Ziggy Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Hello everyone, I am making cupcakes for my birthday party in ten days, and while I have no problem with the cupcakes, I am struggling a bit with the buttercream. My plain vanilla buttercream for my vanilla cakes is fine, but I would like to make a lemon flavoured version for my lemon cakes. I tried adding some lemon juice to the buttercream, but it ended too wet and it would have been difficult to pipe it prettily on the cakes. I had to add more sugar to it and it just ended too sweet by the time the consistency was ok. Has anyone got any experience and/or advice on how to make a good consistance lemon flavoured cream? One recipe I found said to use rind rather than juice, but my kids aren't so keen on lemon rind. I also need to make some chocolate cream, which I haven't tried before, any advice on that too? Many thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 I just make plain buttercream and stir lemon curd into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe smallholder Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 I'd go with lemon curd too. As for chocolate ones I'd appreciate others' input too. Cocoa powder just doesn't do it for me and using melted chocolate method seems to make it too difficult to spread or pipe ( although Betty Crocker's choc icing is a nice cheat!) xxx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 I use lemon curd for lemon and ganache for really rich chocolate ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Posted August 31, 2012 Author Share Posted August 31, 2012 Thank you for that!! I'd never have thought of lemon curd at all, I look forward to trying it... The 'tower' for the cupcakes arrived yesterday and looks lovely... I'll be doing these in a week, and will try to post some pictures ... Regarding ganache, sorry for being really dim, but do you mix ganache with buttercream? I've made ganache once before, I think, long ago, but just spread it on the cakes like icing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 Regarding ganache, sorry for being really dim, but do you mix ganache with buttercream? I've made ganache once before, I think, long ago, but just spread it on the cakes like icing... If I'm making a few small (mini) cupcakes I use just ganache - it makes them very rich. For more, or larger, cupcakes you could mix it with buttercream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlina Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 I'd go with lemon curd too. As for chocolate ones I'd appreciate others' input too. Cocoa powder just doesn't do it for me and using melted chocolate method seems to make it too difficult to spread or pipe ( although Betty Crocker's choc icing is a nice cheat!) xxx It can depend on the quality of the cocoa powder, imho. A really good one (dissolved in a tiny bit of boiling water before adding) doesn't have that 'powdery' taste Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe smallholder Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Thanks merlina. Now what a shame I will just have to try to make chocolate cupcakes again! Xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Posted September 9, 2012 Author Share Posted September 9, 2012 Thank you so much for the advice!! The lemon curd worked beautifully, and the buttercream was very tasty! I also made chocolate ganache which I mixed with the buttercream for the chocolate cupcakes, and that too worked very well, and tasted heavenly!! I had never made cupcakes with buttercream before, I had used normal sugar icing in the past, which is nice too, but I wanted to try this for a change, and I was a little nervous as I had never done it before, and because of various time constraints and events, I had only two hours to make the three different flavours of buttercream, and decorate all the cakes (I had baked 52 in total)... it was good fun and though not of professional standard, I was quite happy with the result, and extremely happy with the taste! I put them on a cake tower on the day of my party, we had 40 cakes on the tower, with a candle in each, as it was my 40th birthday... Here is a wee picture of how it looked : So again thank you so much for the advice, it saved me a lot of stress and headaches on Friday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlina Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 happy birthday! and the cakes look lovely Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 Cor, they look lovely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purplemaniacs Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 Well done they look lovely. Hope you had a good birthday. Chrissie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue_F Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 WOW those are beautiful!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Posted September 18, 2012 Author Share Posted September 18, 2012 Thank you everyone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
