Buttercream

Buttercream is a frosting built from butter and sugar, beaten together until light and spreadable. It covers cakes, fills layers, and holds piped decorations, which makes it one of the first things most decorators learn to make well before moving on to fondant or gum paste work.

The main styles differ in method and result. American buttercream beats powdered sugar into butter and is the sweetest and quickest to make. Swiss and Italian meringue buttercreams cook egg whites and sugar into a meringue before beating in butter, producing a less sweet, silkier frosting that holds up better in warm rooms, though both take more time and a candy thermometer to get right.

Look at how a recipe handles temperature, since buttercream that is too cold looks lumpy and too warm turns soupy and slides off a cake. Gel food coloring tints it without adding extra liquid the way liquid color can. A common mistake is over-beating meringue buttercream after adding butter, which can look curdled temporarily, though continued beating usually brings it back together.