Thick and delicious chocolate buttercream.

If you have a buttercream or chocolate addiction, as I do, then this is the recipe for you. That is, if you can drag your mouth away from licking the beaters or the wooden spoon and actually apply some to your cake. Here is the recipe, as promised, from the tiered birthday cake I made recently for my beautiful daughter’s 21st birthday. Enjoy.

Two layers iced. On to the third.

This recipe is adapted from the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting recipe by Ina Garten.

Ingredients

450 grams of dark chocolate (good quality)

350 grams milk chocolate (good quality)

3/4 cup eggs whites (that is 4 to 5 extra-large eggs) at room temperature

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

3/4 teaspoon salt

680 grams unsalted butter at room temperature

3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 teaspoons instant coffee powder, dissolved in 1 1/2 teaspoons water

3 tablespoons dark rum

Method

1. Break up the chocolate into small pieces and place in a heat-proof bowl. Melt in the microwave, a minute at a time and keeping a very close eye on it, stirring each time, until melted with no lumps. Set aside until cooled to room temperature (Note: do not let the chocolate get too cold as it will cause little lumps in the final product making it difficult to pipe).

2. Beat the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar and salt with an electric mixer. Place the bowl of egg whites over a pan of simmering water and heat the egg whites until they are warm to touch. This should take approximately 5 minutes. Return to the electric mixer and beat on high speed for approximately 5 minutes or until the meringue has firm peaks.

3. Add the butter, one tablespoon at a time on medium speed. Add the melted chocolate, vanilla, coffee and rum. Stir through until completely blended. (Note: if the buttercream seems too soft, allow it to cool and then beat it again until right consistency is achieved). Makes approximately 4 cups of icing. It was enough to ice my three tiered cake despite any licking on my part.

4. To ice the cakes, place the 10 inch cake on the serving plate flat side up. Cover entire layer with icing. Place the 8 inch cake in the middle of the 10 inch cake flat side up. Cover this layer entirely with buttercream icing. For the top layer, place the 4 inch cake, flat side down, on top of the 8 inch cake and cover with icing. Smooth the buttercream. Put spare buttercream into piping bags with desired nozels attached for decoration. I used a Wilton 2D but play around with different nozels until you get the look you want. Have fun with this and I suggest wholeheartedly that you have a little practice on some baking paper before decorating the cake.

Three tiers covered in buttercream ready to be decorated.

Piping bags full of buttercream ready for decoration.

To finish decorating the cake, apply florist tape to the cut stems of whichever flowers you choose to decorate the cake with. Choose colours to suit your colour scheme or anything that takes your fancy at the time. It is important to tape the cut stems so that the sap doesn’t seep into the buttercream. Not all flowers are edible and we don’t want to poison our guests, do we? Otherwise, make sure to ask the florist which flowers are edible and skip the tape. Carefully position the flowers and gently push the taped stem into the cake once you are happy with the position. Embellish with candles or other decoration. 

I used this pretty butterfly 21st key amongst the flowers for decoration.

Using the piping bag, carefully pipe around the base of the cake as it sits on the plate. If desired, you can then pipe around each level or on the top. It is all up to your imagination, so go for it. Whenever you are happy, set aside and serve when ready. Voila!

The very pretty and deliciously devine finished product.

Images – me