Orange Buttercream Frosting - Sweet and Tangy (2024)

Published 1/30/2020, Last updated 4/13/2021 by Stef

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This orange frosting is irresistibly sweet and tangy. It’s an easy buttercream recipe with a bold orange flavor from fresh orange zest.

Ingredients

Like all of my American buttercreams, this one requires unsalted butter, powdered sugar, and salt. The key ingredient that makes this frosting stand out is orange zest.

I’ve tried making orange frosting using orange marmalade, orange juice, and orange extract. But, I’ve found that using zest is by far the best method for flavoring the frosting.

Marmalade and juice make the frosting too wet. It will be difficult to pipe and won’t hold its shape. Orange extract works well, but it isn’t sold in most grocery stores and can sometimes have an artificial taste.

Orange zest is fresh and bursting with natural flavor. It only takes the zest of a single large orange to flavor a whole batch of buttercream. Adding zest is the same method that I use to flavor my favorite lemon frosting.

Expert Tips and FAQs

To ensure that your orange buttercream comes out perfectly each time, follow these tips:

• Start with butter that is room temperature.
• Beat the butter on high speed with an electric mixer for three minutes so it gets nice and light and airy.
• Add more powdered sugar if you like a really stiff frosting and less if you are OK with it being a little looser.

Variations

• Try adding orange zest to sour cream frosting or cream cheese frosting for extra tang.
• Try using a mix of orange and grapefruit zest.
• Add a few drops of orange food coloring and mix thoroughly if it’s important to you that the frosting be orange-colored.
• Add spices like anise, cardamom, and/or ginger to make the frosting even more interesting. Pipe it on top of gingerbread cupcakes or another spiced cupcake where it’ll pair perfectly!

This recipe is so versatile as cupcake frosting or on cakes. Some of my favorite recipes to use it on are:

• Cupcake frostings
• Orange olive oil cake
• Vanilla cupcakes (When you add this frosting to them, they taste like creamsicles! Try topping them with candied orange slices, too.)
• Orange pie
• Chocolate orange cheesecake (Use this frosting instead of Chantilly cream to decorate the cheesecake and make it extra decadent.)
• Chocolate cupcakes
• Chocolate layer cake )Use between the layers with chocolate cream cheese frosting on top!)