I blame pinterest.
(It’s the newest social network. If you’d like an invite, send me your email and I’ll send one your way. You can see my boards at: http://pinterest.com/patsyterrell/) I resisted it for months, but finally gave in and started a “food” board and a “tea” board almost immediately.
This led to me seeing many photos of cupcakes. Some of them were decorated to look like roses. Like these.
Then I found these pretty cupcake holders at Hobby Lobby. They’re so springy. And we seem to be having an eternal spring instead of winter here in Kansas. (While I’m enjoying this, I have begun to have a healthy fear of what August will be like.)
Today I could resist no longer. And made cupcakes. I had a gathering tonight so could take some of them with me to it. One of my friends commented, “Oh, this is real icing.” Indeed, it is. Real buttercream. (Recipe below.)
Real buttercream requires two ingredients. Butter. And Cream. Hence the name – buttercream. If it does not include butter and cream, it is not buttercream. It seems this would be obvious, but considering the number of recipes you see for things called “Buttercream” that have neither, it is not. So, I’m stating it.
Buttercream
1 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons cream (you can add more or less, depending on your taste and what you want to do with it – if you want to decorate with it, it will need to hold its shape, of course)
That’s all. No vanilla (one of the most over-used things in a baker’s arsenal, and generally some disgusting fake vanilla-like substance instead of actual vanilla), no salt, nothing else. When you use good ingredients like real butter and cream you don’t need those other things.
If you want to decorate like these, buy an M1 decorator tip. Start in the middle and just swirl.
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