Buttercream 101

Buttercream 101

I break down buttercream, which is generally icing made out of sugar and a form of fat, into four categories: Shortening, Butter, Egg Whites, and Egg Yolks based.


Shortening based:
Shortening based buttercream (also called Decorator's buttercream/icing) is great for decorations like borders and flowers. Because shortening has a high melting point, your icing will not as likely become soft as you pipe and lose its shape. The only downfall to shortening based buttercream is a greasy mouth feel that occurs when ingesting it.


Butter based:
You guessed it, it is buttercream that is mainly butter and sugar. For some, including myself, the overall taste is too buttery, so I incorporate high ratio shortening to stabilize it for cake decorating and to dilute the flavor of butter. Aside from shortening, cream cheese, melted chocolate, cream, or/and milk are added for different flavors and textures.
- I recommend butter based buttercream with added shortening for novice cake decorators because it is a simple recipe and can be easily altered as needed.


[The next two categories are buttercreams that will take practice to make correctly.]


Egg Whites based:
Also called meringue based, buttercreams based on using egg whites produce very smooth textured buttercreams with a less sugary taste than shortening or butter based buttercreams.
Two buttercreams that are meringue based are Italian buttercream and Swiss buttercream. Italian buttercream requires boiling a sugar syrup to the right temperature and mixing in beaten and peaked egg whites. Swiss buttercream requires the use of a double boiler or bain marie.


Egg Yolks based:
Also called Pâte á bombe and French buttercream, is a buttercream made with yolks and hot sugar syrup.


See: My favorite buttercream recipe.
See: What is High Ratio Shortening.

Happy Cake Decorating!