Is there a difference between Swiss butter and American butter that I need to take into account when baking? Like different fat content or something?
Which butter did you use?
Cook Butter, readily available from all stores, is probably the best one to use.
I would increase the powder sugar, 2parts sugar to 1part butter. And a pinch of salt. I also had to get used to the unsalted butter here
I like butter. A lot. Unsalted only, but I actively like the flavour and am quite choosy about what I buy. Smell is the best indicator, so if you want
less flavour choose one that doesn't smell as nice
Or just use less of it, adding a bit of a light bland veggie oil (e.g. rapeseed) instead.
Of course, since moving to ZH in '86 and TI in '90, butter is mostly a thing of the past and olive oil (always virgin) is now the norm.
Tom
EVOO is also wonderful, and probably healthier
I've also found adding a bit of powdered eggwhite helps stabilize the consistency a bit.
Hope this helps.
1/2 pound (227 g) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg yolk (optional)
1 pound (452 g) confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream (89 ml )
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (used 1 tsp vanilla paste)
Beat butter and egg yolk at medium-high speed until creamy. Beat in the confectioner's sugar at low speed. Beat in the cream, vanilla and salt, then beat at medium-high sped until fluffy, 3 minutes longer
Looking back at the recipe, I'm thinking now that the error was in the amount we used for the sugar, not in the butter. Think I got a bad conversion on the Internet in how many cups one pound of confectioner's sugar was equal to. Looks like should have used two cups, not one.
Thanks for helping me track down the likely problem, which wasn't the butter.
Tom
This is enough to nicely frost 4 cupcakes:
55 g unsalted Floralp butter, room temperature
1 tsp (5 ml) pure vanilla extract
125 g powdered sugar, sifted twice to make it nice and airy
1 Tbsp (15 ml) halbrahm or milk
1. Using a hand mixer, cream the room temperature butter until smooth and fluffy. It creams better if you cube it first.
2. Gradually beat in powdered sugar a little at a time, until fully incorporated.
3. Beat in vanilla extract.
4. Add halbrahm and beat for an additional 3-4 minutes.
If you want color, add food coloring at this point and beat for thirty seconds or so, until the color you want is uniform.
If you want a firmer frosting, use less cream or none at all. If you want a flavor other than vanilla, substitute in your favorite for the vanilla extract. I sometimes like to do a lemon frosting, so I use lemon juice instead of vanilla.
This frosting is not like one the plasticky ones you see in a cupcake shop, so it doesn't stand up well to travel or sitting a long time. it's fairly soft especially when room temp. I generally put it in the fridge to firm up, and frost just before serving.