0:00
One of the most commonly asked questions about cake decorating is how to get buttercream really
0:05
really white so in this tutorial I'll share four hacks for white buttercream. Look at the
0:11
difference these hacks make! The first hack is also the very first step of the process of making
0:17
buttercream. Beat the butter first all on its own for a few minutes at medium speed until it's
0:24
completely smooth and almost looks like a liquid because it's moving so easily around in the mixing
0:29
bowl. This will only happen if the butter is at room temperature before you start so take it out
0:34
of the fridge about four hours before you make the buttercream. Look at how much lighter the
0:39
buttercream is now compared to five minutes ago! Now add the icing sugar or powdered sugar which
0:45
will lighten the butter a lot more. After mixing in all of the sugar and the milk or cream at the
0:51
end of the recipe, if the buttercream is still yellow add a teeny tiny bit of violet. Dip a
0:58
toothpick into the bottle to get a tiny amount and drag it through the buttercream to leave a
1:03
streak behind. This has to be violet. Purple won't work because it's the blue tint of violet that
1:10
offsets the yellow. Mix it in and look at the difference before and after adding violet. You
1:18
could add white colouring but you need a lot for a full batch of buttercream and using that much
1:23
has two negative side effects. An unpleasant flavour and it will make the buttercream very
1:29
runny. This third hack for white buttercream actually has nothing to do with the buttercream
1:34
itself. Look at this colour! It's white isn't it? Actually it's off-white but you only notice that
1:40
when true white is right next to it. Why am I showing you this? Because after making a cake
1:46
you can control whether the buttercream appears to be bright white by choosing your background
1:52
wisely. Set the scene by opting for colourful decorations, nothing white and don't display the
1:58
cake in front of a white background either. Look at the difference for these white cakes when the
2:03
background is white compared to when the background is any other colour. The cakes look whiter when
2:09
the background isn't white. If none of these hacks make your cakes look white enough the final hack
2:15
is to tweak your buttercream recipe. As you saw at the beginning the butter in buttercream is
2:21
yellow and gives buttercream that yellow tinge. You can replace the buttercream with a vegetable
2:26
shortening like Trex or Crisco which doesn't have any yellow colour at all so your buttercream will
2:33
be bright white like the cakes you buy from a grocery store or supermarket but the flavour
2:38
will be different without butter so you're sacrificing that. An alternative is to substitute
2:44
half of the butter with shortening which will make the colour whiter but you'll keep the delicious
2:49
buttery flavour. An added benefit of using half shortening instead of butter is that the buttercream
2:55
will be more stable so it will hold its shape much longer in heat. I hope this tutorial has been
3:00
useful! Subscribe to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week and visit my cake
3:06
school on britishgirlbakes.com to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs with
3:11
courses and membership options too to take your buttercream cake skills to the next level
