If you're a fan of baking cakes, then chances are you love frosting cakes. Though frosting is commonly used to decorate cakes, there's so much more to it than meets the eye. Frosting can be used to coat crumbs and create a smooth cake surface as a way to hold cake layers together, and it can even be used to level your cake when things go a bit awry. While there are many different kinds of frosting, one of the most popular is homemade buttercream, classic buttercream frosting to be exact.
Making buttercream frosting for the first time can be a bit tricky. We've called in our Bob's Red Mill cake experts and asked them all of the commonly asked questions we usually get about classic buttercream frosting. With their help, we've created a step-by-step guide on how to make buttercream frosting. Read this article if you're interested in making homemade frosting, and save it to review later. Let's dive in!
How to Make Buttercream Frosting
Step 1: Have the Right Baking Tools
As with any kind of baking, it's extremely important that you have the correct tools when making frosting. The right tools make buttercream frosting a whole lot easier. Plus, they help ensure accuracy when baking and decorating a cake.
Tools for Making Buttercream Frosting
Bowls
Make sure you have clean bowls on hand before beginning to make homemade buttercream frosting. While any bowl will do, we recommend staying away from plastic bowls if possible. Because many buttercream icing recipes hold a strong flavor, plastic is not ideal as it can retain flavors and odors over time. Additionally, if you use plastic bowls with previously soaked ingredients like salt, oil, water and grease, it could seep into your recipe, causing it to turn out incorrectly.
When making buttercream, glass bowls work much better than plastic. However, you'll want to be wary of using glass bowls if your buttercream recipe calls for heated ingredients. Adding hot ingredients to a glass bowl could cause it to crack or retain heat—neither of which is beneficial to your buttercream recipe.
To avoid difficulties when making buttercream, use stainless steel bowls. Odor-free, stainless steel bowls won't hold onto heat as a glass bowl will. Instead, they will leave you with a great-looking and tasting buttercream.
Stand Mixer
Making buttercream requires a bit of mixing, and if you’re mixing by hand, you'll likely tire pretty quickly. Invest in a stand mixer. Not only will you be able to use this stand mixer to make the frosting, but you can also use it for baking the cake from scratch as well.
Whisk
When making homemade recipes, it's essential to follow the instructions carefully. In many buttercream recipes, some ingredients don't require much mixing at all. This is when you'll want to have a whisk handy. A much more gentle method to mixing baked goods, a whisk also doubles as a bowl scraper.
Spatula
A spatula is incredibly helpful when it comes to making buttercream frosting and decorating a cake. Use a spatula to fluff frosting up or spread the freshly made frosting on the surface of cakes, cookies and muffins.
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Baking is a science, and when making any recipe, all ingredients must be adequately measured. Invest in the right baking tools and purchase measuring cups for both wet and dry ingredients. Doing so will ensure that all of the ingredients in the buttercream frosting recipe are measured accurately.
Piping Bags and Decorating Tops
If you're using homemade buttercream frosting to decorate a cake, then we recommend purchasing a few piping bags and decorating tips. Having these tools on hand will make decorating baked treats much easier. Plus, once you get the hang of it, you can begin to create intricate designs.
Step 2: Choose Quality Ingredients
Now that you have the proper tools, it's time to invest in the right ingredients. When making a Classic Buttercream Frosting recipe, you want to make it right. When heading to the grocery store to purchase frosting ingredients, make sure what you buy is quality. Buttercream has a rich taste, and when the right ingredients are used, the flavor will really stand out.
This is especially so when purchasing butter. Because butter is the main ingredient in buttercream, it's essential to use the right one. If you want to create creamy, great-tasting buttercream, use high-quality butter and make sure it's unsalted butter, as opposed to using salted butter. Using unsalted butter puts you in control of the amount of butter in the recipe, ensuring you don't end up with too salty of a taste.
Step 3: Get to Know Classic Buttercream
A great place to start when baking any treat is by reading the recipe a few times through. Not only will this help guarantee that you have all of the ingredients and tools needed, but it also allows you to work on any baking skills that you might not have fully mastered.
