Traditionally consisting of just butter and icing sugar, American buttercream is a staple for bakers when it comes to decorating cakes and cupcakes.

There are many different types of buttercream, including Swiss meringue and French buttercream, but it is usually American buttercream, which is used.

When made right, it’s sweet, fluffy, delicious and pale in colour, a perfect base for food colouring.

I have perfected my recipe over the years, with hours of trying out different ratios to find the perfect balance of sweetness.

It’s super simple and once you’ve mastered the basics, you too can whip up a batch of buttercream I use as a baker.

Ingredients:

250g unsalted butter, at room temperature

375g icing sugar, sieved

One teaspoon of vanilla extract, the best quality you can find

Boiling water, if needed

Method:

Making the perfect consistency all starts with the butter, and it needs to be at room temperature in order to whip up well.

In winter, it may take slightly longer to reach room temperature, but you should be able to put your finger into the butter slowly without it falling apart.

I use my stand mixer to whip the buttercream up as it is less tedious, but this can be done with an electric whisk too, it just may take longer.

Place all of the butter in the stand mixer and let it mix for around five minutes. Scrape the sides down and mix it for another five minutes.

The butter will now be much lighter in colour and will be silky and smooth. Add in the sieved icing sugar and beat together for a couple of minutes.

Add in the vanilla, scrape the sides down and mix again until a glorious buttercream has formed.

If the buttercream is a little stiff and is too hard to spread or pipe, simply add a tiny splash of boiling water whilst the mixer is on to loosen it up.

Typically, ratios for buttercream are always 1:2, but this has always been a little too sweet for me, especially when there’s lots of it on a cupcake.

My ratio provides the perfect balance of sweetness without being sickly and less icing sugar also helps to perfect the buttercream ratio.