how to make buttercream?
Buttercream is one of the most important elements of a delicious cake. Buttercream can be found in various types of cakes, such as cupcakes, sponge cakes, butter cakes, and other desserts. Either it is treated as filling, coating, or only as decoration of the cake, buttercream holds and play important role that determines the visual, as well as the taste of the cake. You can add colorings and flavorings to the buttercream, to enhance the palatability as well as the attractiveness of your cake; for example by adding chocolate, fruit purees, or various extract. To determine the characteristic of buttercream, choice of ingredient as well as the technique and how you make the buttercream will hold very important roles.
Choice of fats as main ingredients for how to make buttercream
To choose the right kind of fat is very important in buttercream manufacturing, as it will affect the stability of buttercream as a frosting. In some often cases, vegetable shortening is sometimes added as additional fat source for better consistency and to increase the resistance to heat. Two of the most common source of fat is butter and margarine. Butter is more common to be used, and it provides a more delicate texture as well as better flavor and mouthfeel / texture when it is compared with other fat source such as vegetable shortening. However, it is more difficult to use butter as it melts at a lower temperature. In term of color, the butter is a little bit appears as off-white in the final product of buttercream as frosting. Hydrogenated vegetable shortenings and margarine have been also used as popular ingredients to produce buttercream as icing, as they are cheaper and have higher stability at room temperature. The disadvantage of using margarine is the fact that it does not have a melting property as good as butter. Margarine also resulted in less intense flavor of the buttercream. In the case of hydrogenated vegetable oils are used, the health concern is raised since it contains high amount of trans fats. Therefore, to choose a right kind of fat will be depending on the intended characteristic of buttercream desired.
Choice of flavorings as addition for how to make buttercream
To give unique taste of your cake, you can apply some flavorings during how to make buttercream. The most common flavor to be added into buttercream is vanilla and chocolate. It is need to be considered to add cocoa powder or melted chocolate during the creaming stage or towards the end to produce chocolate buttercreams. Vanilla extract can be added if you are intending to make light-colored buttercream. Other extracts such as almond or peppermint can also be added. Finely citrus zest or juice with sugar syrup can be added for meringue-based or French type buttercreams. In any buttercreams, food coloring can be added to produce buttercream with attractive color, therefore it is important to know how to make buttercream.
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What is and how to make buttercream?
If you are a cook, or at least enjoy cooking in your spare time, you should have recognized the term buttercream, and you want to know how to make buttercream. Well, some people are referring buttercream as butter icing or mock cream; and they are basically the same. Buttercreams are mostly used as icing or filling, used inside cakes as a layer, as a coating of the cake, or as decoration of the cake. Basically, buttercreams are made out of butter which is creamed with powdered sugar. Other than butter, margarine and lard can be used as fat source. In the process of buttercreams making, colorings and flavorings are often added, in form of chocolate, fruit purees, or various extract. The types of cakes which are commonly decorated or use buttercreams as topping are cupcakes, sponge cakes, butter cakes, and other desserts.
The types of meringue based and how to make buttercream
One of the most popular buttercreams is meringue based buttercream. The characteristic of meringue based buttercream are light and creamy in texture and balanced between sweetness as well as richness. Due to these characteristics, they are often used as icing and to decorate cakes. There are various types of buttercreams, and one of them is meringue based buttercream. There are three types of meringue based buttercream; which are Italian meringue and Swiss meringue which are cooked, and French version which is uncooked. In all of these three types of meringue based buttercream, butter and flavorings in form of extracts or oil are beaten into the meringue based in order to transform the meringue into buttercream.
How to make buttercream that is meringue based
To make Italian meringue, sugar and water (sometimes with the addition of glucose or corn syrup to stabilize the crystal structure of sugar syrup) are heated to the soft-ball stage (around 115oC, 240oF), which is mixed with egg whites; and the mixture is whipped until soft peaks are reached. The heat from sugar syrup cooks egg whites, enable to heat it up over 60oC (140oF) to kill off Salmonella and any other potentially harmful bacteria. The mixture is then later being whipped until the temperature cools down to about 38oC (100oF).
On the other hand, Swiss meringue for meringue based buttercream is prepared by cooking up the sugar with egg whites in a bowl placed on a pot of boiling water. The mixture should be whisked properly until the temperature of the mixture reaches around 60oC. Then, the mixture should be cooled down and then whipped at high speed until stiff peaks are formed and the temperature is cooled down to get a good Swiss meringue.
The third type of meringue for meringue based buttercream is not cooked, and is referred as French meringue. To make it, the mixture of egg whites, cream of tartar, and caster sugar is mixed until the mixture becomes stiff, glossy peaks are formed. Concern upon microbiological quality is brought into question since the mixture is not cooked; however it is still used as base for buttercream in other countries, so know how to make buttercream.
