Fat reduced buttercream

The weather over the Easter break in Sydney was unseasonablly warm this year. So when it came time to make cupcakes for Easter, I really had to rethink the buttercream icing that is synonymous with all my cupcakes.

My standard buttercream icing has a high proportion of real butter in it, which is why it tastes so good. To me it is the key differentiator between a great cupcake and one that's just acceptable.

But with the weather so warm, I knew I had to reduce the amount of butter in the buttercream icing if my Easter cupcakes were not going to melt into a puddle. We've seen this happen in the last of our market days back in 2008 when the spring weather arrived. The texture and consistency needed to be as good as usual to get the beautiful shape when piping. I think the result was fantastic! See what you think.

Ingredients
500g pure icing sugar
50g butter
1 tbslp full cream milk
2 tbslp cold water
colouring of your choice
1/2 tsp Wilton Icing White

1. Place all the ingredients in the bowl of your Kitchenaid and mix on first gear to combine.
2. Increase speed to sixth gear and beat the buttercream for three minutes. If the mixture is a little dry, add a teaspoon of water at a time to achieve a thick consistency. If it is a little too wet, add a dessert spoonful of icing sugar at a time to get it to the right texture.
3. Pipe on cupcakes with your choice of piping tube. Decorate immediately - this buttercream will form a skin very quickly so ice and decorate one cupcake at a time.

Makes enough buttercream to ice 12 muffin sized cupcakes.

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