Emily Friend, British Girl Bakes, shares her favorite buttercream frosting recipe
The following is a guest post from Emily Friend. She is the baker, cake decorator and content creator of British Girl Bakes, an online resource for recipes and cake decorating tutorials. She started her online cake school and membership program to inspire and empower bakers all over the world to find happiness in caking! Her work has been featured on Wilton, the BBC, Amazon, BuzzFeed and The British Sugarcraft Guild. Emily will provide you with tips and tricks to make anyone look like a successful and professional baker and cake decorator. As part of Creator Month, we’re using our platform to showcase creators doing what they do best: sharing their knowledge. Get a sneak peek at Emily in action below.
Why online courses with Teachable
After sharing short-form tutorials on YouTube and www.britishgirlbakes.com, I wanted to get more in-depth with techniques and more complicated cake designs. I’m not very technically savvy (or patient!) so Teachable’s user-friendly interface really appealed to me.
I created a cake school with a free course to start with and once it was clear that it was popular, I created more content with Master Courses, Mini Courses, and Live Workshops. I love the comments sections below every video that have turned my cake school into a community with two-way communication between my students and me.
Emily’s favorite frosting recipe
4 Minute Buttercream
I love this buttercream firstly because it’s easy to make and delicious but also because its “crusting” consistency means it gets firm enough to make really unique cake decorating techniques possible like stenciling, carving, buttercream transfers, and acetate wraps.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 lb powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons cream or milk
How to make it:
Step 1
Sift the sugar to remove any lumps and check that the butter is at room temperature—you should be able to slice through it easily with a spatula.
Step 2
In a mixer with a beater (paddle) attachment, mix butter for a few seconds until smooth. Add a quarter of the powdered sugar and salt (if using) and mix on the lowest speed until incorporated, about one minute.
Step 3
Scrape down to the bottom of the mixing bowl with a spatula to loosen any butter and sugar and add the next quarter of powdered sugar and mix for another minute on low.
Step 4
Scrape down to the bottom of the bowl, add another quarter of the powdered sugar, mix for one minute on low, scrape, and add the final quarter of the powdered sugar. Mix for one more minute on low, adding the vanilla once everything is mixed together and continuing to mix until it’s incorporated.
Step 5
Add the milk or cream and mix for about 30 seconds until it’s combined with the buttercream. Check the consistency and add more milk or cream a tablespoon at a time until the buttercream is smooth and easily stirred.
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Things we can learn from Emily’s online school:
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The value of using multiple course formats
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Offering high-value content, free, like her recipe!
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Creating visually beautiful, simple, and accessible content