
Galaxy frosting is a fun, out of this world, colorful upgrade to your every day cupcakes. This buttercream is easily pipeable, simple to make, and is absolutely gorgeous!
Creating this beautiful, starstruck buttercream frosting is actually super duper easy.
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Materials You’ll Need For Galaxy Frosting
Edible Glitter Stars: Space without stars isn’t really space. Just black and depressing like your sad emo phase in middle school.
But you can fix that with some glitter (as you learned in high school when you went to the opposite extreme of emo).
Glitter stars make galaxy frosting less depressing.
Reusable Piping Bags: FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THE WORLD….save the planet. Stop with those eco disaster disposable piping bags. All I use is these reusable piping bags and they are actually glorious.
Easy to clean, durable, and good for the planet. You literally cannot go wrong.
I mean think about this…as bakers we are supposed create beautiful things. Landfills of disposable piping bags and dying sea life isn’t beautiful. And that kind of makes us hypocritical. (I’m just sayin’).
Star Tip: A good piping tip set always has the star tip piece and a star tip just makes sense for some galaxy frosting.
Luster Dust: A dark metallic grey really gives the feeling of space dust. Or at least, I assume it does….honestly, I’ve never been to space.
Remember, it’s all about the details and this detail is one of my favorites!
Gel Food Coloring: This is the stuff I use for literally every single thing I make. It creates rich and vibrant colors which is obviously ideal for super pretty desserts.
White Food Coloring: This white food coloring is what turns the galaxy frosting from pretty swirls to stardust dreams.
Paint Brushes: I highly recommend having a small set of paintbrushes solely for decorating in baking. You’d be surprised how often you’re going to want to use these.

Leftover Galaxy Frosting?
Do you have leftover galaxy frosting? I know how it goes, I feel like half the time you have too little buttercream for a job and the other half you have wayyyy too much leftover.
Don’t freak though. I suggest you always make more than you need. This recipe makes enough buttercream for about 24 cupcakes (depending how heavy you are on the frosting).
So now that you inevitably have too much frosting, what’s a girl to do?
Create another recipe of course! Keep your kitchen low waste and save some money by turning your leftover buttercream into another delicious treat.
Here’s some ideas for you:
Leftover Buttercream Truffles
Leftover Buttercream Cookies
Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes – Nothing wrong with just making some more sexy cupcakes to share with friends and neighbors (or to hide to enjoy on your own).
Ensuring Recipe Success
Plop and Go
The cool thing about this frosting is that it’s not meant to be perfect. We’re going for faded swirls and whispy nebulas. So when you add your buttercream to those REUSABLE PIPING BAGS, all you’ve got to do is plop your colors in there.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Beat It, Just Beat It
Really beating your frosting (before adding the food color) is going to make it a heck of a lot fluffier and lighter.
A dense buttercream is way too sweet for most people so beating in that extra air is going to make it much lighter.
Fold It
When you add your gel food coloring, you’re going to want to gently fold your color into it to prevent deflating all that air you just added.
*However, accidents happen. If it deflates, you can whisk it again until it’s the consistency you wanted.*
Buttercream Galaxy Frosting
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter room temperature
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 drops black food coloring
- 1 drop Pink gel food coloring
- 2 drops teal gel food coloring
- 1 drop purple gel food coloring
Instructions
- Let your butter come to room temperature. Beat your butter so that it's smooth and slowly whisk in your powdered sugar. Whisk until well combined.
- Whisk in your vanilla extract and whisk until your buttercream is light and fluffy.
- Divide the buttercream into 4 bowls and add a different color of gel food coloring to each bowl (black, pink, purple, teal).
- Plop all the colors into one piping bag with a star tip, and pipe on top of your cupcakes.
- Using a baking paintbrush, flick white food coloring over the tops to give a nice starstruck effect. Repeat with your luster dust. Sprinkle your edible glitter stars over the top and enjoy!
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition

Final Notes…
See? You just finished some super impressive galaxy frosting and it was super easy, right? Look at you go, ya bad ass.
And once you’ve made your galaxy frosting, take a pic, post it on the gram, and make sure to tag me (@handheld_eats)! It’s hard to make something prettier and more Instagram worthy than something like this galaxy frosting.
Plus, I love seeing you creations and really, if you don’t post it on Instagram, did it even happen?
Sharing is caring! Do you know someone who would needs this amazing cookie recipe? Share it with them!

See you soon, friends!
xoxo,
Angel
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