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Buttercream or Frosting Icing

Buttercream is icing used to fill butterfly cakes or for filling and topping larger cakes, it can be flavoured with whatever you wish, chocolate, coffee, orange, lemon, lime, strawberry and coloured to match.  If you are using unflavoured or plain buttercream then use butter to achieve the best flavour, if you are flavouring it then margarine will work just as well, you may need to add less liquid and more icing sugar as the margarine will stay soft and may be difficult to pipe.  Don’t compromise on the chocolate or cocoa powder ALWAYS  buy a good quality.

Buttercream icing, as it is made with butter or margarine will ALWAYS taste buttery and will ALWAYS have a yellow tint to it, if you add blue colouring you will get turquoise icing, if you add pink or red you will get orange icing, if you want a pure white icing with no buttery taste then use the Frosting recipe instead.

Buttercream or Frosting Icing

 Ingredients: sufficient for 12 cupcakes
150g butter, softened
300g icing sugar
A little milk or other flavouring

Beat the butter until soft either by hand or in an electric mixer, add the icing sugar and a little milk or other flavouring (see below) to make a soft icing and beat until light and fluffy and almost double in volume.  If you are doing this by hand it will take 10-15 minutes, you will achieve quicker results if using an electric mixer.

Variations

Chocolate buttercream – add 25g good quality cocoa powder when you add the icing sugar

Coffee buttercream – mix 1 teaspoon of instant coffee with a little warm water to dissolve, add 1 teaspoon of the liquid to the icing, taste and add more if required.

 

Lemon, orange or lime buttercream – add the grated zest of a fruit and squeeze the juice into the icing too.

 

Toffee buttercream – add 2-3 tablespoons of butterscotch sauce to the icing when it is mixed.

 

Salted caramel buttercream – add 2-3 tablespoons of salted caramel sauce to the icing when it is mixed, drizzle some sauce over the top of the buttercream to serve.