Buttercream is a simple frosting used to decorate cakes and cupcakes. By varying a few ingredients, the frosting possibilities are almost endless.

Basic Buttercream Frosting Recipe:

Ingredients

250 g butter or margarine (at room temperature)

500 g icing sugar

10 ml vanilla essence

15 ml cream (or milk)

Procedure

Cream the butter / margarine and vanilla essence using an electric mixer.

Add the icing sugar, in two portions and mix well after each addition until a smooth consistency is obtained.

Add the vanilla essence & milk/cream and beat at high speed for about 5 minutes.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Recipe:

Replace 50 g of the icing sugar with 50 g cocoa powder and 5 ml chocolate essence (optional) to the buttercream recipe.

Flavoured Buttercream Frosting Recipe:

For lemon or orange flavoured buttercream frosting, replace the vanilla essence with 10 ml of either lemon or orange essence.

You can replace the vanilla essence with any essence of your choice to obtain your desired flavour!

Coloured Buttercream Frosting Recipe:

For a coloured buttercream frosting, add liquid or gel food colouring drop by drop until the perfect colour is obtained.

For a perfectly white buttercream, normal margarine or butter will not do due to the yellow appearance. Check the packaging and look for a white margarine suitable for icing.