Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Hey all,

I absolutely adore all things chocolate!! Chocolate ice cream, chocolate coffee, chocolate cake, and especially chocolate icing!!

 I know you're probably like get to the point already, so here it is. I've always had trouble making buttercream icing. Now the icing that's just powder sugar and milk I could make when I was 7, but up until this past year buttercream always gave me a hard time. It was either too soft that it wouldn't hold its shape or so stiff that I couldn't spread it, and other times it was just wrong.

 

Then I found this recipe. It was amazing!! I used the recipe a few times until I got a feel for the right proportions for how much icing I wanted to make.

 

The pictures aren't so good because I wasn't making a lot, sorry. To get the best chocolatey flavor use a good coco powder. I use a Dutch coco powder which is the best! However any brand/type of coco powder will work just as well.

When I make the icing now I usually don't measure anything, but I have come up with a recipe for you.

Buttercream Icing: makes about 2 cups
1-cup butter room temperature
3-4 cups powder sugar
1/4 cup coco powder
about 1/4 cup milk
1 pinch of salt

Beat butter until smooth and add coco powder, salt and half of the powered sugar. Mix until smooth scraping the edges of the bowl as needed, add the rest of the powder sugar and a splash of milk. Mix until fully incorporated then beat on medium high speed until fluffy*. Test the thickness and spread-ability of the icing and adjust it to your liking, add more milk to thin it out and more sugar or coco to thicken it.

*this step is what makes the icing, it should almost double in size and be fluffy.

Hope you enjoyed this post, and know that getting buttercream icing right is like riding a bike once you learn how to do it, it's easy-peasy.

Keep it sweet,
K.

Tiered Cake

Hey all,

I have been wanting to try and make a tiered cake all year, so I finally did it over the summer and I thought would share my experience. I didn't know I would be blogging it at the time so the pictures aren't step by step.

I made two 8-inch round cakes, stacked them with buttercream icing in the middle and gave them a crumb coating. I put the cake in the fridge to harden the icing. 

 

I have found that taking strips of parchment paper and putting them under that cake a little bit can help keep the stand clean when icing the cake.

 

I did a buttercream rose design on the sides with a Wliton 1M icing tip. This was the first time I ever tried roses and now I wish I had practiced more.

I took the cake board I was going to use for the next tier, placed it on top of the first cake and traced around it. I didn't measure how far it was from the sides so its not completely centered. I used cake pop sticks to support the 2nd tier. I put the first one in the middle of the out lined circle, took it out, trimmed it and the others then put them all in the cake them like so..

The two 6-inch cakes I did next. This is where I had some trouble, the 2nd of the smaller cakes didn't come out of the pan all the way (note to self remember to always grease the pan!) so I had to even-out the layers with extra icing. That's why it looks a bit rounded. I found that dipping your off-set spatula in water then running it over the icing will smooth it out pretty good. After smoothing out the icing I put the cake in the fridge to set so it would be easier to transfer on to the bigger cake.

Setting the small cake on the bigger one was relatively easy, it probably helps that I didn't need the bottom to look nice. If you aren't going to but a border around 2nd tier then I would suggest to do a crumb coating, transfer on to the other cake and then doing the final layer of icing.

I did little roses with a Wilton 22 tip for the border and then 4 on the sides at the top(does that make sense?) I used a Cake Boss 12 icing tip for the little dots connecting the roses. The easiest way I found to get them in a even sloped line is to put a dot on each side of the roses and then 1 in the middle between 2 of the roses a little lower than the bottom of the roses, then just add more dots to connect the dot in the middle to the dot on the side of the rose.

Although it took me a while get it all finished I was quite proud of my work.

I took a lot of time beforehand researching different ways to do a tiered cake (there defiantly are a lot) and everyone has a way that works for them. YouTube always has great tutorials and Pinterest has great ideas, that's where I got the inspiration for this cake. Hope you enjoyed this post. When did you make you first tiered cake? or when are you thinking of making one? leave your comments below!

 

Keep it sweet,

K    

 

About Me

Hey all,

I'm a homeschooled freshmen, I love baking and cooking (mostly baking though).  I am currently in the process of moving back to the U.S.A from living over seas, hence the International in the name. I guess I should have started this a while back when I was still "living" internationally, but better late then never.

This will be my 2nd blog, my 1st I ran with my younger sister and it didn't work out so well and by that I mean we haven't posted anything in about a year. I am hopeful that this one will go better seeing that it's about what interest me. I will be posting mostly sweet baking things recipes, tips etc. I'll throw in some food/cooking recipes every now and then. I can't wait to start but I can't promise a post a week or anything for now.

Keep it sweet,
 K.