Buttercream Icing is a sweet and fluffy frosting very commonly used to decorate cakes and cookies as it handles color very well and hold its shape for decoration while remaining soft inside. It gets its name from the original recipe calling for creaming milk, icing sugar and vanilla and incorporating those ingredients to butter. A lot of variations of Buttercream icings exist nowadays, some of them not even containing dairy. If you have seen the name “Butter crème” on some of the baked goods you are purchasing, you might be thinking that the manufacturer is simply trying to sound fancy by using a French word. In reality, more often than not, the real reason is that there is no cream and or butter in their recipe at all, so they are not legally allowed to use the name Buttercream. Removing dairy from the formula has its advantages as it prolongs the shelf-life on store-bought cakes and cookies and allows for them to stay without refrigeration for extended periods of time, but it also takes away from the deliciousness of a real melt in your mouth Buttercream Icing.

We compiled some of our favorite Buttercream recipes below. If you have never tried real Buttercream, you are in for a treat.

 CLASSIC BUTTERCREAM RECIPE

Thick, fluffy and very sweet, this frosting is sometimes referred to as American Buttercream. It is very easy to make and a favorite for cake decorators as it is easier to color, pipe nicely and hold its shape.

Ingredients:

½ cup (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, softened

1 ½ cup Confectioners’ Sugar, shifted

2 Tbsp Whole Milk, room temperature

1 ½ tsp Vanilla Extract*

Chefmaster Liqua-Gel® food coloring (optional)

*Note: you can leave your Buttercream unflavored if desired or replace vanilla by another liquid flavor such as Lemon extract.

Tools & Utensils:

Measuring Cups & Spoons

Medium Bowl

Flour Shifter

Stand Mixer with a paddle attachment (or electric hand mixer)

Spatulas

Knife

Decorating pastry bags

Preparation:

1. Cut your butter into small squares (about ½ to ¾ inch) and set aside to soften.
2. Prepare and measure the rest of your ingredients.
3. Cream butter using the paddle attachment on medium-high speed until fluffy and white (speed 6-8 approx.)
4. Gradually add Confectioners’ Sugar (no more than ½ cup at the time) and continue beating on medium-high until fully incorporated.
5. Add Vanilla extract into your milk and mix with a spoon until evenly distributed.
6. Slowly pour Flavored Milk into mixer bowl and continue beating on medium-high until fully incorporated and smooth (approx. 3 to 5 minutes)
7. At this time, you can add Chefmaster Liqua-Gel Food coloring of your choice if desired and stir slowly until the color is evenly distributed and the icing is smooth.
8. Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container or decorating pastry bags leaving as little air as possible in contact with your icing to keep a crust from forming. If your container is too big, use plastic wrap to cover the surface of your Buttercream, smoothing out any air bubbles between your icing and the film).

Although the sugar is acting as a preservative and will allow your buttercream to sit at room temperature for up to 3 days it is better to store it in your refrigerator if you can. You can also freeze buttercream icing (colored or plain) for us to 3 months. Just remember to take it out in advance of the time you want to start decorating so it has the time to come back to room temperature and be soft and pliable to pipe.

 EUROPEAN STYLE BUTTERCREAM RECIPE

 You might have heard of various European types of buttercreams: Swiss Meringue Buttercream, Italian Meringue Buttercream, French Buttercream and so forth. They are all slightly different, but provides a lighter, softer, and often less sweet frosting than a traditional American Buttercream. The downside is that they use raw eggs, more advanced cooking techniques, uncommon tools like a candy thermometer and have a shorter shelf-life.

We truly enjoy the lighter and airiness of those types of buttercreams, but wanted to find a recipe accessible to beginners and with a similar shelf-life than classic Buttercreams. Therefore, our Chefs came up with this very easy to make and delicious European-style Buttercream recipe using Chefmaster Deluxe Meringue Powder, you can easily recreate the texture and taste of those more intricate recipes.

