Basic Cake Decorating Frosting–A Simple Beginner’s Recipe
The easiest type of cake decorating frosting to make and use is buttercream. Buttercream cake decorating frosting can be used to both fill and cover your cakes. You can also put buttercream in piping bags to make decorations and designs of all shapes and sizes.
Making a batch of buttercream cake decorating frosting consists only of a few simple ingredients and can be made in just a few minutes. Here’s what you’ll need:
1 cup softened (room temperature) unsalted butter
3 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon hot water
1 tsp vanilla extract
First, beat the butter until its soft and fluffy. Then add sugar, water and vanilla extract. Beat until pale and creamy. If you’re look for additional cake decorating tips and ideas, try spicing up this basic cake decorating frosting recipe with a few different flavor variations.
1. For a more chocolate flavor, stir 3 ounces of melted white or plain chocolate into the buttercream. As an alternative, create a paste of 1 tablespoon cocoa powder with 1-2 tablespoons hot water and stir that into the buttercream.
2. You can create coffee flavored buttercream frosting by mixing 1 tablespoon of instant coffee into 1 tablespoon of water. After mixing, beat into the buttercream.
3. For different flavors, add a few drops of vanilla, peppermint, lemon, or almond extract to flavor your basic buttercream recipe. All you need is just a few drops.
Buttercream has a natural cream color but if you beat it with a mixer long enough it will eventually turn pale white. At this time it will be easier to color your buttercream, especially if you want a pale pink or blue color.
Use gel or paste colors for the best results when coloring buttercream cake decorating frosting. You’ll find you only need a small amount of coloring to get the effect you want. The shade will also deepen as the buttercream sets. Once you get the basics of making and creating your own variations of this basic cake decorating frosting, you’ll find it an essential element to every cake you bake.
