Making buttercream icing is one of the things that as a baker, you need to know and if you have ever made cupcakes then you’ve probably come across this icing. Buttercream icing is incredibly popular and a staple for baked goods. For a basic buttercream, there are three ingredients that you are going to need have room temperature butter, sifted icing sugar and milk.
Place the butter in a medium-sized mixing bowl or a stand mixer then start beating the butter for about 5 minutes. The butter needs to be light and airy, it will double in size and lose colour, scrap don the bowl during the beating process to make sure everything in the bowl is well beaten. Once you are done, yo now want to add your icing sugar. Make sure your icing sugar is well sifted to make sure there are no clumps.
Add your icing sugar for a minute in between each addition so they can be well combined. The buttercream should start to get a lot thicker to beat in the icing when you are almost finishing adding your icing sugar and that is where our milk comes in. Depending on what you are using the buttercream for depends on what consistency you want.
If you are piping, you most likely would use a thinner consistency than if you were just spreading it. Add the milk a teaspoon at a time, mixing until you have the consistency you want. At this point is also where you add the flavouring or colourings, once you are done adding whatever you want, continue beating the buttercream until it is nice and smooth.
Once done, place the piping tip into the piping bag and fold the bag over so it’s a lot easier to fill up. Fill the bag to three-quarter full and twist the top to seal and you are ready to pip. Alternatively, you can just use a knife to spread the icing onto the cupcakes or a cake that you want to ice.
Ingredients;
- 1 Cup, 250g Butter
- 3 Cups | 375g Powdered Sugar
- 1 | 5ml Teaspoon Vanilla
- 2 | 30ml Tablespoons Milk
Instructions;
- Add the butter to a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer and beat for 5 minutes until light, pale and doubled in volume.
- Gradually add the sugar ½ cup at a time beating well in between each addition.
- Once all of the sugar has been incorporated add the vanilla and milk and beat until you reach the desired consistency.
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