How to Make Smooth Buttercream for Cake Decorating
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For beginner bakers, this is the more popular question, How do you get smooth buttercream on your cakes?
Today you’ll learn how to get smooth buttercream on your cakes every single time.
And the quick answer is it all starts with a good buttercream recipe!
When you master making buttercream, then you can accomplish every cake challenge you set your mind to.
Some might not like this step or give it enough thought, but this will take a lot of practice and patience.
I’ll walk you through how to make a quick and easy frosting like American buttercream.
Tips for Success:
- Read through all the ingredients and instructions so you can get a better idea of how much time and what you need to make this cake.
- You can make the buttercream a day ahead and refrigerate it overnight. Then take them out to come back to room temperature. Make sure the buttercream is at room temperature before re-whipping.
- Serve at room temperature and enjoy!
What Tools You’ll Need to Make Smooth Buttercream:
- 5-quart, Stand Mixer with mixing bowl & paddle attachment
- Offset spatula
- 8-inch or 10-inch white cake board
- Serrated knife or cake leveler
- Turntable
- Cake scraper or bench scraper
- Whisk or sifter for powdered sugar
- Steady Rubber Spatula or wooden spoon
Learn how to make your buttercream nice and smooth before decorating your cakes.
Often I’m asked about how to frost a cake and make the sides perfectly smooth. It all starts with making the buttercream smooth before it even goes onto the cake.
The first thing you’ll have to do is get the bubbles out of the buttercream. When you make a buttercream like this Vanilla Buttercream Recipe, you’ll need butter, salt, vanilla, powdered sugar, and heavy cream.
Next is to make sure you sift the powdered sugar. Sifting the powdered sugar aerates the sugar making it easier to absorb the butter and liquids like heavy cream.
After combining all ingredients into a stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, you’ll whip the buttercream at medium-high speed. The ingredients will come together to create a light and fluffy texture.
Now whipping your buttercream on medium-high is excellent for making light and fluffy buttercream (which is what we want), but it’s adding extra air into it.
Once the buttercream has been whipping on medium-high for 5 minutes, you’ll immediately want to reduce the speed to low and push all the air out of the buttercream. Mix for at least 2 minutes. This step creates bubble-free silky smooth buttercream every time.
You’ll do this right before decorating your cake. As your buttercream sits, it’ll get bubbles in it, so be sure to re-mix the buttercream on low before using.
You can also use a wooden spoon and mix the buttercream by hand, pushing out all those bubbles that were created earlier.
This tip will help you frost those silky smooth sides on your cake. It’s so much easier to work with because you aren’t fighting with bubbles in the buttercream. It can be considered a tedious step but trust me it’s worth the extra time!
Something to keep in mind if the buttercream is lumping or has bubbles in the mixing bowl, then it’ll look the same on the cake. These tips work for American Buttercream recipes as well as Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
You May Also Enjoy:
- Chocolate Buttercream (recipe)
- 10 Frosting Recipes (recipe)
- Swiss Meringue Buttercream (recipe)
- How to Decorate Your First Cake (free eBook)
- Cake Decorating for Beginners (masterclass)
Everyone wants to be able to decorate cakes like a pro, and now you can. Save and bookmark these tips so you can refer back when you are ready to decorate. Remember, this will take practice and some patience as you are learning a new skill. You got this. I believe in you! Please email me here at xokatierosario@gmail.com if you have any questions!
Happy Decorating!
P.S. If you liked this Thursday Tip, you really should check out Cake Decorating for Beginners, my signature masterclass. I coach you everything I teach on these many cake tutorials so that you can uplevel your baking and decorating skills. We 10x it so you get the results you want most. Like any new skill, it’s important to learn from the ground up to build a foundation, so take on any cake challenge. It is an investment your future self will thank you for. Check it out at XOKatieRosario.com/cake-masterclass. I will see you there!
Watch The How-to Video Below:
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