The BEST Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Recipe - Cooking Classy (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to buttercream? ›

Never add too much liquid to your buttercream.

Adding additional liquid to your buttercream, such as flavorings or purees, can make it far too liquidy to come together nicely. And you don't want to have to add a bunch of powdered sugar to thicken it up, because then it will be far too sweet.

1. Swiss Meringue Buttercream. This is the Queen of Frosting. Imagine the melt-in-mouth texture of ice cream, just at room temperature.

If you are making a chocolate frosting, adding more cocoa powder is a great option for thickening it. The technique is basically the same as if you were thickening with powdered sugar, but you want to use a smaller quantity of cocoa powder than icing sugar. Try adding just 1 to 2 teaspoon at a time.

SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM

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.

The best way to distinguish frosting from buttercream is through the ingredients. While both contain powdered sugar, fat, flavouring and sometimes milk or water, frosting does not contain any butter whatsoever. Instead, frosting is usually made with shortening or cream cheese.

Swiss meringue buttercream is probably the most standard buttercream for pastry professionals. It is incredibly smooth, making it an extremely popular choice for icing cakes. Compared to American buttercream, it has a much stronger butter flavor, but is considerably less sweet.

Choose Swiss meringue Buttercream if you:

want to level up your cake decorating from traditional American buttercreams (the ones that use just butter/powdered sugar.) Most pro-decorators will likely use this for sharp, clean sides and detailed designs.

Italian Meringue Buttercream is the most difficult buttercream to make. If you are familiar with Italian meringue, you'll understand that it involves boiling sugar and then whisking egg whites into this piping hot syrup. Because of the high temperatures involved, we only recommend it to the more advanced cake artists.

What Is Separated Buttercream? A buttercream that has separated is also sometimes referred to as “broken.” The buttercream will often have unattractive lumps and curds, an indication that the butter in your buttercream is too cold.

Why does my chocolate buttercream look curdled? ›

A: Buttercream curdling or 'splitting' after adding milk is a common problem, especially in winter. The reason for this is that butter is essentially an emulsion and when you add milk the additional water (full cream milk is almost 90% water) causes butter emulsion to split.

Too much sugar or not enough liquid can cause the buttercream to break or become too gritty. Using room temperature or softened butter, can also help create a smoother texture.

As far as buttercream options go, MacIsaac says Swiss and Italian meringue are the two most delicious options. "Both Italian and Swiss are made using meringue, just with slightly different techniques—resulting in a light, fluffy, exceptionally smooth, and less-sweet buttercream," she explains.

The frosting should form a somewhat stiff peak that has a little curl on the end. It's stiff enough to hold up that curl, but soft enough to create that little curl. That little curl is a great visual cue to know that your frosting is just the right consistency.

Classically there are four main types of buttercream: Italian, German, French & Swiss.

If the buttercream is still grainy, you can try warming it up over a double boiler or adding a little bit of heavy cream. It's important to find the right balance of ingredients when making any kind of buttercream. Too much sugar or not enough liquid can cause the buttercream to break or become too gritty.

No matter what type of frosting you make, I recommend mixing your frosting on the lowest speed for a couple minutes with a paddle attachment at the end of the process. This helps push excess air out of the frosting, which makes it nice and smooth. Don't be afraid to let your mixer run on low for a few minutes.

To make the frosting extra smooth, stir it by hand with a rubber spatula for a minute or two right before you use it. It's an arm workout, but it's worth it! Push the frosting back and forth and spread it around the side of the bowl. This will push out any extra air and make it easier to smooth onto cakes or pipe with.

If your butter is too firm it will be difficult to combine with your icing sugar and you'll end up with lumpy buttercream. Too soft and your buttercream will be runny and oily, unable to hold it's shape particularly if you intend to use it for any kind of piping.