This year Easter and my son’s birthday fell within a day of each other. We had the best weekend ever. We went to church on Saturday night because I was being confirmed, and a benefit of attending Easter Vigil Mass is not having to go to Mass on Easter Sunday. We slept late, had a leisurely brunch, and stayed in our pj’s all day. We watched movies, cuddled, and spent the holiday just being the 5 of us. The next day was Clay’s 3rd birthday, and we did a lot of the same to celebrate. We skipped having a birthday party and instead went out to lunch and spent the day playing. It was a refreshing change to have a simple holiday and spend our littlest boy’s birthday at home, instead of cooking for days, and not really being able to relax and enjoy what is going on around me. We might have to make it a new family tradition.
I have a crazy love affair with Marshmallow Fluff. I know, I know. It is terrible for me, but I love it just the same. I think that I love it so much because my mom would never let us have it in our house growing up. What ever the reason, I had a ton of it in my pantry from the holidays (fudge that never happened) and needed to get rid of it before the movers get here. This marshmallow buttercream frosting is really light and fluffy and perfect for this simple birthday cake. I fancied mine up at the last minute and added the seeds from one vanilla bean. But vanilla extract alone is just fine.
1 cup room temperature butter
1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow creme
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 vanilla bean (optional)
Cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the marshmallow creme.
Whip for 2 minutes.
Add the confectioners sugar and continue to beat for 2 minutes. Add vanilla extract and vanilla bean.
I used a simple yellow cake and baked it in a 10-inch pan and a small number 3 pan that I bought at a bakery supply store. Iced it with the marshmallow buttercream and covered it with M&Ms.
I got the M&M idea from Martha, but mine did not turn out as neat as Martha’s. Shocked are you? Even though mine was not as precise as Martha’s, it was still really cute and all that matters is that the birthday boy loved it.
Happy Birthday Clay!
My cake. Not sharing.
Oh alright. You can have some too.
Ingredients
- 1 cup room temperature butter
- 1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow creme
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 vanilla bean (optional)
Instructions
- Cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the marshmallow creme.
- Whip for 2 minutes.
- Add the confectioners sugar and continue to beat for 2 minutes. Add vanilla extract and vanilla bean.
I am Bree. I love to cook. Even more than I love to take pictures.
Love fluff too, I’m planning on making your funfetti cake with this frosting as you did but I would like to use the vanilla bean version, I have never used vanilla bean. How do I prepare the vanilla bean for the frosting?
Split the bean in half, and use the back of the knife to scrape the seeds out.
I have a few questions. Does this icing turn out white or more of an off-white because of the butter? We are throwing a winter themed 1st birthday in a couple weeks. So I was hoping it is white. I am actually making 2 cakes plus some cupcakes. How much icing would I need? The baby’s cake is one of those giant cupcakes. I plan on piping the rose technique on the top, with only a little on the sides because I am making a chocolate “liner”. The other is a 14″ round…Most likely just iced plain with a little trim. Would one batch of the icing be enough for each cake do you think? Can’t wait to try this recipe!! Thanks so much.
It pretty white, but if you want super white, add white food coloring. You get about 4 cups of frosting per batch. The rest of the math you will have to do yourself.
Thanks so much for responding.
If you say it’s white then that should be good…I just didn’t want a yellow tint, know what I mean. It’s hard for me to visualize how much 4 cups would cover. lol But hopefully 2 batches will be enough to cover both cakes. Just curious…how big was the cake you have pictured above? And did you use only 1 batch to ice it? Thanks.
I made this cake 2 years ago, so I am not sure how much I used or which pan. Sorry!
No worries. I’ll just have to wing it! lol
hi
Hi Breed,
i am a very beginner for baking. i like to try this marshmallow buttercream. can we make marshmallow cream at home? and if you know how it is pls guide me.
Here is a recipe for it: http://www.marthastewart.com/255394/momma-reiners-homemade-marshmallow-cream
This looks so fluffy and delicious. I think I will frost my daughter’s birthday cake with this instead of regular buttercream. Thanks for the recipe!
you are welcome!
This frosting is great! I just made it to frost pink lemonade cupcakes for a birthday and everyone loved it!! Thanks for sharing your recipes!
I finally got a chance to try out this icing and it was awesome!! I ended up not making it for my daughter’s birthday in february. But we made some Easter cupcakes last weekend and it was perfect for the pudding filled chocolate fudge cupcakes!! I was afraid it would be too sweet, but nope…just right! Thanks so much for the great recipe!
I know this is an older post and I have combed through the comments with the search feature but didn’t see an answer to this question. The post talks about Marshmallow Fluff but the ingredients use Marshmallow Creme. Will it make a difference to the recipe if I use Fluff and not Creme? Being from Massachusetts, where Fluff originated, I’ve only ever used Fluff in recipes, not the Creme, but am willing to try the creme for a change if you think the recipe would suffer.
Fluff and creme are the same thing. No suffering needed.