Buttercream, Meringue, Ganache! Oh my!

Frosting is to cake as cheese is to pizza. It's essential, and can really brighten up a plain Jane cake. Admittedly, a good cake doesn't need frosting, but it'd be very unusual to serve cake without some type of frosting or icing. There are so many different kinds of frostings and icings, and there are so many ways to utilize them.

Carved buttercream? Who woulda thunk?

American buttercream ruffles.

Most of us are used to grocery store frosting. While that's fine for most people, it's full of chemicals, and it doesn't even have any butter in it, so legally they can't call it "buttercream." The copy-cat recipes are usually modified American buttercream, which is simply butter or shortening or a combination or the two, powdered sugar, and flavor extract. These are useful when you need something quick and simple, and if you're not used to other buttercreams. The copy-cat recipes are preferable to grocery store frosting because of the taste and ingredients. Grocery store frosting uses preservatives and artificial butter flavoring.

Beautiful rough smoothing with Swiss meringue buttercream.

Then there's three sorts of meringue buttercreams: Swiss, Italian, and French. What are the differences? Swiss is made by combining egg whites and sugar and cooking until the sugar is dissolved. Then you whip it up and add butter and whip some more. Italian is similar, but instead of cooking the egg whites with the sugar, you cook the sugar with water to make a simple syrup, then add it to whipped egg whites with sugar. You beat both of these buttercreams like crazy until you get light, fluffy goodness. French is similar to the Italian process, except you use egg yolks. The egg yolks make the buttercream way creamier and much more buttery tasting, but because of its creamier texture, it's much more difficult to pipe. Any of these three buttercreams are the go-to frostings for many professional cake artists and pastry chefs, especially in Europe.




Australia is known for using chocolate ganache to cover their cakes, usually followed by fondant if they don't want a dark brown cake. Ganache is probably the most simple frosting out of all of them; it's chocolate (usually bittersweet or semi-sweet) and heavy cream. However, it is probably the toughest to use because you have to use it when it's just at the right consistency/temperature, and it sets rather fast. Though its difficulties, it can be smoothed so well that you'd swear it's fake. This makes for a rich, delicious, and sleek-looking cake.

A smooth ganache-covered cake. Tutorial via TLB

The "Madhatter" style cake by Planet Cake. They ganache their cakes first, then cover them in fondant. Look at those crisp edges and clean lines!

Now, most people who aren't decorators turn to canned frosting found in the baking aisle. That's really fine. Kudos to you for wanting to make a cake yourself.

Pretty if you made these for your daughter's
tea party. Sad if you're pretending to be a
"professional."

Canned frosting tends to be gooey and has a shiny finish, so it's easier to just slap on and call it good. However, trying to sell those baked goods and make a business out of them is NOT okay. The frosting is not meant for piping, so it won't look good on cupcakes, and it definitely wasn't made to smooth out like buttercream or ganache, so you'll most likely get a lumpy mess. Personally, I have no idea what it'll do to fondant over a long period of time, but I'm sure that with it being so gooey it won't hold it's shape when covered. Either way, if it looks like it was piped with a ziptop bag, it's not suitable for any sort of "business." The only exception to the rule would be if you're baking for a fundraiser or something similar.

Buttercream frosting and ganache all have their advantages and disadvantages, and they all require patience and practice, which is why no one should ever jump into decorating head first. Take the time to try all the different varieties and see which one(s) works for you. From-scratch recipes always taste better, and you can assure your audience that what your whip up is not only fresh, but chemical free. After you've chosen the perfect frosting for you, your next step is learning how to use it effectively. Then you're on your way to making amazing cake!

Like these. I just love the style Yuma Couture Cakes brings to every single cake.

Ok, I'm done now.

Recipe: Cookies N' Cream Muddy Buddies

I remember muddy buddies, or "puppy chow" from my childhood. Not because I ate any, but because I couldn't. I've always been allergic to peanut butter, and back then everyone always made the traditional peanut butter and chocolate muddy buddies. Any adaptations or variations were either non-existent or hidden in the minds of moms.

Thanks to the internet, certain recipes have gone viral. The one recipe I'm thankful for?

