Not that a cake is any less delicious naked, but the perfect frosting adds that oomph that will take your cake from an eight to a perfect ten! A well frosted cake is the star of every party and is surprisingly not even that difficult to whip up! In this article, I’ll share with you everything you need to know about butter cream frosting because so many of you ask me how to make the perfect butter cream frosting.
You can make the simplest buttercream with just two ingredients- butter and sugar! Yes, you read that right! Just sugar and butter creamed together at the perfect temperature give you that gloriously fluffy and glossy buttercream frosting. What’s better is you can create so many variations from the basic recipe by adding vanilla, chocolate or any other fruit puree you want!
Just keep the following tips in mind and you’re good to go-
- Butter should be at room temperature. If the butter is too warm, you’ll end up with a greasy buttercream that won’t hold its shape. If the butter is too cold, the buttercream won’t be light and fluffy! I’ll suggest using a stand mixer or an electric mixer to make buttercream because butter needs to be whipped for good five minutes till its light and airy. After around five minutes, your butter will lose its colour and almost double up in quantity. Now is when you can stop beating.
- Make sure you use icing sugar for this recipe! Any sugar other than icing sugar is not ground fine enough and you’ll end up with a grainy buttercream. The perfect buttercream should be glossy and smooth and should melt in the mouth. While coarsely ground sugar is the better option for dusting your brownies, you definitely do not want those sugar grains in your mouth while eating frosting! You can also find my favourite Vanilla bean buttercream frosting recipe.
- Sift the sugar– To ensure that the buttercream comes well together and is smooth and homogenous, it is imperative that you sift the sugar! Not only will it get rid of any thicker sugar crystals, it will make sure your buttercream is silky and not lumpy.
- To add that extra richness to your buttercream, you can add one tablespoon of double cream, whipping cream or even milk towards the end and give it a whisk. Any flavours or food colours can be added to the whipping cream at this point. Make sure you don’t add too much cream or liquid at this point because it may completely ruin the texture of your buttercream and you’ll be left with a soupy substance! I would advice adding gel colours and flavours instead of liquid ones to make sure the texture does not get affected.
- Buttercream is extremely forgiving. If you think your buttercream is becoming to greasy and sloppy, just pop it in the refrigerator for ten minutes and start whipping again. If it’s too tough, I like to use a hairdryer around my mixer bowl while whipping to bring up the temperature till it’s of perfect consistency!
Here are some frosting recipes you should checkout – Chocolate Fudge Frosting, Oreo Buttercream Frosting, Cream Cheese Frosting, Meringue Frosting
You can also make your buttercream in advance and store it for upto a week in the refrigerator and for upto a month in the freezer! Just take it out a while before using and whisk till it’s of the perfect consistency!
Happy Baking you guys!
Darshita says
Hi Shivesh! What brand of butter would you recommend for making buttercream frosting? Also, should one use salted or unsalted butter? Thanks in advance!
Shivesh says
Hello! I use regular salted amul butter to make my frostings 🙂
Yogameenakshi says
Hi Shivesh,
How can I stabilize my butter cream because of the hot Chennai climate its not stiff you do frosting. Please help with with that. How to do frosting in hot temperature days
Shivesh says
Hello, once your frosting is ready just let it rest in the fridge until it stabilizes and reaches the desired consistency.
Foram Shah says
Hello, when we make the butter cream frosting or even whipped cream in that matter, how do we maintain room temperature, as in should we make the frosting in air-conditioned room or how do we maintain the consistency in normal kitchen temperature
Mansi says
Hello Shivesh! I made the buttercream frosting with your recipe but it is grainy, so what do you suggest I should do?
Divya says
Hi shivesh can i use unsalted butter? I find butttercream too sweet….how can we make it little less sweeter?
Shraddha Kakade says
Hi Shivesh,
Why do we use warm cream for frosting ?? And can we use amul whipped cream for frosting
Bhumika says
Hi shivesh
Can you please let me know how can I make strawberry butter cream frosting.
Pooja says
Hello for a 8 or 9 inch cake how much sugar and butter do we need?