FROST Buttercream: The gourmet buttercream frosting shortcut.
- KLS
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
For the 208th feature of our "Together Talks" campaign, we collaborated with FROST Buttercream and Founder, Liv Truesdell. Their mission is to bring a touch of sweetness, spread joy and provide the simple reminder that life is worth celebrating. They aim to empower home bakers with an all natural, gourmet shortcut that redefines convenience without compromising on quality to achieve bakery-quality results at home. By providing all natural bakery quality frosting without the hassle, they help you spend less time prepping and more time celebrating.
"Together Talks" feature # 208: FROST Buttercream presented by KLS - Your Trusted Shipping Solutions In The USA
What separates you from your competition? What have been the biggest challenges? Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?
What were your concerns to transition to starting your own business? How have you dealt with being the face of the company?
What have you learned since becoming an entrepreneur? What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most? Share a decision that you made that was detrimental? What is your why?
Story of how it was created?
I had a great aunt who came from Italy, and she instilled in me the idea that food—specifically dessert—was a really important part of life. She’d have so many amazing Italian foods prepared, but it was always the cake or a signature dessert she made that reminded us of the sweetness of life and transformed those moments into happy memories.
My mom learned to bake from her, and then I grew up baking with both my mom and my great aunt. When I launched FROST Buttercream, the frosting wasn’t just about spreading sugar on a cake. It was about being invited into someone’s special moments and memories. That’s really a privilege.
Personally, I’ve always aspired to be an entrepreneur, from watching all the Shark Tank episodes to listening to endless start-up focused podcasts to taking business classes in school. I started my career in investment banking, working with consumer companies and made the decision to start something of my own.
Eventually, after closing a deal with many sleepless nights, I left my job, started researching gourmet food segments, and noticed something surprising: grocery stores had tons of premium ice creams and cookie dough brands, but the frosting category had been sleepy with little innovation since the first frosting hit grocery store shelves 71 years ago.
Store-bought frosting has been typically full of artificial ingredients you can’t pronounce, fake dyes, and shelf-stable oils that coat your mouth. The melting points of these oils are higher than body temperature, so instead of melting like butter, they leave a greasy aftertaste. To cover it up & add flavor, some companies add a lot of sugar.
When creating FROST Buttercream, our goal was to make a gold-standard, bakery-quality frosting you could have at home. We focused on high-quality, all-natural ingredients you’d recognize from your own kitchen: farm-fresh butter, real vanilla extract, egg whites, pure cane sugar, etc. Because we use such fresh, simple ingredients, our frosting has up to 57% less sugar than leading shelf-stable “buttercreams”, many of which actually don’t contain any real butter.
What separates you from your competition?
When looking at the baking category, I saw that the retail sales of cake mix were 15 times that of store-bought frosting, which I believe is due to the overall quality and dissatisfaction with the available shelf-stable frosting options. As such, many bakers make their own frosting at home, which typically ends up having a lot of confectioner’s sugar and tends to be super sweet. People also tell us that making frosting is time consuming and would love to have a gourmet frosting shortcut option without the mess and stress.
With FROST Buttercream, we set out to create an all-natural, bakery-quality frosting made with real butter, egg whites, vanilla extract and a lot less sugar. t’s like having a bakery in your fridge.
What have been the biggest challenges?
There are challenges every single day, but the biggest one was just getting started. Coming from investment banking, I felt confident with financial and strategic analyses, but as any entrepreneur will tell you, you can’t really learn how to start a business until you actually do it.
So I began by reaching out to as many entrepreneurs as I could to hear their perspectives. Many founders were incredibly generous with their time, often saying, “So many people helped me when I started out, so I want to give back.” One of those people, surprisingly, was Jerry Greenfield from Ben & Jerry’s. I’ve always been inspired by him, so I reached out—and to my shock, he responded. We had a phone call, and his advice was simple: why wouldn’t you just try?
From there, I worked with Cornell on product development, experimenting with hundreds of frosting formulas—testing them with family and sending them to Cornell for analysis.
Another big help was enrolling in a Maker Prep course through the Specialty Food Association. They provided a clear framework for the early steps of launching a food business, along with a supportive community and mentors. That guidance made a huge difference in overcoming the uncertainty of starting out.
Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?
Right now, we’re working on our next SKU, looking to scale up production, and assessing demand for foodservice.
What were your concerns to transition to starting your own business?
My biggest concern at the beginning was trading a stable, high-paying job for uncertainty – and that’s a concern many entrepreneurs have to face. Regardless of the outcome, I have learned so much in what it takes to launch a business.
How have you dealt with being the face of the company?
My mom is my co-founder, which has been really special.
Being the face of the company has pushed me out of my comfort zone. I’ve never been the type to enjoy being in front of cameras.
Now I’m doing many demos a week, talking to hundreds—sometimes thousands—of people. Telling our story and connecting with people is necessary and also what makes the work meaningful.
What have you learned since becoming an entrepreneur?
I’ve learned more than I ever imagined. Honestly, it feels like I’ve gone through my own hands-on version of business school.
What’s been most gratifying is developing a new concept, turning it into a brand, and creating a product that has meaning for other people. Seeing that impact is incredibly rewarding.
It has been a family effort - aside from help from my mom, my brother, Will, has helped to create branding and develop packaging and my brother, Timo, has been a trusted advisor. My dad has helped with legal advice, and my dogs … unconditional support.
What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most?
The opportunity to develop a concept and turn it into a product that consumers value, that becomes part of people’s lives—that’s what I value most.
For Frost, that means entering into people’s celebrations, their happy moments, and ultimately becoming part of their memories.
Share a decision that you made that was detrimental?
Looking back, I was very frugal with my up-front investment, which was money I had saved from my investment banking job- and knew how hard earned each dollar was.
It would have been faster and easier if we had hired food scientists from the very beginning, ultimately saving a lot of time in the product development phase. Instead, we made hundreds of versions of the product ourselves, learning food science along the way - until we arrived at a product we loved. The benefit is that we know our product inside and out, and to date, have made every single container ourselves.
What is your why?
For me, it’s the privilege of being part of people’s lives, moments, and memories.
One of our mottos is life’s worth celebrating. We believe that wholeheartedly—life is short and unpredictable, and we need to find more reasons to celebrate the small moments and one another.
Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?
Some of the best moments have come from in-store demos and hearing how consumers connect with our product. So many tell us that our product tastes like childhood and reminds them of a frosting that their moms and grandmothers would have made. Equally gratifying is the moment after tasting, when a consumer says “sold” and heads off to purchase our product.
Piece of Advice
Put yourself out there and connect with other founders.
We all have different strengths, knowledge, and networks, and we can really help each other. Sharing knowledge and resources is invaluable! It’s not always easy to walk into a room full of strangers, but the more events you attend, the more familiar faces you’ll see—and soon, those faces turn into friends.
Community Callout
Caroline McGinley - Gringuita Cookies
Sarah Masoni - Mentor, SFA
Bob Burke - Mentor, SFA
Mark Scoville - Mentor, Cornell Center of Excellence
In Closing
KLS wants to thank FROST Buttercream and Founder, Liv Truesdell, for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!