Since I started baking cakes, I've always used a simple buttercream recipe of just margarine/butter mixed with icing sugar (confectioners sugar to all those across the pond) and a dash of vanilla essence. Now don't get me wrong, this recipe has been so good to me over the years and I have managed to modify it to create different flavours & colours without too many problems. But whenever I've tasted other people's cakes - especially PROFESSIONAL cakes - the buttercream has always been a little more special than my own. Endless Pinterest & YouTube searches for the 'perfect' buttercream only got me so far - most of the videos/recipes were American and some of the products they used were difficult to get hold of in the UK.
Eventually I turned to a little book I have had for a few years but never really used - The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook: what a gem!!!
The book had a similar recipe to the buttercream recipe I had used for so long, but differed in that the amount of each ingredient varied and they added something I have always been fearful of using in buttercreams: milk! I've been cautious about adding milk to my buttercreams as I always thought it would make the mixture too liquid-y, and unsuitable for piping or spreading onto cakes. But this was because of the amount of icing sugar and butter that went into making my buttercream. This new recipe - courtesy of The Hummingbird Cookbook - is simply amazing! It was the PERFECT consistency, the taste was tongue-tinglingly gorgeous and had I not had a dozen cupcakes to ice, I definitely could have consumed the whole lot!
Ingredients
- 80g butter/margarine (I actually used 40g unsalted butter and 40g margarine - no idea why I did this!)
- 250g icing sugar, sifted
- A few drops of vanilla essence
- About a tsp milk
Firstly, I measured out the butter/marg and put it in the microwave for about 10 seconds to bring it up to room temperature. I then sifted in the icing sugar and carefully mixed together until all the icing sugar was completely mixed into the butter mix. At this point, the mixture was quite stiff. I added a few drops of vanilla essence and mixed again. Then I added the milk, mixed a little more, went to put the milk back in the fridge when I spotted some double cream! (Jackpot!) So I actually ended up adding quite a bit of the cream and mixed a final time until everything was fully combined. And that was it! Super, super easy and SO tasty!
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