How To Make The Perfect Buttercream Frosting

Buttercream is a perfect accessory to any cake or bake, due to it's versatility when it comes to colouring and flavouring it. There are several variations of buttercream, from a simple butter and sugar mix, to the more complex and delicate meringue based buttercreams, which use various methods of mixing beaten egg whites with sugar or sugar syrup, then beating in the butter. These are known as Italian, Swiss and French meringue buttercreams, and each has a slightly different preparation method to create a slightly different taste and texture. 

This post however is about the most commonly found buttercream recipe in English dishes. It is made up of butter and icing sugar, generally in a 1:2 parts ratio, and can be used to decorate cupcakes, fill and cover cakes, or form the integral layer between a cake and its fondant covering. The recipe is simple enough, but I believe there is a knack to the preparation of buttercream in order to turn it from sickly sweet butter, into a smooth, light, creamy cake topping. A smooth, well prepared buttercream will be easy to pipe, without leaving raggedy edges and air bubbles. 

Vanilla Cupcakes with a pure Vanilla Buttercream

The ingredients here make enough buttercream to top six large cupcakes, or fill and top an eight inch cake. The basic ratio is one part butter to two parts icing sugar, so you can multiply up these quantities as much as you need to for your bake. 

Ingredients

100 grams good quality unsalted butter

200 grams icing sugar

a little milk

Variations

Buttercream can be coloured and/ or flavoured to suit the overall look and taste of your cakes and cupcakes. 

A selection of cakes and cupcakes I have decorated with buttercream

Flavouring your buttercream should be done around halfway through the process. You can add a dash of an extract, such as vanilla, rose water, peppermint, or lavender. For a more citrus flavour, grate the zest of an orange, lemon or lime into the mixture, or for a chocolate buttercream, swap out some of the icing sugar for a high quality cocoa powder such as Green and Blacks. You can flavour buttercream even with liquids, such as champagne or coffee. The important thing to remember if you are adding a liquid is to increase the quantity of icing sugar by double the volume of the liquid, so as not to alter the final consistency, and to incorporate them gently so as not to curdle or split the buttercream. 

Equally you can colour buttercream in any shade you should wish. It will naturally be a slightly off-white colour, however if you prepare it well, it will be as good as white to the eye. When using food colouring, always try to use a gel based colour, as they will not alter the consistency of your buttercream. If you do use a liquid food colour, remember to add an extra tablespoon of icing sugar to balance out the additional liquid. 

Method

Sift the icing sugar well into a bowl and set aside. 

In a large mixing bowl, add the butter roughly chopped into several chunks. Use a good quality unsalted butter here, as you will get a far superior flavour to using a spread containing vegetable oils. I always cook with salted butter, however to keep the lightness use unsalted here, plus you don't get the salt taste interfering with any additional flavour you add. I always use Lurpak for my buttercream, as I trust the taste, and it's lighter colour allows you to get an almost white buttercream. 

Now, take a hand whisk, and beat the butter for a minute...

...and another minute - can you see it getting lighter in colour? ...

...and one more - it should now have the appearance of whipped double cream, and be almost white...

Now we start to add the icing sugar. Retrieve the bowl of sifted icing sugar you set aside earlier. Now add the icing sugar two tablespoons at a time. Any more than this, and you will be engulfed in a white cloud of sugar as soon as you turn your whisk on!

Keep going now, adding a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar, beating until combined, and then adding a little more. About halfway through the icing sugar, add your flavouring if you are using one, this makes sure it gets fully combined through the buttercream.

Continue with the icing sugar until it has all been used. As you add more and more sugar, the mixture will start to thicken and get stiffer. By the time you have added all the icing sugar, the mixture may have formed a texture similar in appearance to scrambled eggs...

... carefully add a teaspoon of milk, and beat well. This is usually enough to bring the mixture back to the perfect piping consistency. If needed, add a second teaspoon of milk, but be careful as too much and the mixture may start to curdle. Your buttercream should now look like this...

