Italian buttercream

How Much Buttercream Do I Need? This post shares everything you need to italian buttercream to make the perfect amount of frosting for any baking project.

It’s basically the frosting version of my cake batter calculator. With the help of my buttercream formula and chart below, you’ll be able to figure it out in a snap! Figure out exactly how much buttercream you need for any baking project! This guide teaches you everything you need to know about frosting. My only note on this is that I find I sometimes need a tiny bit more American buttercream to make a perfectly smooth cake. If I’m using a meringue based frosting, it usually is a bit easier to smooth and I can use slightly less on the sides of the cake. How Does this Buttercream Calculator Work?

Creating this chart meant thinking through what we’re trying to calculate. To know how much frosting we’ll need, we need to use the formula of a cylinder, the formula of a circle, and then back out how many cubic inches are in a cup to get to our answer. 2 x pi x r in x h in x . If you aren’t a big fan of math, don’t worry! I’ve used this formula to create a chart below that’s super easy to use. Step 1: How Big is the Cake You’re Making? The size, shape and number of cake layers will impact how much frosting you need.

In general, I find one batch or about 6 cups of frosting is the perfect amount for a 7-inch or 8-inch layer cake that’s decorated with buttercream swirls on top. I usually have a tiny bit leftover, but it’s just about right. This makes sense based on my calculations below! Add an addition 1-2 cups of frosting to the numbers below if you want to pipe large buttercream swirls on top of the cake. Or if you want to make a frosting intensive design like covering a cake in buttercream rosettes, add an additional 2-3 cups of frosting for a cake ranging from 6-8 inches. It sounds insane, but those designs require so much extra frosting!