3 Ways to Make Store-Bought Frosting Taste Like Homemade

Before you slather on that can of store-bought frosting onto your freshly baked cake or cupcakes, you may want to consider this. With just a little extra time and effort, you can transform a simple can of frosting into tasting homemade. These tips will help elevate the flavor, texture, and appearance of the frosting, making it taste so good that those eating will never guess it's from the store. Ahead, we share our favorite ingredients to add to store-bought frosting to take it up a notch. Don’t worry—your secret is safe with us.

Improve the Texture

If we have any hesitation when it comes to using store-bought frosting, it’s the consistency. Canned frosting tends to be pretty stiff, thick, and tacky. Spreading it over a cake can leave a lot of crumbs behind, especially if the cake is on the tender or soft side. So, if you're using store-bought frosting, we suggest you soften it up and thin it out before using it on cakes or cupcakes. 

Make it Spreadable

Whether you buy vanilla, chocolate, or another flavor, softened cream cheese or mascarpone are great ways to adjust the texture of the frosting. The fat from the dairy helps smooth out the frosting so that it’s perfectly spreadable. Mix a few tablespoons of either into the frosting until it reaches the right consistency.

Add Ins

We also like to stir chopped chocolate, toffee bits, or butterscotch chips into the frosting before using it to decorate. They create a more dynamic texture and add a homemade quality.

Boost the Flavor

Something canned frosting has going for it is that it’s usually plenty sweet, so you don’t need to add any more powdered sugar, but there are some flavor enhancers we do recommend:

• Sift cocoa powder into vanilla frosting to turn it into chocolate.
• Add a generous pinch of finely ground espresso powder to the chocolate frosting to help bring out even more chocolate flavor. 

We also like to incorporate other store-bought ingredients into canned frosting to improve the flavor. Depending on what kind of cake you’re making, try stirring a spoonful of any of the following into the frosting:

• Peanut butter
• Cookie butter
• Chocolate-hazelnut spread
• Dulce de leche
• Caramel sauce
• Lemon curd
• Fruit jam

Doing this means you can use the canned frosting shortcut but still give the cake the unique flavor you’re looking for.

Add Color

There are two ways we like to change the shade of the frosting:

Gel-Based Food Coloring

We recommend using gel-based dyes because they tend to be much more vibrant than liquid-based dyes, so you can use less dye to create brilliant hues. They are a great way to create whatever color you like for your frosting.

Freeze-Dried Fruits

For more natural colors, use freeze-dried fruits such as freeze-dried blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and mango. They can be whisked into frosting, tinting it lovely pastel colors. Before adding the fruits to the frosting, grind them up very finely in a food processor or blender (alternatively, place them in a resealable plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin.)