Fluffy Butter Frosting

• Beating sugar into below-room-temperature butter creates small pockets of air, which account for the fluffy texture of confectioners' sugar, or classic buttercream, frosting. Fluffy butter frosting melts half the butter, bonding added sugar more tightly with fat. Chilling and beating in the remainder of the butter adds loft and creates a texture similar to classic buttercream.

Cocoa Chocolate Frosting

• For a fudgy and rich chocolate frosting based on cocoa, melted butter is an essential replacement for natural cocoa fat, helping cocoa powder blend smoothly with liquid and sugar. This single-pan beginner-level frosting thickens as the melted butter cools.

Peanut Butter Frosting

• Another easy single-pan frosting melts butter and peanut butter together for a frosting that has become popular for chocolate sheet cake. Like cocoa-based chocolate frosting, the peanut butter frosting attains its final consistency as melted fats cool.

Southern Caramel Icing

• While recipes vary on whether to use all butter or a mixture of half-butter, half-shortening, Southern caramel blends white sugar, buttermilk and butter over carefully regulated heat to turn sugar golden brown. The texture depends on prolonged stirring during both caramelizing and cooling stages, and traditional caramel icing is often described as a labor of love.

Ganache

• While regional differences may determine whether you regard frosting as fluffy and icing as flat, butter can be melted with white or brown sweetened chocolate bars or chips for a quick glazelike frosting called, in French, ganache. Recipes vary, usually allowing 1 part butter to between 4 and 8 parts chocolate. Other ingredients can be added, but in its purest form chocolate ganache is just sweet chocolate and butter.

Broiled Frosting

• This old-fashioned quick cake topping combines melted butter, sugar, nuts and coconut for a crunchy-textured frosting that is browned under the broiler. While technically not a spreadable frosting, this sweet-salt combination is as useful for coffeecakes and muffins as for cakes and cupcakes.

Browned Butter Frosting

• When creative cooks had fewer resources and more weekly baking chores, browned butter was a popular quick and inexpensive flavoring for cake. Most of the butter or other fat in browned butter frosting is kept cold and beaten with confectioners' sugar, but a few tablespoons are melted until butter solids brown, cools and is used to flavor either cake batter or frosting. Technically browned butter frosting is only flavored with melted butter but, even with more exotic flavored extracts easily available, browned butter gives frosting a special homemade warmth.