Bet you never thought that a birthday cake could be nutrient dense! Well, it can and your kids will be smacking their lips and loving every crumb on their plates! When my children have a birthday, I make traditional butter frosting for their birthday cake with deep yellow grassfed butter – preferably raw.
Remember that video lesson I posted on how to make raw butter?
That exact container of raw butter that I showed on camera at the very end was used just a few days later for making the birthday cake buttercream frosting shown in the picture above for my new 10 year old.
Homemade Butter Frosting
If your kids won’t eat much butter, a lovely homemade cake slathered with butter frosting is a great way to get a bunch of this sacred food into their little tummies. My children enjoy it atop devils food cake.
You’re going to make a cake anyway, so why not make it as full of nutrients as possible. Let me also just share with you that butter frosting made with pastured, raw butter is to die for!
You can even make homemade powdered sugar with a whole sweetener like coconut or cane jaggery, sucanat, or palm sugar. Although very healthy, I do not recommend date sugar as it does not dissolve well in frosting recipes.
To make, simply powderize it in your food processor or blender first and use that to blend with the raw butter for an amazing cake topping that will please everyone at the party!
Traditional Butter Frosting Recipe
This traditional recipe for butter frosting is full of healthy fats and uses a whole sweetener that you can feel good serving as the perfect topping for that special cake.
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup grassfed butter softened
- 5-6 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 1/3 cup whole milk preferably grassfed
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
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Thoroughly powderize whole sweetener of choice (sucanat, jaggery or coconut sugar) in a food processor or blender, sift and measure into a bowl until desired quantity is reached and set aside.
If you cannot get the sugar to powderize sufficiently or do not care for the taste of molasses, use sifted organic powdered white sugar instead.
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In a large glass bowl, whip butter until creamy and fluffy. Gradually beat in 3 cups of the powdered sugar.
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Slowly beat in the milk and vanilla. Beat in the remaining sugar and add additional milk to obtain the desired spreading consistency to the butter frosting.
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Spread the butter frosting on the cake as desired or just enjoy it off the spoon!
Recipe Notes
Never use nonorganic powdered sugar in North America as it will almost certainly contain GMO beet sugar.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Yes, please post the cake recipe. My first is turning 8 Saturday!
Thank you Amy.
So great to meet you too Marie!!! 🙂
I would love to have that cake recipe as well 🙂
Is refrigeration necessary due to the milk in the frosting?
You can store it in the microwave (makes a great pastry cabinet) for a couple of days and then refrigerate so the cake doesn’t get stale.
“Pastry cabinet!” Bahahaha! I got rid of my microwave when I learned that it destroys food, but I had a counter-top model. I am going to recommend that my relatives with cabinet-mounted microwaves use theirs as a “pastry cabinets!” I LOVE it!
I make cakes as a hobby for family and friends. I make Swiss Meringue Buttercream. It does not use much sugar, so not very sweet and lots and lots of delicious butter. I always get rave reviews and they want to know if I have extra so they can eat it out of the bowl with a spoon!
ok, you inspired me to make some butter. But I only had grass fed cream, not raw. I can get raw, so I will try it out soon. I made exacly 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of buttermilk. So, I made a cake with half of it and will make the frosting with the other half. YUM!
How is it that your frosting is so white? I make something similar, but I always have to flavor it with cocoa to cover up the color of the rapadura.
You know, the frosting was a deep beige color, but the flash on the camera made it look lighter for some reason.
Looks yummy! It was nice to meet you last weekend!