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With the right buttercream consistency you can achieve smooth frosting and neat piping on cakes
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and cupcakes. The perfect buttercream consistency really is the key to cake decorating so here are
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all of the do's and don'ts. You'll need a paddle or beater attachment to make buttercream, not a
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whisk. A stand mixer or a hand mixer is fine or just a bowl and a spatula if you're very strong
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and very patient. Okay here are my tips. Use room temperature butter so take it out of the fridge
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at least two hours before you use it. If you forget you can unwrap the butter and microwave
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it for 10 seconds, flip it over and microwave another 5 to 10 seconds until it's soft like this
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Beat it for a few minutes until it's smooth. Starting with smooth butter can help prevent
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lumps. Add icing sugar or powdered sugar, sifted to prevent lumps and graininess. If it feels like
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it's taking forever to sift and your arm gets tired you can use the handle of a spatula or
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wooden spoon to stir the sugar around in the sieve. I add half of the sugar at a time to the mixer so
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it doesn't explode out of my mixer when I turn it on and I cover my bowl with a towel to prevent a
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big cloud of sugary dust. Once the first half of the sugar is mixed in add the rest and mix again
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Always mix at the lowest speed because using a low speed prevents air bubbles in the buttercream
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If you use a whisk or a high speed you'll aerate the buttercream creating lots of air bubbles
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Add salt and vanilla for flavour and now add a few tablespoons of milk or cream, one spoonful at a
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time for richness and to thin the buttercream out slightly. Be careful with milk, too much will make
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the buttercream too runny and to thicken it you'll need to add more sugar. This buttercream has a
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stiff consistency which is great for piping that needs to hold its shape like petals on a rose for
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example. Do you see how stiff these peaks are? To ice or frost a cake you need the buttercream to
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have a looser consistency, less stiff, which means adding more milk until instead of stiff peaks the
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peaks of the buttercream droop over like this. If you see any grains of sugar in your buttercream
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or any tiny lumps you don't have to throw it all away and start again. Instead use an immersion
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blender to blitz it to remove any icing sugar lumps. Any liquid you add to the buttercream will
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affect the consistency so add any liquid colour or flavour and then stir the buttercream to knock
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out any air bubbles. Now do a final consistency check and if the buttercream is still too stiff
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or if there are any air bubbles in it use this microwave hack. Scoop a third of the buttercream
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into a microwave safe bowl and microwave it for 10 seconds then pull this back into the main
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bowl of frosting and stir it all together. Your buttercream will be silky smooth, the perfect
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consistency for frosting a cake and with no air bubbles. So do use room temperature butter, don't
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use lumpy sugar, sift it. Do mix the buttercream for several minutes until it's really smooth but
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don't use a high speed, stick to the lowest. Do thin the buttercream out with milk or the microwave
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hack or both but don't overdo it with too much milk or too long in the microwave. Do remove any
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air bubbles by stirring the buttercream with a spatula or using the microwave hack or both. Tell
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me in the comments if this has been useful and to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques
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and designs visit my cake school on britishgirlbakes.com. See you there
