Crazy Buttercream Frosting Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret ingredient that will improve your frosting? ›

Rather, The Washington Post suggests using white vinegar in buttercream recipes for two primary purposes. First, white vinegar helps prevent your cake from cracking, resulting in a smooth finish on your dessert. Taste of Home echoes this function; just one teaspoon of vinegar in boiled frosting keeps the mixture soft.

Never add too much liquid to your buttercream.

Adding additional liquid to your buttercream, such as flavorings or purees, can make it far too liquidy to come together nicely. And you don't want to have to add a bunch of powdered sugar to thicken it up, because then it will be far too sweet.

1. Swiss Meringue Buttercream. This is the Queen of Frosting. Imagine the melt-in-mouth texture of ice cream, just at room temperature.

Italian Meringue Buttercream

This is considered one of the very difficult methods for making buttercream because the sugar syrup must be cooked to a specific temperature and then, while piping hot, poured into the whipped egg whites.

Sugar is the most important ingredient in all types of frostings, providing sweetness, flavor, bulk and structure.

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. ... For the best results chill your cake and bring the icing to room temperature. You can also beat the buttercream for a few minutes to create great fluffy texture.

Frosting hardens because water evaporates. Most frostings contain sugar and some liquid. Sugar is hard and crunchy. When the water from the frosting eveporates the sugar becomes hard and crunchy again.

Swiss meringue buttercream is probably the most standard buttercream for pastry professionals. It is incredibly smooth, making it an extremely popular choice for icing cakes. Compared to American buttercream, it has a much stronger butter flavor, but is considerably less sweet.

What kind of icing do professionals use? ›

Fondant icing is a sugar paste and a classic choice for decorating cakes because it provides a smooth and professional look. There are three types of fondant: rolled fondant, marshmallow fondant, and poured fondant. They are all used for coating sponges and pastries but will provide slightly different results.

The best way to distinguish frosting from buttercream is through the ingredients. While both contain powdered sugar, fat, flavouring and sometimes milk or water, frosting does not contain any butter whatsoever. Instead, frosting is usually made with shortening or cream cheese.

Classically there are four main types of buttercream: Italian, German, French & Swiss.

Also known as simple buttercream, American buttercream is the sweetest and easiest type of buttercream to whip up. All you have to do is beat butter until it's light and fluffy, then mix in powdered sugar (a 1:2 ratio is a safe bet), maybe some vanilla, and a splash of milk or cream.

American buttercream is sweeter than Swiss or Italian. It forms a “crust” when exposed to air – perfect for paining and piping on. Swiss Meringue buttercream is silky smooth and light. It's perfect if you're looking for a slightly less sweet buttercream.

Whip the frosting with half a block of cream cheese and an extra cup of powdered sugar and a few drops of the appropriate flavoring extract. If you're using chocolate, add cocoa powder. If you want a richer buttery flavor add a few tablespoons of butter as well.

Most frostings contain powdered sugar, or icing sugar, and the most common way to thicken a runny frosting is by gradually mixing in a bit more powdered sugar to offset the liquid ingredients. Sprinkle in 1 to 2 tbsp (15 to 30 mL) of powdered sugar at a time, then stir it in and check the consistency.