Help. My buttercream is always too liquid.?

Question

Okay, I'm making cupcakes so I'm making Buttercream Icing.
Everytime, the sugar and egg whites are mix, it's fine, it becomes the way I like it.
But whenever I add butter (to give it more taste) the whole thing just turns liquid. Not like an icing at all.
So I add more sugar, hoping it'd help but it didn't

Can someone tell me what's wrong?

Thank you so much!

Answer 1

Buttercream Icing

(Medium Consistency)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla Extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approx. 1 lb.)
2 tablespoons milk
In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

YIELD: Makes about 3 cups.

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

For Pure White Icing (stiff consistency), omit butter; substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and 1/2 teaspoon No-Color Butter Flavor. Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes.


NOTE: Changes in Wilton's traditional recipes have been made due to Trans Fat Free Shortening replacing Hydrogenated Shortening.

Answer 2

My recipe for buttercream is:
1/2 cu shortening
1/2 cu butter
1 lb confectioner's sugar
4 Tbl cold milk(not skim,but 1% is fine)
Dash kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp butter flavoring

My guess is too much liquid....my recipe "suggests" 4 Tbl milk(it's the Wilton buttercream recipe basically that I have tweaked over the years).....but I alternate the milk with the sugar til I get the right consistency....and a good rule is too thin,add more sugar, too thick add a few drops milk..good luck!(PS: Did you use real butter....or oleo? many margarines & oleos have a high water content....to see how your's rates...melt a bit either on the stovetop or microwave & if it looks like a mini oil slick,it's mostly water)

Answer 3

Real buttercream icings do not use eggs. Here's the best Buttercream icing, bar none.

1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tbsp vanilla
In a saucepan, stir together sugar and flour until evenly combined. Gradually stir in milk until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until mixture thickens and boils. Reduce heat to low; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool COMPLETELY. In a large bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat softened butter until creamy. G radually beat in milk mixture and vanilla Make s 3 cups.
We all love this icing and it goes on any flavoured cake. You can add grated orange or lemon rind to it as well.
Good Luck and Happy New Year.

Answer 4

this one's perfect for cupcakes -

125g soft butter
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Beat the butter in a mixer until it's as white as possible (nb this takes a bit of time and only use butter, not margarine)
Grandually add 1/2 the icing sugar, then the milk, then the rest of the icing sugar.

you can colour it or add cocoa, passionfruit etc to flavour it (you might need to adjust the milk or icing sugar if you add more dry ingredients or more liquids such as passionfruit)

Answer 5

I'm guessing that your butter is too hot. The thickness of the icing depends on the temperature of the ingredients. Put it in the refrigerator and it'll probably thicken up.

(P.S. I'm personally not so comfortable with eating foods that have raw eggs in them. I usually make homemade icing with just butter and milk and sugar. It's delicious and not as scary.)

Answer 6

I did exactly what the Wilton's box says. I didn't use any shortening or anything extra, and my icing was awesome. Will say this: we had the air conditioning on that day coz of all the baking I was doing and it was very hot outside. I didn't start with a thinned icing; I just spread it closer to the base the first time around.