I'm as shocked as anybody would be to say this, but basil buttercream is a weirdly and wildly good frosting that you need in your life. Beyond its beautiful naturally green appearance from fresh basil, it is a perfect pairing with fruity desserts, like these blueberry-filled cupcakes. This frosting is a refreshing take on buttercream for decorating cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and more!

green frosting atop a plain vanilla cupcake.

Jump to:

Why You'll Love this Buttercream
Ingredients for Homemade Basil Frosting
How to Make Frosting Less Sweet
Making Basil Sugar
How to Make Basil Buttercream
How to Use this Homemade Frosting
Frosting Storage
Creating Super Smooth Frosting
Recipe Variations and Tips
Best Results: Baking in Grams
More Recipes like Basil Buttercream
Basil Buttercream

This unique buttercream joins the growing list of frosting recipes on my site.

If you're feeling adventurous and want to try some other fun flavors, I highly recommend my mango buttercream as well as blueberry cake frosting. They use freeze dried fruit for strong, punchy taste.

For more fruity treats, you may enjoy:

Strawberry filled vanilla cupcakes - From a marbled strawberry cream cheese frosting to the berry filling, strawberry is in every bite! 🍓
Blueberry and pear crumble - Such a comfort dish, this crumble is sweet, simple, and versatile. Prep it in just 15 minutes, bake for an hour, and enjoy a treat that’s perfect for breakfast or an evening dessert. 🍐
Lemon blueberry mascarpone cake - This decadent layer cake has a slightly tangy and refreshing taste. The mascarpone cream in the frosting gives this dessert a melt-in-your-mouth sort of feel. 🫐🍋

Why You'll Love this Buttercream

Soft texture: This frosting is smooth and spreadable while still holding a nice shape.
Easy to make: In addition to having great flavor, this recipe is a quick one to literally whip up.
Unique: Imagine telling people you made your own basil sugar and buttercream with basic kitchen tools and ingredients. Seriously! People will be so impressed, and that's before they've even tried this recipe's unique flavors.
Natural food coloring: I'm a huge fan of colorful frostings or buttercreams. When possible, I like to achieve colors naturally. The end result of this recipe is a stunning shade of light green, leaning toward mint. It's totally natural!

Ingredients for Homemade Basil Frosting

ingredients for basil buttercream, including butter, heavy cream, fresh basil leaves, cornstarch, and granulated sugar.

We're actually going to make our own basil-infused powdered sugar here. With granulated sugar, cornstarch, and fresh basil leaves, it's easy and doable!

Below is a list of everything you'll need to make this uniquely-flavored buttercream that's one of my new favorite frostings.

Room temperature unsalted butter
Granulated sugar
Cornstarch
Fresh basil, loosely packed, rinsed and patted dry
Heavy cream (for a thicker frosting) or whole milk or other milk of your choice (for thinner consistency)
Vanilla extract
Almond extract
Pinch of salt
Optional: A few drops of lemon or lime juice (or white vinegar) to cut sweetness; add to your preference

How to Make Frosting Less Sweet

If you find yourself wishing that the buttercream or frosting that you're eating weren't so cloyingly sweet, turn to lemon juice, lime juice, or white vinegar. Those liquids are all acidic.

Adding just a couple of drops to your frosting and then doing a taste test will help you cut back on an overly sweet taste. Like I do in my almond buttercream frosting and many of my frosting recipes, I added some lemon juice to this one.

Making Basil Sugar

The base of this recipe requires basil sugar, which is really just fresh basil leaves, finely ground and mixed with granulated sugar and cornstarch.

While you can speciality order this ingredient, it's really not necessary. Make it yourself easily at home.

a food processor with ingredients for basil sugar, including fresh basil leaves, cornstarch, and granulated sugar.

Step 1: To a food processor, add your rinsed and patted dry fresh basil, as well as your granulated sugar.

a food processor with fresh, homemade basil sugar.

Step 2: Pulse until ingredients are mixed and then add cornstarch, pulse until you have the texture of powdered sugar. Now you have basil-flavored powdered sugar!

How to Make Basil Buttercream

mixing bowl filled with ingredients for basil buttercream (basil sugar, unsalted butter, heavy cream, and extracts).

Step 1: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer, beat the unsalted butter, basil-infused powdered sugar mixture, salt, heavy cream or milk, and vanilla extract on low for about 30 seconds before you increase mixer speed to medium high for 5 minutes.

green homemade basil frosting in a mixing bowl.

Step 2: Be sure to pause mixer halfway to scrape both the bottom of the bowl and sides of bowl to incorporate all ingredients. Test taste and add a drop or two of lemon juice to cut sweetness if desired.

cupcakes topped with green frosting from fresh basil leaves, surrounded by blueberries.

Step 3: Set aside frosting. When ready to use on cupcakes or cake, put buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a tip of your choice and decorate baked goods as desired.

How to Use this Homemade Frosting

This recipe creates enough frosting for decorating a dozen cupcakes or a smaller (think two layers and 6″ round) cake.

Its subtle basil flavor would be a nice way to change up a traditional chocolate cake or batch of strawberry filled cupcakes. This frosting would be tasty with many sweet treats that use fresh strawberries or different types of fresh berries.

blueberry-filled cupcakes with green frosting atop them.

Frosting Storage

This frosting freezes very well and also stays fresh in the refrigerator for a few days.

Freeze it in an airtight container or tightly sealed plastic wrap for 3 months. Let it thaw and come to room temperature before attempting to use it to decorate cakes or cupcakes.

This buttercream will stay fresh keep in the refrigerator in an airtight container for about 3 days.

You can also freeze fully decorated cupcakes or cakes that use this frosting.

For more on a related topic, I have a detailed guide for freezing cupcakes.

Creating Super Smooth Frosting

Once your electric mixer has done the hard work, spend a few more minutes with a spatula or back of a spoon and your mixing bowl.

Use either tool spatula to pop air bubbles in the frosting. To do this, push frosting with a spatula from the middle of your bowl to its edges, watching as the tears and bubbles in your buttercream disappear.

Spend at least 1-2 minutes (ideally a few more! If it doesn't feel like a mild arm workout, keep going. 🙂 Promise it's worth it!) doing these motions to achieve nice, smooth frosting.

The end result is professional-looking frosting that will wow friends and family. Trust me on this one!

And if you're struggling to spread the frosting, it may be too thick. Add a few more drops of liquid, like milk or heavy cream.

Recipe Variations and Tips

Buttercream too sweet? Add a few dashes of lemon juice, lime juice, or distilled white vinegar. It cuts the sweetness, so taste test until it's your desired flavor.
If you need to thin out this frosting, add a few splashes of milk (alternatives like almond, coconut, and oat work great in lieu of dairy). You could also sub in some cream cheese for the butter for a looser consistency.
Only add this frosting to baked goods once they've cooled; buttercream can't withstand high heat so it can melt or get runny!
If you need to make a thicker frosting, add about ¼ cup of powdered sugar at a time. Mix until you've reached your desired thickness.

Best Results: Baking in Grams

If you’re not already, use a kitchen scale for accuracy in baking.

While I include cups and grams in my recipe cards, weighing your ingredients and writing or following a recipe using a standard metric like grams ensures consistency.

I highly recommend investing $30 or less in a kitchen scale.

green frosting atop two vanilla cupcakes sitting on a wire rack.

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More Recipes like Basil Buttercream

Check out the other frosting ideas on my site. From fruity or chocolaty to warm and cozy, there's a little bit of something for everyone.

Basil Buttercream