Buttercream Frosting

Butter cream frosting: a delicious garnish for any cake or cookie. And now you can make this glorious spread in your very own kitchen. It takes just a few minutes!

The ingredients are delightfully simple, and make for an equally delightful finished product. All you need is powdered/confectioner's sugar, butter, and a few Tbsp of milk or heavy cream.

3 cups powdered sugar
1 cup room temp butter (salted or not; it does not matter)
2 Tbsp of heavy cream or milk

Start off by bringing your butter to room temp. Next, throw it in your Standing mixer with the whisk or paddle attachment(preferably the whisk). Beat it for just about 10-20 seconds, until its spread out over the bowl and is no longer in stick form. MAKE SURE YOU TURN THE MIXER OFF IN ORDER TO AVOID DISASTER

Next dump in your sugar. Yes, all of it. Now turn your mixer on the lowest setting. Once the butter and sugar are starting to combine and have formed a clump inside the whisk attachment (or it is no longer powdery enough to billow sugar into the air, if you're not using the whisk) gradually bring your mixer up to full speed, spending about 5-10 seconds on each setting.

Once you reach full power, let it run for about 15 seconds, then stop the mixer. Grab a small swab on your pinky and spread it on the side of the bowl, just enough so that its smooth. If it is sufficiently glossy and smooth, take it out. However, you will probably want to add 2 T of heavy cream to the mix, and let it run on full power for another 15 seconds, until the cream combines with the mix. If you're adding flavour and colour, now would be the time to do it. If not, your frosting is finished.

For mine, since it was meant to go with the slight bitterness of the chocolate sponge cake, I added a few drops, and I mean only 3 or 4 drops since this stuff is strong, of pure lemon extract. I also added 1/4 of a lemon's worth of finely chopped zest. I then mixed it in at the same stage as the cream, and for the same amount of time.

the slight acid of the lemon perfectly complements the creaminess of the zabaglione and the slight base/bitterness of the chocolate in the spongecake, its so delicious.

As always, have fun cooking and enjoy your delicious Butter cream frosting!