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Buttercream is one of the important aspects of the cakes, so it is important to learn how to make Buttercream. When the cakes that you baked appear to be unappealing, you can save it by coating it by using some Buttercreams. Buttercream can also be used to apply some unique flavor, especially if the flavor is vulnerable towards heat; e.g. the flavor that will dissipate when the cake is being baked. By adding some flavorings as well as food colorings, the taste of the Buttercreams, as well as the cakes, can be modified. Therefore, it might be useful to learn several Buttercreams recipe; especially if you treat baking cakes as one of your hobbies.
How to make Buttercream icing
It is better to learn how to make basic Buttercream icing. Start by preparing ingredients, which include 1 cup of butter or margarine, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1 cup of milk, 6 tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, as well as 1 ½ tablespoon of cocoa (if you want to make chocolate icing instead of vanilla one). Start by cooking the milk and flour until the mixture becomes thick that you cannot stir the mixture. Let it cools down. While waiting, cream the mixture of butter and sugar (and cocoa, if you decide to make chocolate Buttercream icing) until you reach very creamy product. Add the mixture of milk and flour with vanilla. Beat the mixture until the mixture becomes thick and creamy (this will take around 4 or 5 minutes).
How to make Buttercream
To make basic French Buttercream, prepare 1 cup of sugar, 3 tablespoons of corn syrup, ½ cup of water, 3 eggs, 1 pinch of salt, as well as 1 pound butter as source of fat. To make basic French Buttercream, starts by mixing sugar, corn syrup, as well as water in a saucepan and cook it in high heat. While you are waiting for the mixture to cook, beat the combination of eggs and salt until they reach fluffy texture. If your mixture is reaching boiling condition and all the sugars are dissolved, pour them over the beat eggs. Cut the butter into cubical forms, and add them to the mixture of beaten egg and sugar syrup when its temperature reaches lukewarm condition. Add the butter slowly, and while doing that continue to beat the mixture until fluffy and smooth texture of the Buttercream is achieved. You can use any flavorings you want; and two of the most popular flavorings which might go well with any types of the cakes are chocolate and vanilla flavors.
How to make Buttercream frosting
To make Buttercream frosting, start to prepare 1 pound of confectioners’ sugar, ½ cup of butter (softened), 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 3 tablespoons of milk, and food coloring if you like to color your Buttercream frosting. Beat sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk in a large bowl until the mixture is smooth. Add more milk until frosting achieves spreading consistency if it is necessary. In this step, you can add food coloring if you wish, and stir to blend it. That is how to make Buttercream.
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Buttercream, which is also known as butter icing, or mock cream, is a type of filling and icing which is used inside cakes; may it be for coating or as decoration to cover the cakes. Cakes such as cupcakes, sponge cakes, butter cakes, and other desserts are the types of cake which use buttercream as topping. The main ingredients of buttercream are butter (which is creamed) and powdered sugar. Other types of fats such as margarine and lard can be used as well in replacement of butter. Colorings and flavorings such as chocolate and fruit purees are often added to give specific taste, aroma, and appearance of the buttercream. From this reading you will learn how to make buttercream.
How to Make Butter Cream: Basic Vanilla
Basic vanilla buttercream is the simplest buttercream, which is the basic recipe to make other types of buttercream. The ingredients to make vanilla buttercream are mixer, butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Start to mix powdered sugar and vanilla in proportion of how much you will need the buttercream. In general, the proportion of ingredients in the recipe should consist of three cups of powdered sugar, 1/3 cup of butter, 1 ½ tablespoon of vanilla extract, as well as 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk. You should leave the butter for a while in room temperature to let it soft so it will blend well to the mixture and produce smooth and creamy texture of the buttercream. Then, mix the powdered sugar and vanilla with butter using the lowest setting of your mixer. It might require some time before a smooth blend can be obtained. To get a spreadable consistency, you can sprinkle small amounts of milk as you blend the ingredients using the mixer. Do not add too much, as it will result in thin buttercream. If this happens, you should add more powdered sugar to increase the thickness.
How to Make Butter Cream: Italian Meringue
Italian meringue buttercream is one popular variation of buttercream, which is the lighter and fluffier version of the frosting with less sweetness in comparison with vanilla buttercream. The ingredients required should be in proportion of 1 ¼ cups sugar, 2/3 cup water, 5 pasteurized eggs white, pinch of cream of tartar, 4 sticks of unsalted butter, and 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract. Start by boiling water with sugar until the temperature reaches 238 F degrees. Meanwhile, place egg whites in the bowl of stand mixer and beat it using low speed until foamy structure is obtained. Then, add cream of tartar and beat it in medium-high speed until it becomes stiff but not dry. Avoid overbeating it. While beating the cream, add syrup from the pot using high speed until the mixture is no longer steaming (around 3 minutes). Add the butter little by little until it is spreadable and mix the vanilla in; and continue beating until it is smooth.
How to Make Butter Cream: Variations
To make variations of buttercream, simple recipe of vanilla buttercream can be modified. For example, lemon buttercream can be made by substituting vanilla with lemon juice, added with grated lemon peel. To make mocha buttercream, substitute vanilla with ½ teaspoon of instant coffee in 1 ½ teaspoon of water or milk. To make Irish cream buttercream, simply substitute vanilla with small amount of Irish Cream.
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