’t have it, you can blend granulated sugar and combine it with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch per cup.

Key Tips

Frosting isn’t complicated to make, but I have some tips that help it turn out creamy, thick, and fluffy every time.

• Use room temperature butter, cream, and syrup – cold butter will not beat smoothly and melted will leave you with runny frosting. Everything incorporates better when it’s not ice cold from the fridge.
• Add in stages – Beat the butter, then the syrup and extract in, then start adding the sugar in increments. This helps it build both flavor and the proper texture so it’s smooth and fluffy.
• Drizzle the heavy cream in with the mixer on – I find it helps build the volume better if I add it as it runs. Dumping it all in can break the buttercream or make it sludgy instead of light.
• Scrape down the sides – Pause and scrape down the sides of your bowl throughout the process so nothing gets caked up on the sides.

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