There are several varieties of buttercream icing, from American buttercream frosting, French buttercream, Swiss meringue buttercream and so on, the classic buttercream is the most commonly used. It's the sweetest of all the frosting variations and creates a familiar taste that you likely grew up enjoying as a child. Classic buttercream presents a light and fluffy consistency that works well when decorating countless baked goods.
Step 4: Begin Making Buttercream Frosting
You have the right tools and purchased quality ingredients; now it's time to choose which buttercream recipe to make. Finding the right buttercream recipe is an integral part of making the perfect vanilla buttercream, and you'll want to find a recipe that you enjoy. A classic buttercream recipe that's easy to make and taste great makes this Easy Buttercream Frosting. Made with just four ingredients-powdered sugar, vanilla extract, softened butter and milk/heavy cream it's the ideal recipe for novice and advanced bakers alike. Its fluffy yet durable texture makes it suitable for decorating cakes and cookies. When making this vanilla buttercream recipe, follow the steps above to ensure success.
Flavoring Buttercream Frosting
It's no surprise that the classic vanilla buttercream frosting is the traditional flavor. Usually made with vanilla extract, classic buttercream tastes excellent with nearly every dessert recipe. Chocolate buttercream frosting is also another classic you can make by adding cocoa powder. But what about the times when you want to spice things up a bit? Changing the flavor of buttercream is easy! Swap out the vanilla extract for something a bit more exciting, like peppermint, citrus or lavender. Remember that a bit of flavor goes a long way, and if you're not following a specific recipe, it's best to start small. While you can always add more flavor to buttercream, it's nearly impossible to take it out.
Here are a few dessert recipes that we love featuring flavored buttercream:
Coloring Buttercream
Want to switch things up even more and change the color of buttercream? We say, go for it! Just like flavoring buttercream, switching up the color is incredibly easy. However, when adding color to the buttercream, there is one rule: steer clear of liquid food dyes. Adding liquid food coloring to buttercream can mess with the structure of the frosting itself. Instead, use gel food coloring to tint the frosting. When using gel food coloring, it's important to note that the color darkens over time. Add color in and give the buttercream about thirty minutes to settle. The color should have deepened by then, and you can determine if you'd like to add more or not.
Step 5: Frosting Your Dessert
Now that you've made the perfectly flavored and colored buttercream, it's time actually to use it! Choose a dessert recipe that you love and think would pair well with your buttercream. This Gluten Free Confetti Cake is one of our favorites and will have everyone who bites into it smiling. Or, if you'd prefer to decorate cookies, try out these Lemon Sugar Cookies. When decorating with buttercream, we recommend using a piping bag. To use this decorating tool, fill the bag with buttercream, apply a bit of pressure and squeeze from the top of the piping bag. Hold the bag at about 90 degrees above the dessert and begin frosting!
Step 6: Storing Buttercream
If, after decorating your dessert, you're left with some extra buttercream, don't throw it out. Instead, store it for later use. There are a few ways that you can keep buttercream to ensure it remains fresh. If you plan on using the buttercream within a couple of hours, then it's fine to store it at room temperature for the time being. However, if you plan on using it later on in the week, place the buttercream in an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator. Once you're ready to use it, re-whip it before piping and frosting desserts. Buttercream stored in the fridge will remain fresh for about five days. Want to keep buttercream for even longer? Store it in the freezer! Before using frozen buttercream, let it thaw at room temperature overnight, or place it in the fridge for a few hours. Once the buttercream has fully thawed, re-whip and start frosting!
And there you have it. The ultimate guide to making classic buttercream frosting. So the next time you need to frost a birthday cake, you'll have this recipe on the ready. We hope that the step-by-step instructions above help you create your best buttercream yet. We can't wait to hear about the many beautiful desserts and buttercreams that you come up with. From everyone at Bob's Red Mill, happy baking!
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