Easy Mint Frosting

by Sabrina Snyder

Last Update:

30 Comments

5 from 11 votes
24 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
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Mint Frosting is creamy, sweet, minty, and a fun green color that’s PERFECT for St. Patrick’s Day! Perfect for topping cakes and cupcakes!

This is my basic go-to buttercream Frosting recipe, but this time, we’ve added green food coloring and some mint extract. Try out my Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting and Strawberry Butter Cream Frosting too!

Sabrina’s Easy Mint Frosting Recipe

My frosting is creamy, refreshing, and incredibly quick to make! Making any dessert feel special. It’s also perfect for cakes, cupcakes, and brownies, adding a cool, bakery-style finish in just minutes.

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Easy Mint Frosting Recipe

Mint Frosting is creamy, sweet, minty, and a fun green color that's PERFECT for St. Patrick's Day! Perfect for topping cakes and cupcakes!
Yield 24 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
green buttercream piped onto a cupcake
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

  • 6 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter , softened
  • 1 teaspoon mint extract
  • 4-6 drops green food coloring
  • 1/4 cup milk , additional if necessary

Instructions

  • To your stand mixer add the powdered sugar, butter and mint extract on medium speed until light and fluffy then add in the milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the frosting can be spread easily with a spatula.
  • Add in the color until it reaches the color green you like one drop at a time while on medium speed.

Notes

Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.

Nutrition

Calories: 163kcal | Carbohydrates: 30g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 13mg | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 4mg | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 160IU | Calcium: 4mg

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Sabrina’s Tips

If your mint frosting isn’t thick enough, you can add powdered sugar a little bit at a time until it thickens. Usually, when frosting doesn’t turn out the right consistency, it was over-mixed, or the ingredients weren’t measured correctly. Or, if the frosting has been out on the counter for too long, and it’s too warm. Usually, I’ll add a few more tablespoons of powdered sugar or a tablespoon of corn starch, then refrigerate the frosting until it cools.

Table of contents

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About this Recipe

Mint Frosting is buttercream made with butter, powdered sugar, mint extract, and green food coloring, ready in less than 10 minutes! It is a smooth, cool, and refreshing twist that pairs especially well with chocolate desserts! Its light green color and fluffy texture make it a popular choice for holiday treats, especially around Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day. This easy homemade frosting is perfect for casual family desserts but still looks impressive enough for parties and celebrations.

Baking Tips & Tricks

  • Take your butter out of the refrigerator about 30-40 minutes before you plan on making this frosting, to give it a chance to come to room temperature.
  • I always use unsalted butter because I like to control the amount of salt in my recipe, but I have seen recipes calling for salted butter, if that’s what you have on hand.
  • This recipe calls for milk, but you can also use heavy cream or half and half, just like regular buttercream frosting.
  • If your frosting is turning out lumpy, try beating the butter first, then adding the confectioner’s sugar and the rest of the ingredients. This helps give buttercream frosting a more creamy texture.
  • If your mint frosting is too sweet, add a splash of lemon juice or a pinch of salt to balance the flavor.
  • If you’re using this frosting on cupcakes, try to make sure the cupcakes and the frosting are the same temperature to prevent crumbs. I recommend doing this anytime you use buttercream.

Serving Ideas

  • This mint frosting pairs perfectly with rich, chocolatey desserts like fudge Brownies and chocolate cake. It adds a cool contrast to the sweetness!
  • For something fun, you can try it on my M&M Stuffed Vanilla Cupcakes or on my Salted Dark Chocolate Cupcakes for a balanced mix of sweet, salty, and minty flavors!
  • Try making Rich Chocolate Cupcakes with mint frosting, topped with a fresh mint leaf or mint candy for decoration. Or instead of mint, try decorating with green sprinkles or mini chocolate chips!

How to Store

  • Store: This frosting will last in the refrigerator for about a week. Store it in an airtight container to prevent it from drying out.
  • Freeze: Mint frosting is perfect for making ahead and freezing for later. It will last in the freezer for about 3 months. You can also decorate your cake or cupcakes with the frosting, then freeze the whole dessert. If you’re doing it this way, freeze the frosted cupcake for about an hour, then wrap it in plastic wrap and tinfoil and return it to the freezer.

Variations

  • Mix-ins: Add a cup of mini chocolate chips, shaved or chopped chocolate bars, or crushed Andes mints right before you’re done mixing to make a mint chocolate chip frosting!
  • Colors & Flavors: You can add other food coloring or flavors to make different variations of this recipe. Try orange flavor with orange color, or lemon extract with yellow color!
  • Chocolate Mint: Add ¼ cup of cocoa powder (or dark chocolate cocoa powder) in place of ¼ cup of the sugar to make this a mint chocolate buttercream frosting, which goes perfectly with chocolate cupcakes!
  • Vanilla Mint: You can leave the food coloring out of this recipe entirely and add a teaspoon of vanilla extract for a vanilla mint buttercream frosting.
  • Double Mint: If you want more mint, add a few drops of mint flavor at a time, being careful not to add too much.

More Delicious Frosting Recipes

green buttercream in mixing bowl

These photos were used in a previous version of this post

Green buttercream in mixing bowl and on top of cake
Chocolate cake with green buttercream frosting layers
Green buttercream frosting on a whisk

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  9. Are you sure this is right? Your sugar/butter recipe as written is 9:1. (2/3 cup butter to 6 cups sugar.) Most other recipes I’m seeing online are more like 3:1. Are you sure the butter shouldn’t be two cups to six cups of sugar? Or 2/3 cup of butter to 2 cups sugar?

    Reply

    1. Thank you for letting me know. I adjusted the recipe card after retesting it. Make sure to adjust the milk, if necessary.

      Reply

    1. Thanks for the feedback. I’ve adjusted the butter but if you find it too thick, you may need to add more milk.

      Reply

  12. I made this exactly as written. Absolutely the best frosting ever! So delicious, with just the right amount of mint flavor.

    Reply

  14. This is perfect and would be so cute on chocolate cupcakes to have grasshopper! Nothing I love like a good mint chocolate combo

    Reply