How to Make | Best-Ever Buttercream Icing

There’s nothing quite like standing back and basking in the glory of a well-executed, home-made cake that’s iced to perfection… and then tucking in! But with so many ways to decorate your cakes, as well as different types of icing to choose from, it can be a little daunting to know where to start. Buttercream icing is a great choice, with its versatility (fill, spread, pipe, create shapes, coat, eat from the bowl…), creamy texture and moreish taste, there’s no wonder it’s become a firm favourite amongst amateur and professional bakers alike. The best part? It’s incredibly simple to make, consisting of just butter, icing sugar, milk and vanilla extract (ingredients will vary slightly depending on which recipe you choose).

Any icing-related queries and quandaries you may have will be addressed in our comprehensive guide to all things buttercream, with everything from a delicious recipe with step-by-step instructions to tips on how to colour and flavour your icing, which piping nozzle to choose and what to do if it all goes wrong…

Top tips

• Make sure your butter is at room temperature before you begin to whip it.
• For a smooth buttercream finish that isn’t too grainy, sift your icing sugar before use.
• 如果你要裱花或需要保持形状的细节装饰，可以在奶油中加入额外的糖粉，让奶油更加粘稠。你也可以加入少量生粉。
• 不要过度搅拌你的奶油，因为你会产生气泡，破坏你漂亮的管道创造的美学。只要把它们混合到一起就可以了。

How to flavour your buttercream

奶油有一种天然的黄油奶油味，但要让它惊艳，你需要使用优质的食材。一种廉价的黄油，充满了水和空气，会导致没有光泽的质地、颜色和味道。选用优质的欧洲黄油和高级香草精自然会增强奶油的风味。想要添加不同的味道吗?其实，做这个的方法比你想象的要多，而且简单得不能再简单了——你很快就能做出美味的组合。

• Flavoured icing sugar is easy and convenient.
• Liquid foodflavourings or extracts是另一个选择，但要注意考虑到质地的变化-你可能需要添加更多的糖粉来补偿。
• You can flavour your icing with natural flavours like orange and lemon zest or chocolate shavings.
• Feeling fruity? Powdered fruits are a great natural way to create a buttercream bursting with flavour, and it won’t make your icing runny.
• For a delightfully nutty finish to a piped topping, you could add some smooth peanut (or almond/hazelnut) butter. If you’re using the buttercream as a filling or to spread over your bake, you could add some texture with a coarse, chunky peanut butter or add some ground nuts.
• 如果你喜欢吃巧克力，可以考虑加入可可粉，或者加入一些巧克力酱，让你拥有一种奶油般的、颓废的口感。
• Add instant coffee granules to create a classic coffee and walnut filling or topping.

How to colour your buttercream

There’s a plethora of differentcolouringproducts out there for you to choose from, but it’s important that you select the right one for a top quality finish.

• To avoid disturbing the consistency of your buttercream, we suggest that you use a gel-based colourant.
• Start by using a small amount, stir, check the colour and add until you’re happy – it’s easy to add more, but you can’t take it out again!
• Mix in short 5-second intervals to ensure you don’t overmix the buttercream, avoiding unsightly air bubbles.
• It’s important to remember that buttercream has a yellow tone, which will of course affect the colouring process. This is another reason why it’s important to add your colour slowly, so you can work out what you need to add.
• You can add an icing whitener to your buttercream to create a whiter base, creating more of a blank canvas for your colouring.
• To create darker shades like dramatic reds, browns and blacks, you’re best off using chocolate buttercream icing, as the colour will already be darker, reducing the amount of colouring you need to use.

• As you will need to use more colouring for darker shades, it’s best to take taste into account. Adding too much colour may result in a chemical taste, depending on your product, so you may need to add more flavour to balance it out.

• Go colour crazy, creating exciting multi-coloured creations; depending on which colours you choose, you can transform your bakes into magical unicorns or beautiful rainbows – the sky’s the limit! For minimal effort and ultimate impact, put four (or as many as you like) different colours of icing into onepiping bagand get piping – the best part is that each cake will be unique.

Choosing the right nozzle

Each nozzle comes in a wide variety of sizes for different styles of piping – if you want to vary your piping creations, we have a fantastic selection ofnozzle setsthat will allow you to experiment and become a piping pro.

Round–为庆祝蛋糕创造流畅的线条、复杂的图案和信息。用一个更大的圆形喷嘴在蛋糕上方画出完美的峰状——最适合做胡萝卜蛋糕了。

Open Star-非常适合在你的烘焙上做单独的星星，或者在纸杯蛋糕上做大漩涡。

Closed Star– Creates more of a jagged, shell effect.

Drop Flower– Create pretty flowers – great for surrounding a celebration cake – or create nice rounded swirls for your cupcakes.

Petal-完美的手工制作单独的花瓣，创造更多定制的花朵设计。也很适合制作蝴蝶结。

Leaf– These come in various designs so you can choose the leaf effect that you want to achieve.

Basket weave– Great for creating criss-cross patterns.

Multi-opening-一个快速和简单的方式管道多线和模式。

Buttercream disaster fixes

在你绝望地扔掉你的奶油之前，等等!很可能会有一个解决方案。We’ve collated the most common disasters and provided you with a solution for each.

Problem我的奶油太稀了。
Solution: Slowly add more icing sugar until you achieve the desired consistency.

Problem: My buttercream is too thick and I can’t pipe it.
Solution: Nice and simple, slowly add more water until you have a softer consistency. Be sure to add the smallest drop at a time, otherwise you’ll go too far the other way, needing to add more icing sugar, ending in a vicious cycle and a mountain of buttercream! Maybe not the worst thing…

Problem: How do I remove the air bubbles from my icing?
Solution:如果你的奶油产生了气泡，试着把你的混合物放入一个塑料食品袋，然后把它放在冰箱里，只要你有多余的时间(半个小时就可以了)。在袋子的角落切一个小洞，慢慢地把你的奶油从洞里挤出来，这样可以消除气泡。重复这个过程(不要放在冰箱里)，直到所有的气泡都消失。

Problem:My buttercream has split/separated.
Solution:这看起来像是奶油的终极灾难，但在大多数情况下，它是可以修复的。Here are 3 possible solutions:

1. You can try increasing your mixer speed for 2-3 minutes to see if this reunites your estranged ingredients.
2. The issue could be temperature – if your mix isn’t at room temperature, this could have caused the splitting. Warming or cooling your bowl to room temperature could help.
3. Another trick is adding melted chocolate, as it acts as an emulsifying agent, helping to combine the fats and liquids in your buttercream – a win-win solution as your buttercream is savedandyou have a deliciously creamy, chocolatey topping for your cake!

Choosing the right icing

As much as we love buttercream, there are many other great icing options to choose from too. Whether you’re whipping up a batch of cupcakes for a bake sale or creating a celebration cake for a birthday, we have you covered with ouricingguide.

• Cream cheese frosting– Very similar to buttercream (just with added cream cheese), this is perfect for topping carrot cakes.
• Fondant– A popular choice for wedding cakes, fondant icing is great for covering cakes and cutting out shapes.
• Royal icing-非常适合在蛋糕上装饰复杂的图案。如果你想在蛋糕上写句话，这就是你要用的。
• Modelling paste– Sculpt beautiful icing creations to top cakes or to stand alone.
• Ganache– Like buttercream, ganache icing is wonderfully versatile and great for both filling and covering your cakes, as well as piping decorations.
• Meringue– Beautiful piped onto cupcakes, or just pipe onto baking paper to enjoy the gooey loveliness on its own!

现在你准备好制作完美的奶油了。Remember, you can share your creations with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – we’d love to see them!