The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (2 page)

until

the

ingredients

are

incorporated. This helps to avoid over-beating as

well.

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It is a common misunderstanding that to make the

buttercream ‘light and fluffy’ you must beat it for

five to ten minutes or even longer. This is true in a way, because if you do this you will incorporate so

much air into your buttercream that it will have lots of holes and ‘air-pockets’, but it will also be grainy and difficult to work with. Don’t be tempted to

over-beat!

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You will need…

15

16

• 227g (8oz) butter, room temperature

• 113g (4oz) medium soft vegetable fat (shortening)

(Trex), at room temperature, OR 227g (8oz) of soft

spreadable vegetable fat (shortening) (Crisco)

• 2-3 tsp vanilla essence, or your choice of

flavouring

• 1 tbsp water or milk (omit if you live in a hot

country or whenever the temperature is hot)

• 600g (1lb 5oz) icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted, if you are using medium soft vegetable fat

(shortening) OR 750g (1lb 10oz) icing sugar, sifted,

if you are using soft spreadable vegetable fat

(shortening)

• Mixer (hand-held or stand mixer)

• Mixing bowls

• Spatula

• Sieve (sifter/strainer)

• Measuring spoons

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About vegetable fat, aka shortening

This is a white solid fat made from vegetable

oils, such as soybean and cotton seed oil, and

is usually flavourless, bland or neutral in taste.

It is ideal for pastry, baking and cake

decorating. It plays a very important role in our

recipe as it helps make our buttercream stable.

It also allows the surface of the decorated

cake to ‘crust’ so that it is not too sticky. And

since it makes it stable, you do not need to

add too much icing sugar to make a stiff

consistency, thus your frosting has just the

right sweetness.

There are so many brands of vegetable fat

(shortening) and they all have different

consistencies. Don’t choose one that is too

hard as that will not be suitable. The ideal

consistency is something soft and spreadable

particularly when it’s at room temperature. In

this

particular

recipe,

vegetable

fat

(shortening)

cannot

be

substituted

with

margarine, vegetable oil, ghee or lard as these

all have a different colour or melting point, and

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a very strong taste. See below for a list of

popular brands.

Popular brands of vegetable fat (shortening)

• UK: Trex, Flora White, Cookeen

• USA: Stater Bros, Sweetex, Spectrum, Earth

Balance, Crisco

• Ireland: Frytex

• France: St Hubert Pur Végétal

• Italy: Il Grasso Vegetale, Burrolì

• Greece: Nea Fytini

• Cyprus: Spry

• Other Mediterranean countries: Dorina

• Canada: Tenderflake All Vegetable

Shortening

• South America: Clover, Doral

• South Africa: Holsum

• Australia: Copha, Solite

• Singapore: Redman

• Malaysia: Krimwel

• India: Olivia, Bake Master

• Most other countries: Crisco

As we have described above, different brands

of vegetable fat (shortening) have different

consistencies. If the consistency of your

shortening is somewhat medium-soft to slightly

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hard, like Trex, use 113g (4oz) in the recipe

below. If it is soft and very spreadable, like

Crisco, you will have to double the amount to

227g (8oz).

Also note that these are popular brands

around the world, but we have not tried all of

them. We recommend you experiment until

you find one that works best for you.

Tip

You may substitute vegetable fat (shortening)

with powdered milk or coffee creamer.

Surprised? It’s true! Powdered milk is a dry

ingredient and this will make your buttercream

stiff and allow it to crust slightly, but it’s not as stable as vegetable fat (shortening). Also, it

might overpower your flavouring as it can taste

too creamy. You may add a little bit of

powdered milk to your recipe if you need to

stiffen it, but also consider just increasing the

amount of icing sugar.

1
First rule: If you are beating the butter

alone, you may beat it for as long as you

want.

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Beat butter at medium speed until soft and pale

(about one to two minutes). Some brands of butter

are more yellow in colour, so to make it paler you

can increase the beating time to about two to five

minutes (A).

A

2
Second rule: As soon as you add anything

to the butter, you must limit your beating

time to 20–30 seconds or even less.

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Add the vegetable fat (shortening) and beat for

another 20–30 seconds or less. Make sure to read

the notes about vegetable fat to determine how

much you need to use. Make sure that it is well

incorporated and that there are no lumps (B).

B

3
Third rule: You may add milk but if you do

you can only keep your buttercream for two

to four days, as milk has a shorter shelf-life.

If you use water, you will be able to keep it

for longer – about five to ten days.

22

Add vanilla essence, or your flavour of choice (C)

and water, or milk (D), then beat at medium speed

for about 10–20 seconds until well incorporated.

C

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D

4 Slowly add the sifted icing (confectioners’) sugar

and beat at medium speed for another 20–30

seconds or until everything is combined. You may

want to fold the ingredients together manually

before beating to avoid puffing clouds of sugar

round your kitchen (E). Make sure you scrape the

sides and bottom of your bowl, as well as the blade

of your mixer, so you don’t miss any lumps of icing

sugar.

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E

5 Lastly, after scraping the bowl, beat again for

about 20–30 seconds and
do not over-mix
. This

yields a perfect piping consistency of buttercream

frosting (F).

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F

Tip

What is so good about our recipe is that a little

less or more of a certain ingredient is fine. So

if your buttercream is too stiff, add water or

milk. If it is too thin, just add icing

(confectioners’) sugar. Adjust it as you need to

– all in moderation of course. You may use

your buttercream straight away to cover and

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decorate your cakes but we suggest you chill it