Fail-Proof Buttercream Recipe

August 29, 2019

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Fail-Proof Buttercream Recipe

If you are looking for a floral piping tutorial and/or buttercream recipe, you’ve come to the right place! This is the absolute perfect buttercream recipe for flower detail work. It took me a long time to figure out that the consistency of the buttercream was key to getting a natural-looking flower petal. The consistency has to be rigid enough to make tiny tatters and tears along the edges of the petals. I found that a lot of recipes were just a little too wet to create that natural tattered petal edge. So I broke it down to two main ingredients for the perfect, flower piping specific buttercream mixture. If it isn’t rigid enough, you can always add more powdered sugar.

You will need:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 tspn vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Step 1: Soften the butter.

You can let your butter sit out on the counter overnight OR you can be impatient like me and microwave it. My particular microwave works best with 3, 10-second bursts. Your butter should squish through your hands like the picture below. It shouldn’t be liquid or frozen.

Step 2. Whip the butter for a few minutes.

We’re just adding a little air to the butter in this step. Use the whisk attachment on high power.

Step 3. Add the sugar.

Be sure your powdered sugar is sifted as you don’t want lumps in your piping bag! Add one cup at a time so you don’t make a powdered sugar explosion. Start on low speed until it gets clumpy and then mix on high until well combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl once before giving it one last spin. It should come out looking like this. This is a very thick buttercream that will hold its shape! For the peony flowers in the video… you will need the following tools:

Gel Food Coloring, I love Americolor!
Curved, Tear Drop Piping Tip, I use an Ateco #122
Wilton #3
Flower Nail
Piping Bags

Get the full video tutorial on my pretty peony flowers here on YouTube! Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel so you can get all my fun project tutorials!