Cotton Candy Buttercream Frosting Recipe.

Name: Cotton Candy Buttercream Frosting Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 36
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3 sticks salted butter, softened; 7 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar (or a full 32 oz bag); 8 tablespoons heavy cream or milk (or more, as desired consistency); 1 TBSP (more if you'd like a stronger flavor) of Cotton Candy flavoring (my favorite is Hobbyland)

This is such an amazing cotton candy buttercream frosting recipe. I have made it multiple times for my kid’s birthday cakes and I have gotten rave reviews from friends and family; people both young and old love it.

I made this recipe by changing up my Best Vanilla Bean Frosting recipe that I use for almost all my cakes.

It is best paired with a Funfetti, vanilla, or strawberry cake.

It is also very fun to frost a cake with an explosion center with sprinkles, candy, marshmallows, rock candy, and even cotton candy.

Cotton candy is pretty fragile so I only recommend putting it into a cake if you will cut it open within a few hours as it will condense down as it soaks in the moisture from the cake.

I put cotton candy in my daughter’s Sky cotton candy explosion cake for her Paw Patrol party and I was impressed that it lasted the multiple hours it did.

As you can see in the photo below the cotton candy did stick to the sides of the cake and condensed down slightly, however, it fared a lot better than I thought it would and was a big hit at the party!

I used it on this Elsa cake a video tutorial is coming soon (Anna was a vanilla frosted cake) at her Frozen Party

It’s been awhile, but I think I used it for my other daughter’s Mirabel Barbie Cake or

Isabela Barbie Cake (I can’t remember which one) for my daughter’s Encanto party.

It is creamy, smooth, not overly sweet, and has a nice balance of cotton candy flavor.

It pairs great with explosion cakes and rock candy cakes (especially rock candy in a cotton candy flavor which is what I used on Elsa).

Here’s what you’ll need to make this frosting…

Supply List for this Cotton Candy Buttercream Frosting

Stand

Mixer

spatula

measuring cups and spoons

Supplies for icing cakes

Ingredients for this Cotton Candy Buttercream Frosting Recipe

3 sticks salted butter, softened

7 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar (or a full 32 oz bag)

8-12 tablespoons heavy cream or milk (as desired consistency)

1 TBSP (more if you’d like a stronger flavor) of Cotton Candy flavoring (my favorite is Hobbyland)

If you have already added too much flavoring, just add additional cream, powdered sugar, and butter to add more balance.

Note-Milk can be substituted for heavy whipping cream but only use 1/2 of what the recipe calls for. Using milk will result in a thinner and not as creamy frosting.

How to Make this Cotton Candy Buttercream Frosting Recipe

See the video tutorial and/or continue to the recipe card below.

Recipe

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat paddle or whisk attachment, combine the butter and cotton candy flavoring. Beat on high until fluffy (about 1-2 minutes).
Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly add the confectioners’ sugar a cup at a time and heavy whipping cream a TBSP at a time while continuing to beat.
Once ingredients are combined, beat at high speed until the frosting is smooth and fluffy (2 minutes or so).
Taste test then add more ingredients and re-beat the icing for a minute or two as needed to achieve a frosting where all flavors can be tasted without overpowering the others: sugar, cream, butter, and cotton candy.

Note-Milk can be substituted for heavy whipping cream but only use 1/2 of what the recipe calls for. Using milk will result in a thinner and not as creamy frosting.