Which buttercream is the best

However, this also means that it doesn't hold up very well in warmer temperatures, because once the butter starts to melt, the buttercream won't be able to hold onto all those tiny air bubbles you've managed to beat into it. Once the butter melts, the buttercream will quickly become a sad little puddle, because its structure the butter has just collapsed.

So if you're planning a summer birthday party outside, or another outdoor event where you intend to serve cake or cupcakes frosted with buttercream, you'll want to use a buttercream that's a bit more heat-resistant.

Oh, and about the butter, I always use the unsalted kind. You can certainly make this buttercream with salted butter, but I like to control how much salt actually goes into my buttercream. For this reason, I use unsalted butter in all of my buttercream recipes, and only add salt to taste at the very end. I also like to use fine table salt for this, since I've found that kosher or sea salt won't dissolve properly.

Salt aside, American buttercream really is very sweet. If you prefer a buttercream that is almost as easy to make but a little less sweet, try flour buttercream. Although flour buttercream is hardly any more difficult to make than American buttercream, it's less sweet and has a more subtle flavor.

It also holds up a lot better in warm temperatures because of its lower fat content and the added structure of the pudding base. Bonus, bonus, bonus! Like I said, you make it by first cooking up a simple pudding base made with milk, sugar, and a little flour.

By whisking the flour into the sugar before adding the milk, you minimize the risk of getting flour lumps. Whisk to incorporate the milk. And please notice the complete lack of flour lumps! Then place the pan over low heat and allow the mixture to come to a boil, whisking continuously to avoid lumps in the pudding.

Once the mixture is boiling, turn the heat down to low and cook the pudding for a few minutes to cook the flour, stirring continuously. Once cooked through, transfer the pudding to a shallow, heatproof container and immediately cover it with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic directly onto the pudding to prevent a skin from forming.

Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature before adding it to the beaten butter. It will kind of look like glue, but that's okay One last note on the sugar: some other recipes for flour buttercream instruct you to make the pudding base with just milk and flour.

The idea is that you then beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy and only then do you mix in the pudding base. This method has never worked for me. Somehow, the granulated sugar never dissolves completely, resulting in a grainy, crunchy buttercream. Personally, I like buttercream to be smooth, but if crunchy is your thing, you now know what to do! German buttercream might actually be my favorite. Or, um, one of my favorites, at least. It's just as easy to make as the flour buttercream, except you use custard instead of pudding.

To make things even easier, cornstarch is added to the uncooked custard mixture, helping to thicken the custard and reducing the chances of accidentally overcooking the eggs. You still shouldn't boil it, though, so keep a close eye on the custard as it cooks. Because this buttercream is custard-based , it has a gorgeous yellow color. And although this buttercream contains a fair amount of butter and three egg yolks, it is surprisingly light for a buttercream, both in texture and taste.

It's also a bit softer than most buttercreams and, like American buttercream, it doesn't hold up well in warmer temperatures. However, you can easily thicken it by using a thicker custard base, such as homemade pastry cream. That stuff is amazing! So those are the three kinds of buttercream you can make using the beaten-butter method. Now let's take a closer look at the cubed-butter method. This method is a little bit trickier to pull off than the beaten-butter method, though the theory is still pretty straightforward.

In the following photos I'm making a Swiss buttercream, but the method is similar if you're making an Italian buttercream or French buttercream. Like I said, I'm using Swiss meringue here. It's important to keep mixing as you do this, because you're again trying to create a water-in-fat emulsion. Take your time! Once you've added all the butter, the mixture may start to look separated , despite all that careful mixing. Don't panic!

Just keep mixing and the buttercream will eventually come together. It usually doesn't take longer than a few minutes of mixing before the mixture magically transforms into smooth and creamy buttercream. So remember: should the buttercream separate, just keep mixing until it's smooth! Here are the three different kinds of buttercream that can be made using the cubed-butter method.

French buttercream is a gorgeously smooth, velvety, rich buttercream. Because it's made with an egg-yolk foam i. As a result, it doesn't hold up very well in warm temperatures.

Personally, I think French buttercream is the most difficult buttercream to master, because it requires cooking up a hot sugar syrup and carefully drizzling it into beaten yolks with the mixer running to prevent the yolks from scrambling.

