The Liquid Mistake You Need To Avoid When Making Buttercream

You know your buttercream is a success when it feels luxuriously silky and coats your tastebuds with a sweetness that feels just right. If it doesn't melt in your mouth and serenade it with sweet, buttery notes, you know you are settling for mediocre. When it comes to buttercream, it's all about the balance of texture, flavor, and consistency. While a classic buttercream recipe is no rocket science, it's still possible to make mistakes as you follow it.

If you want to get buttercream right, a good place to start would be to aim for the perfect consistency. When buttercream has a good consistency, it is easy to work with and your decorations will hold their shape. A big mistake to avoid is adding too much liquid into the mix. Buttercream does need a small amount of liquid to make it spreadable but adding too much of it can make it runny and impossible to pipe.

The amount of liquid required also depends on the kind of decorations you are looking to do. For instance, if you are looking to create dimensional decorations like flowers, you might want to use American buttercream because it's best for piping. You typically want to add very little liquid to your frosting in this case. In other instances, you can't go wrong with a teaspoon of liquid for a cup of frosting. It's always a good idea to make a thicker frosting first and gradually thin it out with liquids like water and milk.

Runny buttercream is not ideal but it can be fixed. One way to do so is to thicken it up by adding powdered sugar to it. A few tablespoons of sugar can save your runny buttercream by making it fluffy and spreadable. Gradually add sugar until the buttercream reaches your desired consistency. Although this trick works, it might leave you with overly sweet buttercream that is cloying. Use an appropriate amount or substitute with cornstarch if you have to.

Chilling the buttercream will also make it firmer. The consistency of buttercream is also determined by the temperature, so the colder the temperature, the firmer your buttercream will be. Sometimes, your buttercream will get runny in hot temperatures even if you didn't put in too much liquid. After placing it in a bowl and covering it with a plastic wrap, simply place the buttercream in the fridge to make it less runny.