At Its Finest

I'm an icing person. As opposed to a cake person.

I'm the one offering to swap cake for icing at weddings. (Though I usually regret it within a few hours when I crash down off the sugar high.)

And I do so love a good buttercream.

REAL buttercream.

The grocery bakery's sickly sweet whipped vegetable shortening icing has its place, I suppose. Yes, I'll admit that I even enjoy licking *that* off cupcakes. A spoonful from a tub of brand-name icing off the shelf even made me happy back in the day.

But real buttercream is magic.

I think the most magical icing of them all is meringue buttercream. Not only is it richly buttery, and not too saccharinely sweet, but it behaves itself. Well, perhaps not upon the waist or the hips, but it does stand proud on cupcakes, just so. It doesn't wilt into a sad mess if the weather is a touch too warm. It's practically perfect in every way.

Don't be mystified!

I got hooked on Kaye's (Italian) Buttercream from the Whimsical Bakehouse cookbook and haven't looked back since (except when baking & decorating for vegans). It's straight forward and there's no going back.

I've made several variations (including chocolate hazelnut buttercream), but my favorite is salted caramel buttercream. Ah, yes. It was the topping for those to-die-for cupcakes I posted, well... far too long ago. It took a kick in the pants from MCS to get me posting again. THIS is worth the wait, though, friends.

Enjoy!

Salted Caramel Italian Buttercream Icing

makes 4-ish cups

1/4 c water

1 c + 2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 c egg whites (room temp; about 5 large egg whites)

3 sticks unsalted butter (room temp)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 c salted caramel sauce

Bring water and sugar to boil in a saucepan. Wash crystals off of the sides with a wet pastry brush as needed. Once the syrup begins to boil, set a timer for 5min.

Have egg whites ready in bowl of stand mixer with whip attachment. When timer timer goes off, reset for 2min and begin to whip on high speed. They should be stiff by the time the timer goes off.

Remove sugar syrup from the heat and slowly drizzle into mixing bowl (along the side, trying to avoid the whip) as it continues to beat at high speed. Once all of syrup has been added to the egg whites, set timer for 10min. The bowl should be barely warm to the touch when timer goes off.

Begin to chop 1" pieces off of the sticks of butter, adding each piece one at a time to mixing bowl. If/when the buttercream begins to elevate, attempting to escape from the bowl, reduce speed to low. Add vanilla once butter is completely incorporated. Beat until icing is fluffy. (When it appears curdled, do NOT fear. It will smooth itself momentarily!)

Mix salted caramel sauce into buttercream to taste- roughly 1/2 c. Reserve a couple of Tbsp of the salted caramel to drizzle along the sides of your decorating bag/tube to give a nice swirled appearance to the icing as you decorate. Try to resist eating too many spoonfuls as you go!