If you are adding a colour to the buttercream, do it at this stage. Any earlier, and you risk diluting the colour as you add more icing sugar. Adding the colour to the finished product allows you to get exactly the right shade for your cake or cupcakes. 

Now you are ready to ice your cake. If you are planning to pipe the buttercream, prepare your piping bag and tip. Open the top of the bag wide, and fold over a good third of the bag. Use a mug or jug as a holder for your bag so you still have the use of both hands. 

Spoon the buttercream into the bag one spoonful at a time, each time, push the buttercream down into the bag, and use the side to scrape the spoon clean. Try to keep pushing more buttercream down into the bag to avoid creating any pockets of air in the bag that will affect the flow when piping. 

And now you are ready to pipe! Enjoy!

Hot Cross Buns

For the last three years now I have been perfecting Hot Cross Buns for Easter. It has taken me that long to get the recipe, ingredients, and technique right, and I have experienced a huge amount of disappointment, tears, and muscle burn from the constant kneading but I stand before you now, slightly dishevelled and covered in flour, with I believe the best recipe, and a few hints and tips that I hope will make your Hot Cross Bun journey a little less bumpy. And, I can promise, once you have tasted home-made, you will never buy shop-bought again... (apologies to Jonathan Warburton for the decline in sales next year...)

Hot Cross Buns

Having said all this, I have made a couple of substitutions today when making these up for this post, simply because of necessity. Normally I make these with orange zest, and a mixture of cranberries and sultanas, today, because of what I had in the house, they are made with lemon zest (as we had some leftovers from Gary making Lemon Chicken earlier in the week) and a mixture of sultanas and mixed peel, as that was what was in the cupboard. I guess really you can use whatever dried fruit you fancy, however I strongly recommend adding the cranberries if you get the chance. My sultanas were a little on the dry side, so I pepped them up before I started baking by soaking them in cold tea, and then draining them on a sheet of kitchen towel. 

Now, I do not profess to be an expert in anything bread related, in fact I am eagerly awaiting Paul Hollywood's new series (starting 18th March BBC2) to try once and for all to master the craft, however, my Grandpa was born and bread (sorry, bad pun) a baker, and I have picked up all my hints and tips from him along the way, and they have never failed to make baking easier for me...

Ingredients

• 1 and a half teaspoons fast action yeast
• 625 grams strong white bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons mixed spice
• 45 grams unsalted butter
• 85 grams caster sugar
• the zest of one orange (or lemon!)
• 1 egg
• 275 ml tepid milk
• 125 grams dried fruit (recommend sultanas and cranberries, however use any dried fruit to suit tastes)
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon orange blossom honey (you could use any honey or golden syrup)

Method

1. Tip: Get a head start on the yeast. Put one and a half teaspoons of dried fast action yeast into a small dish, and add a teaspoon of warm water, and a teaspoon of the milk. Mix well to form a paste and set aside. This allows the yeast to start to ferment straight away, before you add it to the dough. 

2. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl, and add the salt and mixed spice. Mix well. 

3. Chop the butter into small cubes, and add to the flour. Using you fingers, rub the butter into the flour to create a fine breadcrumb like texture. 

4. Add the orange zest (or lemon), the caster sugar, and the yeast. Try to add the yeast on top of the sugar. Mix them all well through the mixture. 

5. Make a well in the centre of the flour. Beat the egg lightly, and add to the well. Start mixing into the flour, and gradually add the tepid milk (I tend to blast my milk in the microwave for 5-10 seconds to bring it up to temperature). 

6. Mix the liquids into the flour mixture until a dough starts to form. At this point, it's time to get your hands dirty. Put down the wooden spoon, and bring the dough together with your hands, working in any dry bits of flour mixture that might be left. 

7. Empty the dough out of the bowl, and onto a lightly oiled work-surface. Most recipes dictate a floured work surface, however using oil instead prevents getting additional unnecessary flour worked into the dough, and yet still prevents the dough sticking to the surface. You only need the smallest amount of oil though. 