Cookies N' Cream muddy buddies.

Muddy buddies and Oreos? It's a match made in heaven. Sweet, chocolate-y heaven.

I only did the "cream" part of the recipe because I really don't need ten cups of muddy buddies around to snack on constantly.

Here's what you'll need:

How easy is this? Four ingredients. Four!

You can use regular Oreos if you want, but I only ever eat double stuf.

Ghirardelli is probably the best quality stuff you can get in Wal-Mart or Target. If you don't care to go that fancy, vanilla flavored almond bark will suffice, but you'll need to chop or cut it up so you can measure out one cup.

"Cream" Muddy Buddies

5 cups rice Chex cereal

1 cup white chocolate melting wafers

8 Oreos finely crushed

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Place cereal in a medium bowl.

Place Oreos in a large heavy-duty zip-top bag and crush them with a rolling pin. (Alternatively, crush Oreos in a food processor, which was much faster.)

Add sugar to the crushed Oreos and toss.

Melt white chocolate according to the package and pour over cereal. Toss until coated.

Transfer cereal to sugar/Oreo mixture and shake until coated.

Let cool either in the bag or on a cookie sheet.

Feel free to make the other half of the recipe, which is exactly the same as the "cream" part except that the white chocolate is replaced with milk chocolate.

I eat these babies straight out of the bag. They're sooooo good!

Recipe: Lemon Cupcakes with Blueberry Buttercream

I know this is a "cake advice" blog, but I am a baker, and once in a while I come up with a recipe that I love. This one is super simple and delicious, so I thought I'd share it with the world.

Lemon Cupcakes and Blueberry Buttercream

I realize that the watermark says "Ambrosial Affections." That is the name of my website. They're my pictures. Cool your jets.

Lemon Cupcakes:

2 cups of flour

1 1/3 cups of sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup of unsalted butter

1 cup of buttermilk*

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (the real stuff)

2 eggs

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

The zest of three lemons

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners (approximately 18 if filled 3/4 full, or 2 dozen if filled 1/2 full), or grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and zest in a medium mixing bowl.

Add butter, buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon juice to dry ingredients and mix until smooth.

Add eggs and mix until combined.

Fill pans/cupcake liners, then place in oven for 18-24 minutes, or until they spring back when lightly touched.

Remove from oven and let cool completely. COMPLETELY.

* If you don't have buttermilk you can put 1 tablespoon of vinegar in a 1-cup measuring cup, then fill it the rest of the way up with regular milk. I use 1%.

Blueberry Buttercream

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

(Or you can use all butter. Whatever you prefer.)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups powered sugar

2 tablespoons of water

1/2 fresh blueberries

(Frozen is fine if fresh isn't available.)

Place water and blueberries in a small saucepan over medium heat.

Bring to a simmer, all the while mushing up the blueberries with a wooden spoon.

Keep mushing until volume is reduced to half.

Remove from heat and transfer to a small bowl. Let cool completely.

While the mush is cooling, combine butter, shortening, and vanilla extract in a mixer and beat on medium speed until combined.

Turn mixer to its lowest setting, and sift powdered sugar into butter one cup at a time. Wait until all the sugar is incorporated before adding the next cup.

Scrape down the sides as needed.

When all the sugar is incorporated, and when the mush is cooled, place a mesh strainer on top of the mixing bowl and add the blueberry mush.

Squeeze every last bit of juice from the mush with a spoon.

(If you're not piping the buttercream out of a piping tip, and you want pieces of blueberry in the buttercream, feel free to skip the straining part, and just dump the mush into the buttercream. You might have to add more sugar to keep it from becoming too watery.)

Mix on medium-high speed until the blueberry is all integrated with the buttercream.

Mix for an additional 15 minutes on high for extra fluffy-ness.

Transfer buttercream to piping bags fitted with your favorite tip. I love the French tip for cupcakes, unless I'm doing a rose. I use a closed star tip for that.

Pipe onto you COMPLETELY cooled cupcakes.

Devour.

These are probably my favorite cupcakes of all time.

Oh, and if you don't add the lemon zest and lemon juice, these become super easy and fast vanilla cupcakes, too.