Buttercream is a simple cake topping made with butter and icing sugar to create a delicious fluffy and sweet topping.
It can be used on cupcakes and cakes and can be flavoured however you like as well as coloured.
The recipe notes on BBC Good Food said: “Use this simple buttercream icing recipe to decorate your birthday cakes, cupcakes and sandwich biscuits.
“Try adding a little food colouring gel for a splash of colour to your butter icing.”
This recipe makes enough buttercream to fill one medium cake, six cupcakes or 12 fairy cakes.
Ingredients:
140g butter, softened
280g icing sugar
One to two tablespoons of milk
A quarter teaspoon of vanilla extract
A few drops of food colouring, optional
Method:
1. Start by beating the butter in a large bowl until soft, adding half of the icing sugar and beating until smooth.
2. Add in the remaining icing sugar and one tablespoon of the milk along with the vanilla, beating until creamy and smooth.
3. Beat in the remaining milk, if necessary, to help loosen the mixture. Stir in the food colouring if using to combine.
Gel colours work much better with buttercream icing than liquid food colouring because they give more colour without making the buttercream sloppy.
If you fancy extra silky buttercream, swap the milk for double cream, or use a mix of both.
The recipe notes added: “Make sure your cake is cold before adding buttercream icing. Any residual heat will melt the butter in your icing and make it difficult to work with or even melt completely and slip off your cake.”
Buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. It will harden in the cold, so when you’re ready to use it, bring it to room temperature and then briefly whip again until light and fluffy.”
