This is the Best KitchenAid Attachment for Frosting
You’re probably used to smooth, creamy, fluffy frosting on your bakery cakes and cupcakes, but what about when you try to make frosting at home? While it’s absolutely possible to make the perfect creamy dreamy frosting in your own kitchen, you really need to be using the right tools to ensure that it’ll come out with the right texture and consistency every single time.
If you own a KitchenAid stand mixer (or a similarly well-respected machine), you have a bit of a head-start. KitchenAid mixers are one of the best tools in a home baker’s arsenal. They function similarly to the heavy-duty professional-grade machines in bakeries and other professional pastry kitchens, kneading bread and pizza doughs with the dough hook attachments, whisking lighter-than-air egg whites with the wire whisk attachment, and mixing cookie dough and cake batter with the paddle attachment quickly and easily (and without the huge exertion of effort it would take for chefs to do those tasks by hand).
To create silky smooth frosting at home, you’ll need the KitchenAid whisk attachment, the best mixer attachment for frosting and your secret weapon when it comes to so many home baking tasks.
Why I Think the KitchenAid Whisk Attachment is the Best for Frosting
The whisk is the best KitchenAid attachment for frosting because it’s specifically intended to incorporate air into the ingredients in the bowl, making them lighter and fluffier than the paddle attachment. Because frosting—whether traditional buttercream, whipped cream, whipped ganache, or cream cheese frosting—is meant to be light in texture, you want to use tools that will help you accomplish that goal. Here’s why I love the KitchenAid whisk attachment:
Emulsifies Ingredients: The whisk attachment is the best way to take all of your individual ingredients and turn them into a homogenous mixture, which is what you want to achieve to end up with a light, creamy frosting. When you’re making an American buttercream frosting, the whisk helps the sugar dissolve in the butter (as well as adding air to the mixture) to create a delicious, fluffy frosting.
Incorporates Air: Some kinds of frosting require the structure that beating air into the ingredients can give the final frosting. For example, when making Italian buttercream or Swiss meringue buttercream, you first whisk egg whites with sugar to make a meringue. The whisking of the egg whites helps to develop the egg proteins, creating a structure for the buttercream so that it doesn’t melt all over your finished cake. The same thing happens with whipped cream. In that case, you incorporate air into the cream, which helps the fat in the cream develop a thick structure and fluffy texture.
Makes Whipping Up a Batch of Frosting a Breeze: The whisk attachment allows you to quickly and easily make a batch of light and silky frosting. It’s quicker and more consistent than using a paddle attachment (or flat beater attachment) or by whisking your ingredients by hand.
Why Does Whisking Work So Well? Here's the Science Behind It
Any good stand mixer is generally going to come with various attachments. Regardless of how many mixer accessories you have, however, the whisk is generally going to be the one you want to reach for when you're making something like frosting. Why? To understand that, it's helpful to know more about the science behind making frostings. Essentially, any frosting that you're going to make is going to be a mixture of fat, sugar, and some sort of liquid (usually milk). This is especially true when you're making one of the many different types of buttercream frosting or other similar types of frostings. Because butter-based frostings are emulsions, to make the best buttercream frosting, you'll want to add air, making your emulsion lighter and fluffier. The emulsifying process traps air pockets in the frosting. The more air in the frosting, the lighter and silkier it'll be (making it even easier to spread and pipe without weighing down the cake or sliding off).
Because the wire whip attachment is designed to encourage more air to be incorporated into the frosting mixture, it's the ideal tool to use when making frosting.
Which Frostings Should I Use a Whisk For?
You can use the whisk attachment for any frosting (plus lots of other baking tasks), but these frostings work especially well when you use the whisk:
Buttercream: No matter the type of buttercream you’re making (there's a wide variety!), you’ll need to emulsify the butter and sugar to create a light, smooth, fluffy finished product. As noted, the whisk attachment is essential if you’re making meringue-based buttercreams like Italian buttercream because you first need to whip the egg whites (and sugar) into stiff peaks to create structure for your frosting before adding the butter.
Cream Cheese Frosting: Cream cheese is dense, but cream cheese frosting should be light and fluffy. The whisk attachment adds enough air to the cream cheese to make it spreadable and pipeable without being too heavy, which could cause anything you pipe to collapse.
Whipped Cream: Because whipped cream relies on air, the whisk is the perfect tool when you’re making whipped cream frosting. Heavy whipping cream to light, airy frosting in no time at all.
Whipped Ganache: While ganache is a simple mix of chocolate and cream, whipped ganache is the perfect consistency to spread and pipe onto cakes and cupcakes. The whisk attachment adds all the air you need to take your rich, indulgent ganache and turn it into a creamy, dreamy chocolate frosting.