Ingredients:

2 cups (4 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened*

3/4 cup Granulated Sugar

1 lb. Powdered Sugar, shifted

¼ cup Chefmaster Deluxe Meringue Powder

¼ cup Water

Chefmaster Liqua-Gel® Whitener (optional)

Chefmaster Liqua-Gel® food coloring (optional)

*Note: European butter is preferred in this recipe as it has a higher content of butterfat, but it will give your frosting an off-white color. Adding some Chefmaster Liqua-Gel® Whitener in your icing will neutralize the yellow hues while giving you this enhanced mouthfeel.  

Tools & Utensils:

Measuring Cups & Spoons

Small saucepan

Flour Shifter

Stand Mixer with a paddle attachment

Spatulas

Knife

Decorating pastry bags

Preparation:

1. Cut your butter into small squares (about ½ to ¾ inch) and set aside to soften.
2. Prepare and measure the rest of your ingredients.
3. Bring your water to a boil in a small saucepan and pour your granulated sugar, stirring until fully dissolved.
4. Remove from heat and immediately pour into your mixer bowl.
5. Add your Meringue Powder and stir on slow until well-dispersed, then beat on medium-high until the mixture forms high peaks (speed 6 to 8 approx.).
6. Slowly add the shifted Powdered Sugar (no more than ½ cup at a time) and continue beating on medium-high until well-mixed.
7. Mix in your 2 cups of softened butter and beat until light and frosty.
8. At this time, you can flavor to taste and color with Chefmaster Liqua-Gel® food coloring if desired.
9. Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container or decorating pastry bags leaving as little air as possible in contact with your icing to keep a crust from forming. If your container is too big, use plastic wrap to cover the surface of your Buttercream, smoothing out any air bubbles between your icing and the film).

Your European-style frosting can remain unrefrigerated in an airtight container or tightly closed pastry bags for up to 3 days as long as the room temperature remains cool and dry. If not, please freeze or refrigerate. This soft buttercream is best to use to frost cake or as a filling for strawberry shortcakes or Swiss roll cakes for example. It will not hold its shape for piping and decorating better than traditional Swiss Meringue or Italian Meringue Buttercream, but not as well as our classic American buttercream.

 RUSSIAN BUTTERCREAM

 This buttercream might be one of the less known type of Buttercreams, but if you like your frosting easy to make, thick and slightly more on the sweet side this recipe is for you. Using only 2 ingredients (Butter and Sweetened Condensed Milk) this buttercream is surprisingly not too sweet and not to have a super heavy mouthfeel. It works great to frost or fill cakes and to pipe on the top of cupcakes, but will not allow you to do some intricate decorations. This type of buttercream is kind of an in-between American buttercream and European-style buttercream and is the easiest buttercream to make.

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

Chefmaster Liqua-Gel® Whitener (optional)

Chefmaster Liqua-Gel® food coloring (optional)

Tools & Utensils:

Measuring Cup

Knife

Stand Mixer with a whisk attachment

Can opener

Preparation:

1. Cut your butter into small squares (about ½ to ¾ inch) and set aside to soften.
2. Once your butter is soft, add it to the bowl of your mixer.
3. Beat butter on medium-low (speed 4 to 6 approx.) then on medium-high (speed 6 to 8 approx.) until fluffy and white.
4. Slowly pour content of the can of Sweetened Condensed Milk and continue beating on medium-high until smooth.
5. At this time, you can flavor to taste and color with Chefmaster Liqua-Gel® food coloring if desired.
6. Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container or decorating pastry bags leaving as little air as possible in contact with your icing to keep a crust from forming. If your container is too big, use plastic wrap to cover the surface of your Buttercream, smoothing out any air bubbles between your icing and the film).
7. As with the other recipes above you can keep this buttercream on your counter for up to 3 days in a cool and dry room. If not, please refrigerate. It is not recommended to freeze Russian Buttercream as Sweetened Condensed Milk as a tendency to separate when going through a freeze-thaw cycle.

Voila! Your 2-ingredients silky and smooth Russian Buttercream is ready to enjoy.