Foolproof Frosting: Easy Buttercream Icing

As promised, to go with the Foolproof Basic Cupcake Recipe, here’s my recipe for easy buttercream icing.

This is the simplest way to get that lovely, light whipped cupcake frosting and it’s never gone wrong!

What you’ll need:

This quantity will yield enough to cover the quantity listed in my Basic Cupcake Recipe; approximately 12-14 standard sized cupcakes, and about 30 mini cupcakes.

100 softened butter (unsalted, if possible)

150g icing sugar

1 tablespoon hot water

1/2 teaspoon good quality vanilla essence

Equipment:

A bowl

A wooden spoon or spatula

A handheld electric whisk, balloon whisk or freestanding electric mixer with whisk attachment

Step One:

Put the butter in your mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon for a minute or so until really soft.

Then, using your electric or handheld whisk, beat it for two minutes until fluffy.

Step Two:

Add your icing sugar, and whisk in carefully – you might want to give it a stir into the butter first to avoid having an icing sugar explosion in the kitchen!

Now, add the hot water and vanilla essence and whisk on high speed for at least three to four minutes – the longer you whisk it for, the lighter and fluffier your buttercream will be.

Around five minutes is ideal!

Step Three:

If you are colouring your buttercream (the example here is pale pink), add a couple of drops of natural food colouring of your choice to the mixture, and beat for another minute or so until the colour is even and thoroughly incorporated.

If you are icing your cakes immediately, your buttercream is ready to use straight away! If not, it will keep happily in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week.

See you tomorrow.

Love,

Jessy xxx

Do you have any questions you’d like answered? Ever wondered how to make a bed properly, how to cook easy bread from scratch, how to make the perfect cake, how to get tough stains out easily and quickly? My friends, I am rubbish at many things but due to a strange addiction to Mrs Beeton in my early teens and a very accomplished group of friends and family, I have access to a fairly sizeable amount of domestic knowledge. Test me – send me your domestic conundrums and we will see what we can do!