How to make buttercream frosting

There are three types of buttercreams that are most often used: American Buttercream, Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and Italian Meringue Buttercream.

See how easy it is to confuse the two? Frosting has a cream base, instead of a sugar base, and is mixed with butter, giving it a stronger butter taste, of course. Sometimes, frosting is referred to as buttercream, and food coloring can be added for decoration. Icing has a sugary base while frosting has a cream.

STEP #4 – ADD FLOUR MIXTURE

Slowly add the (room temperature) flour mixture, about 1 Tbsp at a time, while the butter is whipping. This is kind of like adding butter to a Swiss meringue buttercream. Incorporate it slowly.

My Buttercream Frosting Isn’t Stiff Enough…

The first thing I’d suggest is to chill the buttercream frosting. This is a great trick for buttercream frosting that may have been overmixed or made in a warm kitchen. If this doesn’t seem to do the trick, try adding sifted powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.

Tips for Successful Buttercream

Try not to overbeat the buttercream after all the ingredients have been added or you might add bubbles, which will ruin the texture of the icing. You can also beat the buttercream for a few minutes to create great fluffy texture.

Dump your canned frosting into a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer or into the bowl of an electric mixer and whip it up. Without even adding any other ingredients, this will aerate the frosting for a fluffier consistency.

Your icing tastes like powdered sugar and fat but not much else. You MUST use flavoring when you make buttercream. If you use too much extract, your icing can become bitter.

If you taste it on its own you may still feel like it has a buttery taste but when you eat with the cake, it just tastes delicious. Oh definitely use unsalted butter when making meringue based icings. If you use salted it will taste like sweet butter good on scones, but not so much on a cake.

But the main reason that colored icings will taste off or bad is because even though we’ve been told that food color is flavorless, it really isn’t. It does have a flavor and it isn’t pleasant. It’s virtually undetectable in small amounts, which is how it’s meant to be used.

Also, unless the room is hot, buttercream frosting will not melt at room temperature. However, buttercream made with cream cheese is not recommended to sit out and should be stored in the fridge. On the contrary, buttercream with shortening and butter can sit out at a temperature for up to two days.

Buttercream can be stored, refrigerated, in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks before using. A decorated cake with buttercream frosting can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you want to refrigerate a decorated cake, place it in the refrigerator unwrapped until the frosting hardens slightly.

(See our Baking in Advance blog post.) Buttercream frosted cupcakes are good for up to two days (they are fine at room temperature) and cream cheese frosted cupcakes need to be refrigerated if kept for the second day. How should cupcakes be stored? They can be kept at room temperature out of sunlight for a day.

A buttercream made with a recipe consisting of butter and shortening can generally sit out at room temperature for up to 2 days. If your buttercream recipe is made with all butter, it will need to be refrigerated. An all-butter recipe may melt off your cake once it’s reached room temperature.

Buttercream can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 1 week, or in the freezer for 3 months.

If you wish to make buttercream frosting in advance it can be made a day or two earlier (at most) and kept covered in the fridge. Allow the frosting to reach room temperature for about an hour or two before use and quickly plump it up with your mixer for a few seconds.

Most fillings and buttercream frostings can be made up to three days in advance and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the filling or buttercream before placing the lid on the container to prevent it from picking up fridge odors.

You can bake your cake ahead of time, prepare your buttercream as well as your fondant and freeze these. Two days before you want to start decorating, thaw it in the fridge first then on the counter. Once you finish decorating you can keep it on the countertop in a cool place or in the fridge.

Butter Cream

Buttercream is softer and more spreadable than most icing and is the preferred choice for taste and flexibility. It can be used as a filling inside cakes and also as a coating for decoration. It is made by creaming together sugar and butter or other fats like lard or margarine.