Blooming Great Buttercream!

Cupcakes are one of my go to recipes. They are quick and easy to whack in the oven but the thing that makes or breaks a cupcake is the icing. There is nothing worse than having a thick, grainy, stodgy lump of buttercream on top of the delicate sponge. This is my full proof recipe, it never fails. This recipe comes from cupcake Jemma, one of my favourite bakers on YouTube. Thanks to her for about a year all I wanted to make were her cupcakes! She was also the one who taught me how to use a piping bag and that skill is really useful with baking. If you want the video link to her recipe click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNVPMTWhu3c

Buttercream recipe

Ingredients:

This is the quantity I used to ice 24 cupcakes with the drop flower technique. Depending on how much buttercream you like on your cupcake and what way you choose to add it to your cupcake, you may need a smaller or a larger quantity than this one.

• 500g icing sugar

• 223g unsalted butter (the best quality you can get)

• 2-2.5 tbsp milk

• 1/8 tsp vanilla essence or extract (its about this quantity, I usually just put a splash in)

Method

Measure out the butter and transfer it to a stand alone mixer (I use a kenwood) and beat with the K paddle on a medium-high speed for 5-10 minutes. It is really important to take time with buttercream regardless of how tedious it may be. Believe me, the time invested into getting the prefect buttercream really pays off. The butter must be pale in colour (almost white) and light and fluffy.

Next add half of the icing sugar to the butter and beat again for 5-10 minutes until everything is incorporated and the mixture is pale and fluffy. Repeat this step with the other half of the icing sugar. Now it is time to add the milk and the vanilla essence (if I could find extract for a good price I would use it instead of essence). I only ended up putting in 2 tbsp of milk as my butter was quite soft. The buttercream should stick to the paddle when you lift it out of the buttercream. The consistency should be stiff yet pliable.

Decoration

You will need:

• A large piping bag

• A closed star nozzle (I used the sweetly does it8CP tip)

• A food colour gel of your choice (I used a small amount of wilton lemon yellow to get a pale yellow)

• Edible pearls

• Tweezers

Step by Step guide

Fill your piping bag. This is achieved by snipping the bottom of the bag, inserting the nozzle and folding over the sides of the bag. I fold over the sides so the bag stays cleaner for longer and this makes it easier to refill. As I had never used the drop flower technique of decorating I decided to practice on a baking tray before I used a cupcake. Practice as much as you want because you can always scrape the flowers off the tray and put them back in with the rest of the buttercream.

To make a drop flower, place the nozzle directly on top of the cupcake, exert pressure on the top of the bag and pull away. There are many videos on YouTube that show you how to do this so do not worry if you could not follow my directions. I found that the best way of covering the cupcake was to pipe a flower in the middle and then go around it with other flowers. By doing it this way, it means more of the cupcake is covered. Next I used my tweezers and placed a pearl in the centre of each flower. This step is optional but I think it adds a little more WOW factor to the cupcakes.