Although buttercream and cream cheese frosting are often used interchangeably, you might want to put some more thought into which frosting you choose for your baked goods. These two popular frostings both turn plain bakery into mouthwatering desserts, but they differ in flavor, ingredients, texture, and how long they can be unrefrigerated. In addition to your taste preferences, the best choice of frosting also depends on what you are baking. For instance, carrot cake, red velvet cake, and other moist cakes are commonly made with cream cheese frosting. Its tangy flavor is a perfect addition to spiced cakes, cupcakes, and breads, but it's less versatile than buttercream, which offers a sweeter flavor that pairs with just about any dessert you bake.
Buttercream and cream cheese frosting have some ingredients in common -- powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and butter -- but buttercream is also made with heavy cream or milk while cream cheese frosting contains, obviously, cream cheese. Skip the pre-made stuff -- you can easily make your own traditional American buttercream frosting at home or a tasty cream cheese frostingfor your cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and brownies. But first, it's best to have some knowledge of what type of frosting is easiest to work with in terms of texture and storage.
For a frosting that's super versatile and easy to work with, choose buttercream for your cakes and cupcakes. Buttercream is the go-to frosting for professional bakers due to its creamy texture and thick consistency which makes it perfect for piping, spreading, and filling. Also, if you choose the right type of buttercream, it will be highly stable and won't melt quickly in warm temperatures, making your cake super easy to transport and serve at parties. Cakes made with most types of buttercream can remain unrefrigerated for a couple of days. You can also store your extra buttercream in the refrigerator for a minimum of one week, or in the freezer for up to four months before the quality decreases.
There are several different types of buttercream. American buttercream is great for beginners and involves a simple process of blending butter, confectioner's (or powdered) sugar, and milk or cream. This frosting is sweeter and denser than other types of buttercream and can also crust or harden slightly after sitting, making it perfect for frosting/decorating cakes and cupcake piping. Swiss and Italian buttercreams are more difficult to make -- both require making a meringue with egg whites and sugar before adding the butter -- but hold up well in warm weather and are perfect for piping decorations like flowers onto cakes. Swiss buttercream is often used by professional bakers to create a glossy smooth finish on cakes.
Cream Cheese Frosting Is Perfect For Spiced Cakes And Breads
Some people prefer the tangier, less sweet taste of cream cheese frosting which can be used as a frosting or filling for a variety of baked goods. It's commonly used on cakes and desserts that are less sweet than typical birthday cakes, such as carrot cake, pumpkin bars, banana bread, zucchini bread, apple spice cake, and other baked goods with similar spices. It's also, of course, the perfect frosting and filling for your red velvet cupcakes and cakes.
However, its softer consistency can make it less stable and more difficult to work with when it comes to piping.A useful tip for thickening your cream cheese frosting to make it more pipable is to fill your pastry bag with the frosting immediately after making it and put it in the refrigerator to cool for several minutes before piping. Baked goods with cream cheese frosting should always be refrigerated or they can spoilafter just a couple of hours. It'll also stay good in the refrigerator for up to two weeks or frozen for three months.
For instance, carrot cake, red velvet cake, and other moist cakes are commonly made with cream cheese frosting. Its tangy flavor is a perfect addition to spiced cakes, cupcakes, and breads, but it's less versatile than buttercream, which offers a sweeter flavor that pairs with just about any dessert you bake.
1. Buttercream Frosting. Buttercream frostings rely on the main ingredient of butter and will be the most common type of frosting you will find in a bakery.
Swiss meringue buttercream is probably the most standard buttercream for pastry professionals. It is incredibly smooth, making it an extremely popular choice for icing cakes. Compared to American buttercream, it has a much stronger butter flavor, but is considerably less sweet.
Buttercreams, my cream cheese frosting, and swiss meringue buttercream are all great choices for a beginner cake decorator. These are sturdy, smooth, not too thick or thin, and pipe well.
For instance, carrot cake, red velvet cake, and other moist cakes are commonly made with cream cheese frosting. Its tangy flavor is a perfect addition to spiced cakes, cupcakes, and breads, but it's less versatile than buttercream, which offers a sweeter flavor that pairs with just about any dessert you bake.
The most stable of the buttercreams, Italian buttercream is made from a meringue made bystreaming hot sugar syrup into egg whites as they're being whisked.
Buttercream is the most popular type of frosting largely because of its few ingredients and easy application. Classic buttercream requires beating butter into icing sugar until you reach a frosting consistency. It's not possible to over beat this type of frosting, so the longer you beat it, the fluffier it gets.
Want to make your own Italian Buttercream Icing right at home? Buddy customized this recipe from one he used at The Culinary Institure of America and was shown to him by a group of students for whom he did a demonstration.
Simple buttercream is commonly used to decorate cakes because it's easy to prepare and bakers can add vanilla, chocolate, or lemon flavorings to enrich a cake's flavor profile.
American buttercream frosting is known for its versatility and simple preparation. You can easily make this type of frosting in your stand mixer by creaming together butter, powdered sugar, heavy cream and other flavors for use on cakes, cookies, brownies and cupcakes.
Butter and flavorings are beaten into the meringue to create the buttercream. Because of its stiff meringue base, the frosting holds up well, will not crust and is great for piping cupcakes and decorating cakes.
Buttercream tends to be more stable, taste better and produce a smooth finish if mixed well. Shortening-based frosting, while the best at providing true to colour options, can be a bit greasy, prone to producing lumps and have an odd texture.
Let me explain, fondant (or sugar paste) is almost the default choice for wedding cakes, it's very popular in terms of design ideas and all the possibilities it opens up. It looks the neatest out of all choices and it's the base of most designs out there.
Buttercream tends to be more stable, taste better and produce a smooth finish if mixed well. Shortening-based frosting, while the best at providing true to colour options, can be a bit greasy, prone to producing lumps and have an odd texture.
Yes, you can make your frosting a few days before you intend to use it and store it in the fridge. It's easier to work with at room temperature, so take it out of the fridge and let it warm up a bit before using it.
Can I Decorate a Cake 2 Days in Advance? Yes, you can. It's best practice to decorate the cake as close to the day of serving as possible, but it will also store well in the fridge. If the icing or frosting has any perishable ingredients, we recommend storing the cake in the fridge to keep it as fresh as possible.
Introduction: My name is Dan Stracke, I am a homely, gleaming, glamorous, inquisitive, homely, gorgeous, light person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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