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And this guy could definitely do that. So everything was going great lots of laughs happening on this end until the day before we were supposed to meet, which happened to be Thanksgiving. We were texting in the morning about a podcast I had showed him, and then out of nowhere, he just stopped texting me. Like nothing…ever again. Ummmm excuse me sir…WTF?! Who talks to someone for 6 weeks, makes a plan to meet and then ghosts them on a National Holiday?!

Are you some kind of monster? So now but back to the point of this post — which buttercream reigns supreme? I honestly think this is a personal choice, but I am going to tell you why I like and dislike the three main players.

Frosting made with a base of powdered sugar and butter or shortening. Add a little flavor and milk and you are done! Cons — This guys is a heavy duty frosting. It can be a little difficult to get super smooth on a cake, and it is also VERY sweet. This is the frosting I grew up using. It is a pretty good overall frosting, but I never use this one on the outside of a cake.

I mainly use this icing for fillings, and on top of cupcakes. Egg whites and sugar are cooked together over boiling water until they reach a certain temperature. It is then transferred to a mixer and whipped into a meringue before adding butter and flavoring.

Pros — It is soft, smooth and not too sweet. SM buttercream is arguably the best frosting in terms of cake decorating because it is the easiest way to get those smooth clean lines. While I rarely make this one, I will admit this is the best buttercream out there. So you will have to make it and be your own judge. Sugar and water cooked over the stove while egg whites are whipped in the mixer. This style of buttercream has a very strong milk flavor and is the texture of a slightly thicker whipped cream.

It is much lighter than all of the other buttercreams. Korean buttercream also known as glossy buttercream or G. This style of buttercream was developed G.

More who has a YouTube Channel G. This style of buttercream gained popularity for the way it makes beautiful piped buttercream flowers. Korean glossy buttercream is exactly the same as Italian meringue buttercream with one small change.

The butter in Korean buttercream is cold when it is beaten in. This one change completely changes the texture and look of the final buttercream.

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This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. First I have not made any of these recipes as I only found you yesterday on Pinterest. I will, but I Love the way you explain the Differences in the various Buttercreams used for frostings. Good enough to please my family but not great in my book. I agree with your description at the bottom of each page about your beliefs in helping a person gain confidence in the kitchen.

Baking is a Science as I have well learned. With the internet these days pages get too cluttered, making it too easy to get sidetracked. Thank you for your hard work, and a great site. Hi Roni! This comment means so much to me. Thank you for writing it! I love to teach the basics and really appreciate that you find it useful.

Thank you for your response. We learn these by trial and error. I have tried so many internet recipes that were not written well, so with that is many Fails. You have done a wonderful job explaining so much to help us.

Kudos my Dear. Follow directions exactly and use a thermometer for the cooked ones. My question is which would work best with the Russian decorating tips. I recently bought a set. Also, I live in a hot climate and even working in AC affects the frostings. Very frustrating. Thanks for an informative article. Hello sis this was very useful for me I am literally fed up with American butter cream because it is too sweet I wanted to try Swiss meringue and Italian butter cream but I wanted some tips and help so I ended up here Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to pen it.

You have done a great job. Thank you so much for your detailed and clear explanations. We can do frostings next. My students love the fact that you have are so knowledgeable. Thanks again. Hi Cathy! That is so great to hear! I hope they enjoy the buttercream lesson. I wish I had a class like that when I was in school! Great information!

Which type of buttercream would be best for piping ruffles around a round cake? I personally like to use american buttercream for flowers because it crusts over and is easier to transfer onto the cake. You can use italian or swiss meringue too, however, the flower will stay soft so if it gets bumped it will mess it up.

You can use either of the meringue types for that! So if you want it to be more stable in case it gets bumped, you can use american. Hi Rebecca, yes you can add extracts. It is used for beautiful roses so the focus is more on the texture instead of the taste.

You can vanilla or almond extract into it to help it along. Amazing description. Hi Daisy! Glad you enjoyed the info! It is delicious! Oh interesting! The process of making a cold meringue is French meringue so it would technically be a French meringue buttercream. Glad to know it works! Thank you for the deep look into these butter creams! It definitely helps to know how well each one will hold up when piping flowers, especially roses.

I wanted to know your opinion and if it is also super buttery. I have a few questions…. Have you used freeze dried fruit and ground into a powder to add color and flavor?

Also can I use any of these recipes to make a chocolate ganache whipped frosting? Thank you for all this great info! I recently tried and loved a buttercream to which whipped cream was folded into. Everyone went nuts over this and I loved the texture. What is this called? Thanks, Amy. This is so helpful.