8. As you start to knead the dough, work in the mixed fruit a handful at a time. 

9. Knead the dough well. This will take around 15 minutes to achieve the required texture. I tend to knead in a V shape, alternating hands, and pushing the dough out with the palm of my hand, and then pulling it back in to the centre. You need (knead - oh gosh another bread pun) to find a method and a rhythm that suits you, as it does take time. I have tried to master Paul Hollywood's method of kneading, but it just doesn't work for me like the V pattern. 

10. The dough is ready when it takes on an elastic-y texture, is shiny, and when you pinch it it springs back to it's original shape. Tip: You can never over-knead bread - but you can under-knead. Make sure that your dough meets these three tests. If it doesn't, keep kneading until it does. (There is a point about 10 minutes in when you think it will never happen, but keep going, it all comes together quite quickly in the end). 

 11. Take a large, clean bowl, and oil it with a little vegetable oil. Place the ball of dough in the bowl, and then cover with clingfilm, also oiled on the underside. The oil prevents the dough from sticking to the clingfilm, and collapsing when it is removed. 

12. Put the bowl is a warm place for the dough to prove. If you are lucky, you may have an aga to place your bowl on. If you are luckier still you may have a super new oven with a proving drawer built in. I have neither of these things. I have tried little places all over the house for years to find the best places to prove my dough. Now I turn my oven on low, and put my dough in the (turned off) grill compartment above with the door open. Works a bloomin' treat I tell you! 

13. Leave the dough to prove for at least one hour, and until the dough has doubled in size. It should look a little like this... If the dough hasn't doubled, leave it to prove until it has, otherwise you will end up with hard, stodgy buns at the end. 

14. Tip the dough back out onto the work surface and knock it back. Start by pressing down on the dough with the back of your fists to press the air out, then re-knead the dough for 5 minutes as before. 

15. Shape the dough back into a ball, and place it back in the oiled bowl. Cover with the clingfilm again, and return to the 'warm place'. Leave to prove again for around 30 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size again. 

16. Lightly oil two baking trays, and set to one side. Take the proven dough and turn it out onto the work surface. Take a knife, and cut the dough into 12 evenly sized pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, and place on the oiled tray, 6 pieces to each tray. Leave around 1 - 2 cm between each ball, they will grow a little more and join together. 

17. Loosely wrap each tray in greaseproof paper, then place in a plastic carrier bag and tie the bag tightly so no air can get to the dough. Return the trays to the warm place and leave again to rise for around 45 minutes. (There is a lot of waiting to prove in making Hot Cross Buns. Bear with them, they will be worth it I promise).

18. In a small pot, mix two tablespoons of flour with two tablespoons of water to make a smooth paste. The paste should be fluid, but thick enough to retain it's shape when piped. Transfer the paste to a piping bag. Turn your oven up to 200 degrees.

19. Take the trays out, and remove the bags and greaseproof paper. Using the flour paste, pipe crosses across each of the buns. 

20. Put the buns in the oven. Bake for around 10 minutes until they are a golden brown colour all over. They should make a dull hollow sound when tapped. 

21. Remove the Hot Cross Buns from the oven, and transfer from the tray to a cooling rack. Heat the honey immediately (a couple of seconds in the microwave will make it runny enough) and brush over the still hot buns with a pastry brush. Leave the buns to cool completely. 

And there you have it - 12 gorgeous, sticky, sweet and fruity Hot Cross Buns, to impress your nearest and dearest. Toast them, butter them, and sit down with a large mug of tea to bask in their glory. Just be warned, they will disappear so quickly that you will be back at Step 1 again before you know it! 

I am entering these Hot Cross Buns into this month's Calendar Cakes run by Rachel at Dolly Bakes, and Laura at Laura Loves Cakes - Laura is hosting this month, and you can find the full challenge here. The theme is Easter Extravaganza. 

Microphone Cupcakes: A How To Guide

Microphone Cupcakes

Yesterday I uploaded a post about my cousin's birthday party, where I made her a One Direction cake, and a batch of these microphone design cupcakes. I mentioned that I had a few troubles along the way, and I wanted to share with you all a step by step how I made these, and a few things I would do differently next time. 

