Adding One Pantry Ingredient Makes Store-Bought Frosting Bakery-Level Good

Achieving a frosting at home that tastes just as good as a fresh batch from a bakery is much easier than you may realize. Homemade frosting can be a lot of work, but luckily there are a ton of store-bought icing brands out there to save you some work. However, store-bought frostings can often taste a bit one-note and are straight-up sweet without any nuanced flavor. That's when this one ingredient that you might already have in your pantry can completely transform your frosting game — even if you're buying store-bought. Try adding vanilla bean paste to your frosting for a burst of flavor. 

Vanilla bean paste is a syrupy flavor enhancer that contains vanilla bean extract, vanilla bean seeds, and a thickener. Vanilla bean paste is commonly used instead of vanilla extract in baking to provide that enhanced vanilla flavor to your sweets. Whether you should use the extract or paste can vary with what you're making, but if you want the vanilla to shine front and center, paste is the way to go. In frosting, it will give it that extra sweet, floral vanilla flavor a store-bought can may be missing (and the paste will also give your frosting little black flecks). Or, you can even add it to a homemade batch for a luscious icing with specks of vanilla. 

To add vanilla bean paste to your store-bought frosting, you'll need to first empty the frosting into a mixing bowl. Use about 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste per tub of frosting and hand-mix or whip everything together. If you want to add it to a homemade recipe, 1 tablespoon of vanilla bean paste is enough for every 6 cups of frosting. It's best to use a high quality vanilla bean paste for your frosting (to do so, be sure the first ingredient listed in the paste is vanilla beans or extract). If you want to transform your frosting even further, adding half a stick of butter along with the paste will improve the consistency and tone down the sweetness of the store-bought can. 

There are many hacks to upgrade your store-bought frosting, and using vanilla bean paste needs to be added to the list. The paste will not only add a delicious vanilla flavor, but it will also give your premade icing more depth and complexity. Once you try it, chances are you'll never be able to use your frosting straight from the can again.