I’d like to share with you my favourite buttercream. It’s so soft and light that it looks like whipped cream. And of course the taste is simply wonderful. I use this frosting quite a lot and it’s great under fondant. The simplicity of adding various flavours such as chocolate, raspberry, caramel, coffee, and peanut butter is just an added bonus.

Now here’s the recipe:

• 6 egg whites or 180g
• 300g sugar
• 500g soft butter
• Flavouring to taste (see below)

Method:

First you need to make absolutely sure that the bowl and whisk are completely free from any fat. The best thing to do is wash both in very hot and soapy water, rinse well and dry with a clean towel. Some people like to wipe the bowl and whisk with lemon juice as the acid dissolves the fat.

Next up is filling a small pot to 1/3 with water and bring it to the boil.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks into the bowl along with the sugar and mix. The bowl then goes on top of the pot with the boiling water.

It’s very important to keep a close eye on the bowl and stir frequently to make sure that the eggs don’t curdle – this is absolutely not scrambled eggs buttercream we’re making here 😉 Heat the mixture to about 65°C to 70°C (150°F) or until the sugar has completely dissolved. The best way to test for that is to rub a little bit of the mix between two fingers, that’s what I do instead of using a thermometer. If you can still feel the sugar, stir some more.

When the mixture is ready we transfer the bowl to the stand mixer and whisk on a medium speed for about 8 minutes.

By now we should have a glorious meringue. At this point I usually switch from the whisk to the beater, but that not’s strictly necessary.

Now it’s safe to add the room temperature butter slowly to the mixture. Mix thoroughly between butter additions. Sometimes this will look like cottage cheese but fear not – just keep whisking until it becomes smooth and silky. This can take anywhere from 2 to 6 minutes. At this point we would add any flavourings, and here are some suggestions:

• Mocha: 1/2 cup (120ml) strong coffee and 120g chopped dark chocolate. Melt the chocolate in the coffee, allow to cool for 3 minutes and add to the cream.
• Chocolate: Melt 120g of chocolate and let it cool for 3 minutes before adding it to the cream.
• Caramel: 1 cup (240ml) thick caramel, home made or store bought.
• Raspberry: 1 1/2 cup raspberry purée. Bring 1 1/2 cups of frozen raspberries to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Purée completely in a blender, run through a sieve and cool at room temperature.
• Vanilla: Scrape the seeds out of a single vanilla pod and add to the cream.
• Mint: 1 tsp of mint flavouring and a few drops of green food colouring. Here it could also be good to add a few chocolate drops or finely chopped chocolate. Mint and chocolate are the best of friends.
• Nutelly: Add 120 – 180g (to taste) of Nutella to the cream.
• Lemon: Add a bit of lemon curd to the cream, to taste.
• Coffee: 1 tbsp intant coffee dissolved in 2 tsbp of boiling water. Add more coffee if you’d like.
• Liquorice: Try adding the liquorice powder from Lakrids to taste.

Enjoy!