It took me nearly twice the amount of time to make and deal with this frosting as it did to make and bake the cake part AND buy the carrier that totes two dozen cupcakes. I have always wanted one of these things and I will tell you that if you show up at a party with this carrier in hand, whatever you have inside will undoubtedly go to the highest bidder. Or drunkest, as it were.
I opted to make the chocolate variety so the first step was to melt chocolate. Fine.
Then you make simple syrup and add cream of tartar. Fine.
It gets somewhat complicated hereafter. I am still finding bits of chocolate and egg underneath my counters and on my clothes.
You have to beat eggs constantly in a stainless steel bowl in a water bath until they hit 120 then pour in syrup in a steady stream beating constantly. Then remove from heat and beat mixture constantly until in comes to room temp. Finally you add in 3 sticks of butter one tablespoon at a time at perfect temperature so that mixture is neither too thick or too runny. If either situation occurs you have to refrigerate or re-cook. I did both after I added in the chocolate because when I tried to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes, the moisture separated from the fat and looked like total shit.
Everyone said it tasted really good, but there must be an easier way to achieve this result. Perhaps I do have to invest in a candy thermometer.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
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3 comments:
Buttercream frosting IS difficult. And did you know that you're officially on your way to becoming a soccer mom when you own one of those carriers? But then being able to bake cupcakes from scratch detracts from the soccer mom connotations.
I have never attempted this, Piefinger. Kudos.
While I'm sure this may not be QUITE what you want for a buttercream, the icing recipe in the cupcake episode of Good Eats sounds much much easier than the one you mentioned here. However, I'm not entirely sure on how you'd modify it for chocolate.
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