American Buttercream
Cake frosting has been a lifelong fascination of mine, odd as this may sound. Growing up, there was a Swiss bakery in town where most people bought their cakes, and the bakery used what I now know to be Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC). To add to the deliciousness they would cover the sides of the cake with slivered almonds. At birthday parties it was customary to serve the cake with a scoop of ice cream. Sheer heaven!
But not for me! It was very upsetting at the time that my own cakes were always frosted with a thin, sugary frosting, a type of glaze that only set on the top, instead of the rich frosting on my friends' cakes. This was because my father disliked what he called "greasy frostings", ie butter-based frosting.
And so for the rest of my life, I never shied away from rich buttercream frostings and enjoyed them probably all too frequently! Most baked goods you can buy are frosted with American Buttercream. Whether it be lemon flavored, coconut frosting, orange-flavored frosting, mocha, chocolate, strawberry, it's all good! There's also Cream Cheese frosting, which pairs so well with carrot cake for example, and there are several other kinds of frosting as well.
For a while in my earlier caking days I would use Swiss Meringue Buttercream because to me it's the best tasting. But it's more complicated to make, and I usually need two batches, so it's a lot of work. It also doesn't take color as well as American Buttercream. So in more recent years, I've reverted back to using American Buttercream for all my cakes. It really is better for piping and decorating.
Up to now I've used a basic recipe like this one from Preppy Kitchen. Basic, and gets the job done. Recently I've also used this recipe from Handle the Heat, which uses a bit less sugar. However, it also yields less frosting. But recently I've noticed having a harder time scraping the frosting to make a smooth coat, with the frosting becoming grainier, and instead of smoothing out actually coming off on the scraper. My house is usually on the colder side, and because you have to refrigerate the cake between the crumb coat and the final coat, I'd run into these issues. I was ending up having to heat the spatula every so often by dunking it in hot water in order to melt it a little bit, but this just wasn't ideal.
But now I think I've found a game-changing recipe, this one from Sugar and Sparrow. Here it is! Three specifications make the frosting from this recipe superior to those made with other recipes:
1. It tells you to beat the butter for 7 minutes. That's at least twice as long as every other recipe I've tried and it makes such a huge difference!
2. It tells you to incorporate the other ingredients at low speed. This prevents bubbles from forming!
3. It tells you to add milk or cream at room temperature. This was never specified in any other recipe, but it also contributes to the frosting coming out so great!
The frosting I made with this recipe was so much easier to apply and smooth out! This is the only buttercream recipe I'll be using from now on, so I might as well write it out:
Ingredients:
1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 1/2 cups (420 g) powdered sugar, sifted
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp whole milk or heavy whipping cream, room temperature
Instructions:
1. With mixer on medium-high, cream the butter for 7 minutes until it's creamy and light (almost white).
2. With the mixer on low, add sugar one cup at a time, scraping down and making sure it's incorporated before adding more.
3. Add vanilla, milk and salt with the mixer on low speed, beat for 1 minute until well incorporated.
And that's it! Simple and great and taking the stress out of making the frosting so you can get to the fun part - the decorating! - faster.
Thank you Sugar and Sparrow, a great recipe from a great blog that's never disappointed!
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