2 hours ago
1
Top baking chef Jane Dunn has shared her foolproof way of making the best and smoothest white buttercream with just four ingredients - one might surprise you.
The brains behind Jane’s Patisserie has been a food blogger for over a decade, sharing her knowledge with the world.
She began her culinary training at Ashburton Chefs Academy, and has gone on to publish four recipe books, as well as detailing a number of recipes, as well tips and tricks for home bakers on social media.
In a recent YouTube video, Jane shared how she manages to perfect white buttercream frosting every time, sharing her ingenious hack.
While the staples of the buttercream are the same - butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract - Jane’s added a secret ingredient for brightening that often yellow-tinged frosting: purple food colouring.
She explained: “It sounds really basic but buttercream is always a little bit yellow, so I’m gonna show you some tips just to make it as white as it can naturally, sort of, be without editing a photo.”
The type of buttercream she made is an American buttercream frosting, using blocks of unsalted butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract.
She recommended using block butter for this type of frosting as it can make sure the end result sets well and doesn’t become “sloppy”.
Jane continued: “Sometimes it is as simple as the process of we’re going to beat the butter like crazy - and I will show you the process as we do this - but then you have the trick.
“If you ever have had your hair dyed, I personally haven’t but I have seen this online, you often use a purpose shampoo to help make your hair brighter, and the theory here is the same, where we’re going to add the tiniest touch of purple to help cancel out the yellow and make it white.”
Jane urged caution over the amount of purple food colouring needed, as it’s minute in comparison to all the other ingredients.
She explained: “So will this food colouring, it’s very, very strong, and you can see how dark this purple is. And the idea is colour theory.
“So the yellow and the purple work together and they cancel, sort of, each other out and they become a whiter colour. But the amount you need for this quantity of buttercream really is tiny.”
If you add too much of the purple colouring, the buttercream will turn grey in colour. Jane measured a small amount at the end of a cake skewer for her recipe.
Home bakers were fascinated by Jane’s tip. One person wrote: “Using hair colouring tips for baking..I love it Thankyou!”
Julia said: “Yes Jane! I love this! This brought back memories of my cookery class with an elderly Miss Betts in the 1980's! She was lovely taught me how to make Royal Icing, we added the tiniest drop of blue food colour at the end to make it proper white , your video on the buttercream is brilliant! Not thought of using purple in buttercream, thank you for sharing and bringing back some wonderful memories.”
So if you want to make your next batch of buttercream look professional, this is what you’ll need.
White buttercream
Ingredients
- 500g unsalted block butter, large cubes, room temperature
- 1000g icing sugar
- 1-2 tsp vanilla extract
- Strong purple food colouring
Method
Place the butter in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beating on a high speed for around ten minutes. Add in the icing sugar, you can choose to sift it or not.
Continue to beat on a medium speed for a few minutes, adding in the vanilla extract. Once the icing sugar is incorporated, add a miniscule amount of the purple food colouring.
Be careful not to add too much as it can turn you buttercream grey. Jane advised always starting will less and add as you go, if needed. Continue to beat the icing on a high speed until the colour has dissipated and turned the frosting white.
You can then use your icing to ice cakes or cupcakes. You can store the buttercream in an airtight container and place in the fridge for up to two weeks.
English (US) ·