Buttercream

Buttercream is soft, silky and creamy. It’s the perfect filling for a sandwiched sponge, excellent to use as the “crumb coat” if you are making something large and decorated as well as it pretty much the standard topping for cupcakes/fairy cakes etc etc.

It’s more structural that Marscapone cream, and is essentially 50:50 butter and sugar whipped together, so it’s very easy to de-carbify using a “spoon for spoon” granulated Erythritol & Stevia sweetener.

I’ve cut that down to more like 60:40. With being low carb, our sweetness tolerance is reduced. I think this amount of sweetener is “sweet enough”.

You might not though so play around, taste and adjust to your liking!
Start with less than you think you might want, you can always add more in if it’s not quite where you want it…

You can make buttercream pretty much any flavour you want with dry additives, or if you are using something wet like vanilla extract, add it into the cream then add that to the butter and sweetener.

Vanilla is obviously traditional, yet you can do almost anything that is not excessively wet; cinnamon, chocolate, chocolate mint, berry (using freeze dried berry powder), berry swirl using fresh berries; the options are endless, and I’ve given you some suggested amounts to add below.

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature (half a UK pack)
• 90g granulated sweetener of choice (I personally use Truvia, I’ve also tried NKD Living and The Sweet Plant Co’s products also to good results)
• 15-30ml (1-2 tbsp) double cream to loosen to desired consistency

Flavour combinations:

• Vanilla: add 2 tsp sugar-free vanilla extract into the cream, or the seeds from  a vanilla pod or  1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder
• Cinnamon:  ¹/₂ – 1 tsp cinnamon
• Chocolate:  add 3 tbsp cacao or cocoa powder and a pinch of sea salt
• Lemon:  add fine zest from 1 organic lemon, plus 1 tsp lemon extract/oil
• Spiced orange:  add fine zest from 1 organic orange, 1/2 tsp orange extract/oil plus a pinch of cinnamon
• Pink/Berry:  add 1-4 tbsp freeze-dried berry powder (the more you use the more vibrant the color and concentrated flavor)
• Blue:  for a blue effect, add up to 1tbsp of blue spirulina powder
• Green:  for a green effect, add enough spirulina to turn the yellow green or 1 tbsp of matcha powder for a stronger green effect

Method

Take the butter out the fridge, dice it and then let it come to room temperature

Add the butter to preferably the bowl of a stand mixer with the granulated sweetener. A bowl and hand mixer will also do.
(You can cream it together by hand, but it will not be anywhere near as airy as using a mixer)

Cream togther on a low speed for 1 to 2 minutes until the butter and sweetener come together.

Optionally add in a flavour  and a tbsp of cream

Beat on slow for another minute.

Increase speed and mix until light and fluffy, about another minute or three. The mixture should roughly double in size.

If it is too thick, add the other tbsp of cream and beat for a few more seconds.

Use the buttercream immediately for best effect
One batch will be enough to decorate 6 to 8 cupcakes, and a double batch will be enough to ice and decorate a 20 to 23 cm cake

It can be stored in the fridge up to a week if making ahead.
When you’re ready to use it, simply bring it back to room temperature, and re-whip briefly to bring back to a fluffy consistency.