This post is dedicated to Buttercream Basics. Whip up a batch of my favorite Buttercream Frosting Recipe and let’s get creative!
Buttercream is basic, it’s delicious, and you need to know how to make it. Luckily it’s really simple to make, and WAY better than any canned frosting you could buy. And today I’m going to show you how easy it is to turn vanilla (white) buttercream into something completely unique!
Tips to Making Buttercream
If your buttercream is too stiff for your liking, add more milk. Add it one teaspoon at a time while mixing until you get the consistency you’re after. If you’re looking for creamy, a little more milk will help you achieve that. If you want to pipe tall stiff roses, add a little less milk!
BUT if you have an oops and add too much milk, no worries! Just add in some more powdered sugar. Add 1/4 cup more at a time to get it back to the thickness you are after.
What Can You Add Into Buttercream Frosting?
Once you have your perfect buttercream, let’s get creative. You can add pretty much whatever you want.
Here are a few examples…
Here we have a delicious “Cookie Butter” (which is about the same consistency as peanut butter or Nutella), cinnamon and coconut extract. These are just a few ideas…use your imagination! What about caramel? Or Strawberry jam? Or pumpkin pie spice? Or cereal?
** The Cookie Butter is the Trader Joe’s version of Biscoff spread. It was just something I had on-hand that I thought would make a yummy buttercream. It did.
Now. Here’s where I want you to trust me. I am not going to give you measurements…AND I want you to be ok with that.
For the experiment I separated some frosting into bowls…
For the first flavor I wanted to give the “Cookie Butter” a try. (It tastes a little like the best graham cracker that you have ever eaten)
I took a large dollop and added that to the buttercream…
Then you know what I did? I turned my mixer on. That is all.
You can add more to create a more intense flavor or less for something a little more subtle. You aren’t going to mess this up, people.
I repeated the process with peanut butter…If you add too much peanut butter and your frosting becomes too creamy what should you do?
Add more powdered sugar. Trust me on this, the worst that can happen is your frosting will be too sweet…and is that REALLY a problem? If you said yes, please leave now.
For my next batch I added some cinnamon and mixed away. Use a light hand when adding spices, you can always add more…
This applies to extracts too…a little generally goes a long way. If you MUST measure, start with 1/4 teaspoon and add more if you need to. The only way to fix an over-extracted frosting is to add more frosting.
So with one batch of frosting I made four flavors of buttercream…Coconut, Peanut Butter, Snickerdoodle (the cinnamon) and Graham Cracker (using the “Cookie Butter”).
I frosted a batch of mini vanilla cupcakes with all the different flavors I made.
Garnish them however you like.
But see how easy that is?
Buttercream Frosting is really hard to mess up, so I want you to get creative with extracts and add-in flavors! Can’t wait to see what you create!
I love the idea of going back to basics. One of my goals this year to to perfect my oh-so-close-to-amazing vanilla cake recipe. Can’t wait to experiment with all these ideas for buttercream
Thanks so much for the easy tutorial. Now if I could just figure out how to pipe it on cupcakes I’d be in heaven!
You crack me up!! Love this post and the idea of adding flavor to such a yummy yet easy recipe, I really am like, duh, why didn’t I think of that. I do use vanilla extract when I make mine, and at times put a little dot of the extract behind my ears and on my wrist. I love the smell and why not! Very rarely I may add almond extract, but restrain from wearing it. I even added nutmeg to it once, which was very good. But I never thought of jam, or butters, imagine the flavor combinations now! Not only using one on a cake would be so good, too. Wow, making it cherry flavored and rolling it into balls and dipping them in melted chocolate, my mind is just a buzz with ideas, thank you!!!!
Great post! I’ve never heard of cookie butter… that sounds like it’s worth investigating!!
I’m glad to see you post on buttercream. I am so tired of cakes/cupcakes/cookies with fondant/gum paste.
I love your blog!!! Never thought about using the Cookie Butter. Without a doubt, Buttercream is my all time favorite frosting. For Christmas I used the cookie butter and made fudge. It was pretty awesome. Here is the recipe if you would like to try it out (I did post it on the http://www.cooktj.com website):
Ingredients
1 c Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter
14 oz Sweetened Condensed Milk
8 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
3 T Butter, room temperature
1 tsp Vanilla
Sprinkle of Sea Salt (about ½ tsp)
Instructions
Prepare an 8×8 pan. To prepare either grease the pan with butter, or spray it with Pam, or line bottom and sides of pan with one large piece of parchment paper.
In double boiler place first four ingredients (Cookie Butter, sweetened condensed milk, semi-sweet chocolate chips and butter). Please note: if you don’t have a double boiler use a heat proof bowl setting on top of a pan of water.
Heat the water to a gentle boil (not a vigorous boil, as that will cause the end result to be grainy in texture).
Continue to heat and stir until everything is melted. This should take about 8-10 minutes.
Now add in the vanilla and stir to mix.
Pour heated mixture into pan.
Sprinkle with sea salt.
Cover and place into fridge to harden. Should take about 2-3 hours.
Cut into 1/2” pieces.
Keep stored in tightly covered container and in fridge.
Enjoy!
Source
Adapter from Giada DeLaurentiis and Cookin’ Canuck
That sounds amazing!! Will definitely have to give that a go!
I love buttercream. Like, serious love. And I rarely measure. I like to make it by taste testing. Lots of taste testing.
Love your intentions and I love the buttercream! Mmm!
I do the same thing to my buttercream recipe. It normally gets vanilla, but I’ve substituted for strawberry purée, lemon juice, even soda for my soda cupcakes!
I cannot wait to try this buttercream recipe!!