Everyone has a particular sweet treat that makes them slightly weak at the knees. Ours? Buttercream frosting.
Though delicious as it may be, applying a smooth layer of buttercream to a cake can be a tricky skill to master.
We asked the Good Housekeeping Institute’s Cher Loh about how we perfect the art of frosting and he broke it down into three easy steps...
Crumb coat your sponge
‘You always want to crumb coat your cake. By crumb coating, I mean applying a very, very thin layer of buttercream all over the top and side of your sponge. This makes all of the cake’s crumbs stick to it.’
Chill the cake
‘What I do next is chill the cake really well. Doing this means that no bits of sponge or crumbs will poke through your next layer of buttercream.’
Apply a second later
‘Apply your next layer of clean buttercream. To do this, I use a palette knife for both the crumb coating and second layer. To perfect your icing even more, it might be worth getting a cake scraper.’
What to read next
Buttercream icing recipe
To cover the top of a 20.5cm (8in) cake, you will need:
- 75g (3oz) unsalted butter
- 175g (6oz) icing sugar, sifted
- a few drops of vanilla extract
- 1-2 tbsp milk.
1. Put the butter in a mixing bowl, then beat until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually stir in the remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.
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The GH Kitchen Team are Good Housekeeping’s resident recipe developers and all-round food obsessives. GH Kitchen Director Sarah Akhurst is our resident hosting pro and loves nothing more than putting on a foodie feast for friends. Our GH Kitchen Manager Linzi Pucino is our very own Italian food expert (originally hailing from the North East of Scotland!) and can be found working her way through midweek recipes that cover all bases, from haggis to ragu! Our Kitchen Editor Nadine Brown loves digging into the stories behind her favourite foods and enjoys applying her eclectic tastes to more modern, flavour-forward recipes - just don't give her too much chilli! Our Junior Food Content Produce Frankie Prichard combines a love of beautiful presentation and flavour-led, seasonal cooking in her recipe development, along with a passion for bringing people together through food. With a wealth of professional kitchen experience between them, they’re dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work every single time
