Building Buttercream Basics

I have been enjoying my summer vacation so far, a lot of yoga classes, participated in the CSA with all sorts of new veggies I’ve never had before and tried out tons of new recipes!   

One of the things I did this summer was to sign up for a Michael’s Craft Store class.  It’s a Wilton product based class and it is all about decorating with buttercream.  I’m taking the first course in the series, of which there are four in total.  The class is Thursday nights for a month and conflicted with one of the yoga classes that I usually go to, but I decided to juggle my schedule around because I was interested in the course (Sorry Jenny!) Plus it’s only for August and I’ll be back to Rock It Man Yoga soon.

The first class was last night and it was a BLAST!  I had so much fun and enjoyed working with the instructor, Lori and my fellow classmates.  The first day had a mix of things I already knew, things I had read about and wanted to try, and some new information!  Love that!

We focused one the star tip and different icing techniques that come with it.  I use my star tip from Ateco (oh no! Not a competitor) to usually frost my cupcakes with typical cupcake swirl (Wilton calls it a “1M Swirl” because the size tip that is used) so I was pretty comfortable with those already.

 We did a bunch of little stars with the smaller size 18 tip on one cupcake in yellow. 

And larger individual stars with the 1M tip.

We also looked at the “1M Rosette” which is below in the picture with a striped icing. 

It’s similar to the swirl but starts in the center and works outward instead of outside working in. With the swirled pink and yellow icing it came out so pretty!  

I love that they explained which type frosting technique should be done at 90° degree angle and which should be done at a 45° angle.  And no, I did not pull out a protractor to have it perfectly angled…

It was also great to have someone who is a professional give me constructive feedback.  Lots of positive reinforcement but also some guidance about the amount of pressure to put on the pastry bag.  

I only managed to ice 5 cupcakes while I was in the class but I took this afternoon to make a batch of icing and decorate the rest. 

All the pink and yellow were done in class! 

Here are the ones I finished off at home in purple and green.

This one looks a bit like a hydrangea. 

Here's the open star tip again with a rosette, but it's actually my Ateco (shhhh) which is larger than the 1M. 

These two I think are the prettiest of the bunch, and I can't decide which is prettier.  One is more lavender and the other has some cream color in the center.  Which do you think is prettier? 

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The class itself isn’t expensive, but there have been a lot of supplies needed and they want you to buy a lot of Wilton products.  Luckily, my instructor has been very down to earth about what you need and what can you supplement from home in a more cost effective way.  She also has the best tips on icing!  What’s your favorite icing technique?

I probably need to head back to yoga class to work off the calories of all these cupcakes! 

Meanwhile, I found this print via Pintrest and I really think that I need it for my kitchen.  Don’t you agree?

The difference the right tool makes - Spring Confetti Cupcakes

I’ve always thought that my cake and cupcake decorating skills were subpar.  I’d have great flavors, great textures and then you’d look at it and be like – well at least it tastes great.  Or worse: the thought that appearances are deceiving and that it tastes much better than it looks. 

I’ve tried pastry bags with tips, icing guns, and no matter what I do I’d always end up with more icing on the plate, on the counters or on me rather than on the cupcakes.

But, as most people know, I’m stubborn.  And I’m going to keep trying at it! 

 

So I researched.  I looked in my cook books, I looked at Pinterest, I looked at blogs.  And then I found it!  Someone explaining how those darn pastry bags work and how to get that bakery style swirl.  (I was starting to think you only learned it in pastry school!)

What I found out is that all along I’ve been using the wrong size tip?!? No wonder it looked terrible and would take f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

So thanks to Sara and her blog Our Best Bites I was finally able to achieve some decent looking cupcakes! 

 

I bought the Ateco set that Sara recommended and tried out her directions this weekend.

 

 

The three big things that I learned were:

• The consistency of the icing is critical
• Be sure to pack the icing into the pastry bag so there are no air bubbles.
• Icing tip size matters – use a large or a jumbo size tip

 

I call these cupcakes spring funfetti cupcakes with very vanilla frosting and they are so easy!

 

99% of the time I make my cupcakes from cake mix, but the trick is to always make homemade frosting. You can doctor cake mix to be as good as homemade and you don’t have to worry about the leavening and whether it will rise or not because all of that is premeasured for you!

• One box of white cake mix (whatever is on sale!)
• Eggs (according to the directions)
• Melted butter (same quantity as the box says for oil)
• 1-2 tsp of vanilla
• Spring sprinkles 

Preheat to the oven to the temperature on the cake mix and line a cupcake tin with liners.  

Melt the butter, Mix cake mix, eggs, butter and vanilla in the mixer and beat for 2 minutes.   Add the sprinkles and mix to combine. I didn’t measure the sprinkles, I just added enough to make the batter speckled and colorful.

 

The trick is to always make homemade buttercream.  I used Food Network’s Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, but increased it to 2 tsp of vanilla. 

 

And voilà! Beautiful bakery quality icing job finished with a little bit of sanding sugar!