Buttercream Icing

Your search is OVER!  I have searched far and wide for the best (in my opinion) recipe for butter icing or frosting.  I wanted one that would pipe, that sprinkles would stick to and that, above all else, tasted great... awesome really... I have high standards... well, I like to think so.

I will search no more, I may now rest.

Oh. my. god. 

You can make this to go on chocolate cake, white cake, cupcakes, crepes, waffles, a spoon... you get the idea.  Store it in your fridge or freezer if there are any leftovers but I doubt there will be, you'll take care of it.

Here, The Kitchen Magpie titles it the Best Buttercream Icing and she's right.  I'm not going to dispute this at all.

Geez, isn't it just gorgeous?!  Like a cloud!

I made it white with vanilla beans and butter being the flavours.  To what was left of that, I added cocoa.  You can make this vanilla or chocolate butter icing to suit your needs.  She talks about adding lemon, but I rarely think of lemon.  You go right on ahead.  In fact, icing is the place to play with your cake combinations and you can seriously go CRAZY!  These guys do, why not you?!

Just beautiful...

The secrets here are whipping your butter and resulting icing until it is super light and fluffy.  Don't be afraid, let 'er go on high!  The other secret is cream, 18% or higher.  Don't be cheap, buy the good stuff, find a reason to use the rest.  She also stresses the importance of fresh icing sugar - I go through it so fast I think it's always fresh.

If you look carefully you may see tiny black flecks in the white... yep, that's real vanilla seeds my friend. 

I was at the end of my vanilla bottle and that's the yumminess that's left.

Here goes.  Write this one down in your recipe book, bookmark it, Pinterest it, print it, whatever you gotta do to keep this one forever, I kid you not.

The Best Buttercream Icing
from The Kitchen Magpie

1 cup of salted butter (trust me on this one and use salted butter in this icing)

1 Tbsp vanilla

4 cups of icing sugar

4-5 Tbsp coffee cream (18% and up)

- whip that butter, with a paddle beater if you have it, if not, don’t worry

- add in the icing sugar

- add in the cream.

Stiffer icing = less cream.

Whippier icing = more cream. 

- keep mixing it until fluffy and thoroughly combined

Chocolate Butter Icing

to the above recipe, add up to 1/2 cup cocoa, to taste

These were made for a 3 year-old's birthday party today.  I think he liked them.