Buttercream – Queen of Icing and Versatility

There are several variations of buttercream, enough to fit the purpose of just about any type of cake for any occasion. This icing can be used to frost, fill, pipe the writing, pipe the borders, create beautiful flowers, and clean up the mess. Well, ok, I'm a little partial to buttercream - you're stuck with the mess, but those gorgeous buttercream roses will make it worth it!

Buttercream's main ingredients are usually butter and sugar, but then there are some variations that have little or no butter. There are buttercreams that crust and buttercreams that don't crust. There are creamy yellow buttercreams rich with butter, and there are buttercreams that use more shortening than real butter (but hold up much better at summer garden weddings). And there are buttercreams in just about any color or tasty flavor under the sun (just don't leave the cake under the sun!).

Just how many variations of buttercream are there? I don't know.

Too many to count with probably a new one being invented right now

in someone's kitchen half way around the world on a tiny island that we'll be introduced to at the next ICES convention. But here is one of my favorites – and it's perfect for filling!

Strawberry Buttercream

1 cup butter, softened

2 (16 ounce) packages confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries

In a large medium-mixing bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add

sugar and chopped strawberries and beat until creamy. (Add more sugar if

frosting is too thin, or strawberries if too thick.)

Makes 3 cups

Then after filling the cake with this luscious strawberry buttercream, you can create the perfectly smooth buttercream canvas for your decorating by covering the cake with a snow-white buttercream. How do I get "snow white" from butter + cream? Cake decorator's math:

Take your favorite buttercream recipe and replace the butter in the recipe with shortening. Then add 1 teaspoon butter flavoring to give the icing a buttery flavor!

These recipe and tips are from our "Cake Decorating Made Easy!" Video

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And, here's one more tip: While buttery buttecreams taste best, sometimes a shortening based buttercream is needed, such as for a pure white buttercream or a cake that will exposed to summer heat and humidity. So when using shortening in your buttercream icing, only use a name brand shortening like Crisco, which has more emulsifiers, meaning it blends better and doesn't lend a "greasy" taste.