To make these sparkly little treats, you will need the following;

- A good quality sponge cake batter
- Ice cream cup cones (the ones with the flat bottoms)
- Edible silver spray - I used Dt Oetker's Shimmer Spray in silver, from Tesco
- Plenty of kitchen roll
- Buttercream frosting
- Coloured sugar crystals - I used silver and pink here, but would have preferred black (my local shop was out of stock)
- Liquorice and/or strawberry laces
- A skewer
- A small amount of royal icing in a piping bag

So, to start, we bake the cupcakes in the ice cream cones. I love this method for two reasons, one because you don't need to use a muffin or bun tin, because they stand up by themselves, and two, because the sponge bakes really even inside, without forming a crust on the edges, so it is really soft and light to eat. 

Based on a sponge recipe that calls for equal parts butter, sugar, egg and flour, I found that one egg (approx 54g) and equal of the rest of the ingredients filled 4 cones. For the party, I used 6 eggs, and 330g of the additional ingredients to fill 24 cones. 

Divide the mixture equally between the cones, place on a baking tray lined with a sheet of baking parchment, and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are firm to touch. 

Remove from the oven, and set to cool on a cooling rack. At this point use a small pallet knife to remove any overspill or edges from the sponge, so that all the cones are even ready for the microphone top to be iced.

Once the cones are cool, the next step is to make them appear metallic. I used here a Shimmer Spray from Dr Oetker. I found this product easy to use, however you need to make sure that you have covered every available surface with kitchen roll, as the glitter gets everywhere. I used two cans of the spray to cover 24 cones, but to be honest, they would have looked better if they had a third coat as well - you can still see the cone colour through the silver. The cans are quite expensive (£3.99 each) so I would have hoped that they would have stretched further. I also found that once they are coated the silver comes off on your fingers so keep handling to a minimum.

Once the cones are dry to touch, then we ice the top of them. Pipe or spoon buttercream frosting onto the top of the sponge. We will be making a dome shape, but the buttercream can just be applied like the picture. 

Empty the sugar crystals into a bowl and dip the buttercream portion of the cone in. I have to apologise here, I had too many hands full and couldn't photograph the process. 

Anyway, rotate the cone so that the buttercream is completely covered in the sugar crystals. Remove, and use the palm of your hand to to gently cup the top, moulding the frosting and crystals into a dome shape as per the photo. 

I had some issues here getting hold of black sugar crystals. My local cake shop explained that they could order in for me, however I didn't have the luxury of time, so had to settle for silver. Again, I bought two pots, yet they didn't stretch anywhere near as far as I had hoped. I made 12 silver, and then had to make 12 in pink as I had some in my cupboard. 

I also added some black edible glitter to the tops of the domes to darken the colour slightly. 

Next step is to create the band around the base of the dome. I used black liquorice on the silver topped cones, and red strawberry laces on the pink topped cones. For the liquorice bands, as I was using quite a thick liquorice so cut shorter lengths, and fixed two bands around each of the cones. You need a small amount of royal icing to 'glue' the liquorice into place. Personally I didn't have time to make up a batch of proper royal icing, so used one on my emergency Dr Oetker Designer Writing Icing bags... ;-)

For the red strawberry laces, because they are a lot thinner, I was able to stick the start of the lace in place and then wind the lace around the cone several times to create a thicker band. 

The final step is to create a 'wire' from the base of the microphone leading to the amp. For this step, we need a skewer, the royal icing, and some short pieces of the liquorice and strawberry laces. 

Using the skewer, carefully make a small hole at the base of the cone. Try to hold the cupcake by the liquorice band here to stop too much of the silver spray rubbing off onto your hands. For the strawberry laces, a single hole from the skewer is perfect, with the thicker liquorice I had to insert the skewer twice to make a wider hole. 

Pipe a small amount of icing into the hole as a glue, and then insert the liquorice into the centre of the cone. This forms the amp wire from the bottom of the microphone. I chose to secure the liquorice up in a slight twist as per the picture with a little blob of icing, but you could equally leave it loose. 

And that's it! A batch of cute little microphone cupcakes, perfect for any music themed party!