Perfect Piping Buttercream Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What kind of buttercream is best for piping? ›

Swiss meringue buttercream is a favorite among many cake decorators because of its smooth finish on the outside cakes and its ability to hold piping detail.

American Buttercream for Piping Succulents & Flowers

Beat the butter on medium high speed for 3-5 minutes till light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Beat on medium high speed for 2 more minutes to get all the air bubbles out.

To create a stiff consistency buttercream, add powdered sugar to your batch of buttercream, 2-3 Tablespoons at a time, until the desired consistency is reached. You can add as much powdered sugar as you'd like depending on how thick you want the buttercream.

Buttercream melts from the warmth of your hands as you're piping along. Trick is to keep your hands as cool as possible or have two bags so they can be swapped over as one begins to soften. Keep the bags cool. Royal icing doesn't melt in the same way as buttericing because it's just sugar and egg whites.

Mistake # 1: Using butter that is too firm or too soft

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.

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.

You can add the piping bag to a zip lock bag and just leave out at room temperature if it's American buttercream, or you can even store it in the refrigerator to keep it fresh for several more days. Make sure to let it come back to room temperature before you try to pipe with it though.

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.

Yes, this is absolutely correct. The longer you beat, the more air you incorporate in your buttercream, thus, it will have lots of holes or air-pockets, it will also make the colour lighter. If you will use your buttercream primarily for filling or maybe as simple swirls, then this is ok.

If you're just practicing piping, you can just pipe onto parchment paper (or a clean counter) and then scrape it off with a spatula and save the frosting. That way you can actually practice with the frosting you'll be using and not be thrown off by different textures and consistencies.

How to make frosting thicker for piping? ›

Most frostings are made with powdered sugar (otherwise known as confectioners' sugar or icing sugar), which contains cornstarch to prevent it from caking. Adding more powdered sugar can be an effective way and the easiest way of absorbing too much liquid to achieve thicker frosting.

Scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Add extracts and then with mixer running, add cream until desired consistency is reached. Continue beating on medium-high speed for 3-5 minutes until frosting turns to a light, fluffy, smooth consistency.

Soft Peak Piping Consistency: most common use is for outlining, detail piping and lettering. This is a hybrid consistency that's stiff enough to pipe, but can also settle flat in small areas with assistance. Extra Thick Flood Consistency: used to flood mini cookies and small detail areas.

To make your piping perfect, make sure your frosting is stiff enough. that if you lift it up with your spatula, it doesn't fall right off. But if you give your spatula a gentle shake, it's soft enough that it falls off.

The more water you add, the more runny your icing becomes, the less water you add, the firmer it is. Firm textures of icing, like the really stiff straight out of the mixer kind, are typically used for things like flowers, piping thin lines, and piping fine details.