As a general rule of thumb, I use twice the quantity of icing sugar (or powdered sugar to you Americans) to unsalted butter. Unlike in the cake itself where I would suggest using Stork, in the icing it MUST be butter. Icing made with Stork just isn't a patch on good old butter - it's called buttercream icing so let's use real butter people!! This recipe is a really good base to make more adventurous flavours by adding different things to it.
To make enough icing for 12 cupcakes, I use the following quantities. Quite often I have a little bit left over but to be honest, using the quantities I do makes it so much easier than weighing stuff out and let's face it, we all have a friend with an incredibly sweet tooth who loves the buttercream more than the cake - they love the surplus frosting!
You'll need:
250g room temperature, unsalted butter
500g powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (NOT essence!)
2 tbsp full fat milk (optional but gives a softer texture)
You can do this in a freestanding mixer or using a handheld one. I really wouldn't recommend doing it by hand unless you have enviable guns that produce a similar force to an electric mixer (although if you try you may up with incredible biceps!).
If using a freestanding mixer, put the butter into the bowl and whip on a high speed until light and creamy. Add in the vanilla and mix again briefly. Tip in your icing sugar and cover the bowl with a tea towel (I can't emphasise how important this is if you want to avoid becoming sugar coated and your kitchen to resemble a snow scene). Start on a low speed until the sugar is incorporated , add the milk and once incorporated, beat on a high speed for a few minutes until it is gorgeously light, fluffy and good piping consistency (don't be impatient, you can leave it for a little while).
If you're using a handheld mixer, whatever you do, DON'T put the icing sugar in all in one go. You WILL look like a snowman and be cursing the fact you probably need to go and get some more icing sugar as you'll be wearing the majority of the box. Beat the butter in your bowl until light and creamy then add in the vanilla. Add the icing sugar a spoonful at a time on a LOW speed to avoid a winter-esque kitchen surface. Once you've added all of your sugar, add the milk (if using) and once combined, turn the speed up to high and beat until light and fluffy (as above).
Chocolate Buttercream
This recipe is really good as a chocolate buttercream too if you want to add some melted dark chocolate to it (dark works best as the icing itself is really sweet and you need a lot more milk chocolate to give a good chocolatey colour). I don't usually weigh it out but at a guess I'd probably say I'd use about 100 grams for this batch of icing but it's entirely down to individual taste.
I also add white chocolate to this buttercream sometimes which gives a really good (but very sweet) finished product.
Tips
Use good quality ingredients (especially chocolate if making chocolate buttercream). It really does make all of the difference!
Be patient when mixing the sugar in - the time spent waiting to incorporate the sugar slowly is far less than you'll spend cleaning up the disaster zone if the mixer expels it all over your face and counters!
Be happy!! A happy baker is a good baker. Cupcakes made with love taste sooo much better than begrudgingly baked ones!
I hope you find this as easy and versatile as I do and avoid sugar-related explosions!!
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