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Buttercream frosting is a tasty addition to almost any cake. How to make buttercream icing shows you how to make both meringue-style and eggless buttercreams.
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Making a Batch of Buttercream Icing
This video details the process of making buttercream icing in a 5 quart stand mixer. One of her first tips is to cover the stand mixer with a towel when you first mix the ingredients, to prevent splatters from landing all over your kitchen. After a few minutes when all the ingredients have been blended, you can remove the towel.
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Introduction
- Buttercream icing is great for frosting almost any kind of layer or sheet cake. It's sweet, creamy and buttery, as its name suggests. You can make it with or without eggs and vary its consistency and color for different decorating purposes. Buttercream is an easy, must-know recipe for bakers.
What You'll Need for Meringue-Style Buttercream Icing
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 5 egg whites at room temperature
- 2 cups butter at room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (optional)
- Pinch of salt (optional)
- Medium saucepan
- Candy thermometer
- Electric mixer
- Large bowl
Procedure
- Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until the temperature of the mixture reaches 240°, or what's known in candy making as the soft-ball stage.Epicurious: White Elephant Cake with Buttercream Frosting (March 2006)
- While the sugar solution is heating, whip the egg whites and salt until the whites hold soft peaks.FoodNetwork.com: Whip Egg Whites
- When the sugar solution reaches the right temperature, slowly pour it down the side of the bowl with the egg whites while continuing to beat with the electric mixer. Stop beating when the mixture (a meringue) is nearly cool.
- Once the meringue is completely cool, gradually beat in the butter. Don't worry if your icing starts to look lumpy and a bit of a mess.FoodNetwork.com: French Buttercream Simply continue to beat until the mixture is thick and looks homogeneous.
- Beat in the vanilla.
Procedure
- Combine butter, sugar, salt and vanilla in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
- Beat in milk one tablespoon at a time until the mixture reaches the desired consistency.FoodNetwork.com: Vanilla Buttercream
Variations
- It's easy to play around with the flavor and color of your buttercream.
- Add white chocolate to your buttercream.Epicurious: White Chocolate Layer Cake with Apricot Filling and White Chocolate Buttercream (June 2003)
- Substitute brown sugar for white sugar.Epicurious: Brown Sugar Buttercream (January 2001)
- Add coffee and chocolate for a mocha buttercream.Epicurious: Mocha Buttercream (January 2001)
- Make buttercream fondant to decorate cakes.Allrecipes: Rolled Buttercream Fondant
- Replace the vanilla extract with mint, hazelnut, almond, raspberry or any other extract or flavoring you desire.Allrecipes: Mint Buttercream Frosting with Dark Chocolate Glaze
- Make stiffer decorating buttercream to pipe flowers and other decorations.MarthaStewart.com: Meringue Buttercream Frosting for Buttercream Flowers
- Add food coloring to change the icing's color.
Conclusion
- Now you should have a handle on the process for making one of the most popular types of icing. Of course, icing shouldn't be eaten alone, so you'll have to bake up something to spread it on. Check out Mahalo's pages on red velvet cake, chocolate cake, cupcakes and wedding cakes.
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