Tim Chin is a professional cook and writer who has contributed to Serious Eats and America’s Test Kitchen. A graduate of The International Culinary Center, Tim has cooked at restaurants in New York and Boston, working at Rouge Tomate, Northern Spy, and BiSq.

Tim Chin

In the world of buttercream frostings, American buttercream is about as simple as it gets. It’s just powdered sugar and butter, whipped to a soft, spreadable consistency. But many American buttercream recipes suffer from a couple drawbacks: They can be cloyingly sweet, and the heavy proportion of powdered sugar results in a faintly gritty texture.This recipe produces a lighter, airier, smoother, and not-tooth-achingly sweet American buttercream by using sound technique and a few extra steps, like liquefying the powdered sugar (and using light corn syrup) and paddling the frosting to get the silkiest, smoothest consistency possible.

Perfect American Buttercream