How to Use the Whisk Attachment for Frosting
Here’s what you need to keep in mind when you’re using your KitchenAid whisk attachment to make frosting:
Start Low: If you’re an experienced home baker, you’ve likely accidentally added something to your mixer when it was running at too high a speed at least once or twice. When you’re mixing liquids or powdered sugar, make sure you start your mixer on a lower speed before picking up the pace once the risk of splattering has passed.
Scrape the Sides of the Bowl: When you're mixing your frosting, you want to make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, ensuring that all of the ingredients are able to be evenly incorporated into the mixture. Otherwise, you may end up with a lumpier, less balanced frosting, not what you're looking for when you're getting ready to decorate a cake.
Increase Speed Slowly: When it’s time for you to turn the mixer up and take advantage of high speeds, make sure to do so slowly. As your ingredients start to combine and you incorporate a little air, it’s time to increase the speed so that you can add more air, creating that light and fluffy frosting you’re looking for.
Start Cold… or room temp!: If you’re making whipped cream or whipped ganache, you want to make sure that your ingredients are cold. This will help them whip more quickly and better hold their shape. There’s nothing worse than cream that collapses when you try to frost your cake. If you are making buttercream you will want all of your ingredients to be room temperature so they are easily whipped and combined.
There’s Such a Thing As Over-Whipping: Your whisk attachment is designed to add air, but there’s such a thing as doing too much. If you over-whisk, your whipped cream or meringue-based buttercreams will “break” which is when, they might separate or get grainy—definitely not what you want when you’re making frosting. If you whip cream further past this point you will make butter!
You Might Need to Chill Your Bowl: If you’re making a whipped cream frosting, consider popping your mixing bowl and whisk attachment (or standard beaters if you're using a handheld mixer) in the freezer for about 15 minutes before adding the cream and whisking to help it whip up more easily and make it even fluffier. And make sure your bowl is VERY clean before making anything like whipped cream or meringue, because any trace amounts of fat in the bowl will prevent it from whipping up.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for the best KitchenAid attachment for frosting, the whisk attachment really will be the best option. It’s perfectly suited for aerating your frostings, making them thick, yet light and creamy in no time at all. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a home hobby baker, the whisk attachment will help ensure your results are light and fluffy each and every time.
The mixer is the workhorse of our bakery and an essential item when baking at home as well. We are nowhere without our mixer. It is important to take good care of it. Clean it relentlessly after every use and be careful not to wear out the engine. In my personal use at home, I often use my stand mixer to make whipped cream and butter from scratch. I also have the pasta attachment and the meat grinder attachment, letting me put my mixer to work even when making savory dinner recipes.
FAQs
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If you are baking at home, the electric hand mixer works just fine, particularly if that's all you have! It may make it take a little longer to make something like whipped cream because they take up less surface area in the cream, but they still work! Ultimately, it depends on the size of your batch. A bigger batch of something will always be more efficient in a larger stand mixer.
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Most buttercreams need to be whisked on medium-high for about 5 minutes (until light, airy, and smooth). Whipped cream should usually be whisked for less time. Aim for around 2-3 minutes on high, until it gets to your desired consistency. Make sure you don’t over-whip the cream, though, or you’ll end up with butter.
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There are a few reasons why your frosting might not be thickening up correctly, even though you're whisking it on high. It might be that your mixture got too warm or that you've whisked it for too long. It could also be that you added too much liquid to your frosting, thinning it out too much. Make sure that you're using butter (and cream cheese) that's only softened to room temperature and hasn't gotten too warm or started to melt. Also, when adding liquid, make sure to go slowly and only add a little bit at a time. If you add too much liquid, you may have to adjust the amounts of all of the other ingredients to try to fix it. Even then, you may not be able to fix it and may be better off tossing the thin, runny frosting and starting over.
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Yes! Most of the best stand mixers come with a whisk attachment. If you're not using a KitchenAid, I would recommend that you still use your whisk attachment for best results.
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For buttercream, you should use butter that’s been softened to room temperature. If you use butter that’s fresh out of the fridge (or just too cold), you’ll end up with a lumpy buttercream. Sometimes you can fix that by whipping your buttercream on high to smooth it out, but using room-temperature butter should prevent lumps from forming in the first place, and it will also prevent your mixer from overworking its motor. .
Next time you make frosting at home, make sure to use the whisk attachment. It’ll make your frosting lighter, creamier, and so delicious. Just what you’re looking for when piping and decorating cakes and cupcakes.
