My new secret to great frosting? This powerful mixer.
It’s the key to silky, ultra-smooth buttercream.
We were chatting about the Ankarsrum stand mixer in a meeting the other month when one of my colleagues casually dropped a shocking baking tip.
“Oh, I love to use the dough roller attachment to make frosting,” she mentioned, then moved on to another topic. I, meanwhile, was stunned.
The dough roller? As in, the incredible but very bread-specific mixing attachment?
As soon as the meeting ended, I reached out for more details. And in the process, unlocked my new favorite way to make frosting.
Why the dough roller makes great buttercream
For those unfamiliar, the Ankarsrum is a Swedish stand mixer beloved for its powerful engine, stable base, open bowl, and unique attachments. One attachment, in particular, really stands out: the dough roller, which has a ridged cylindrical shape and was designed for bread doughs, effectively mimicking the gentle, steady pressure of hand kneading, leading to stronger doughs with better gluten development.
At first, I couldn’t imagine how that attachment could be used to make buttercream; typically, buttercream recipes call for beating the ingredients using a paddle or whisk attachment. (And to be clear, the Ankarsrum's traditional whisk attachments do make great frosting.)
So I put the dough roller to the test, making batch after batch of buttercream frosting: beating room temperature butter until smooth, then adding confectioners’ sugar and a dash of milk and mixing until light and fluffy. To my surprise, my colleague was right. Though the dough roller may be designed for bread dough, the attachment’s gentle motion also produces silky buttercream without incorporating air into the mixture, resulting in frosting that spreads easily with a glossy, ultra-smooth finish. Other mixing options, like a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, whip air into frosting as it mixes, which results in small air pockets that disrupt the smooth finish you might be going for.
Another key factor is the Ankarsrum’s bowl scraper attachment, which seamlessly scrapes the frosting from the side of the bowl as it turns. As a result, you don’t have to stop and scrape the bowl yourself, streamlining the whole process.
And finally, there’s the extra-large mixing bowl. I always make big batches of frosting, whether because I’m decorating a slab cake or want to make sure I have extra frosting for final decorative flourishes. (Nothing is worse than starting to frost a cake, only to run out of frosting and stopping to make another batch; plus, most types of frosting freeze beautifully, should you have any excess.) The 7.4 quart capacity of the Ankarsrum means I can whip up big batches with ease — and without worrying my mixer’s engine is going to go on strike.
See it in action:
Tips for frosting success
Stick with American buttercream: Made by mixing softened butter and confectioners’ sugar, American buttercream is a simple, beginner-friendly recipe that shines with the dough roller. For Swiss, Italian, or other buttercreams that require whipping egg whites into a meringue, use the Ankarsrum’s wire beater attachments, which will incorporate the necessary air into the mixture. Some frosting recipes that would work great with the dough roller include:
- Quick Buttercream Frosting
- Maple Buttercream Frosting
- Super-Simple Chocolate Frosting
- Peanut Butter Frosting
- Salted Caramel Frosting
- Coffee Frosting
Big batches are best: Because of the Ankarsrum’s large capacity, it works best for large batches of frosting, and won’t work well with small batches that call for just one or two sticks of butter. Double your recipe if you need to, and if you wind up with extra frosting, you can always freeze it!
Need for speed: At first, I turned the mixer to medium-low speed and watched in dismay as my butter flopped around the bowl, going nowhere fast. Once I turned up the mixer to medium-high speed, it had the power it needed for the dough roller to smooth and soften the butter and the bowl scraper to clean it off the sides of the bowl.
Have patience: The softened butter may collect around the dough roller at first while mixing. That’s OK! Make sure you’re using enough speed — around medium-high — then let the mixer do its thing. The roller will start to sling the softened butter off, smoothing it against the sides of the bowl.
Use the dough roller beyond frosting (and bread): For the same reasons the dough roller is great at beating butter into frosting, it’s also well-suited to creaming butter and sugar to make cookies. Really! Watch this video to learn more.
Cover photo (Maple Buttercream Frosting) by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
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