Perfect Cream Cheese Frostings

I know some people use just cream cheese sweetened with icing sugar to frost their cupcakes, and that's totally fine... sometimes I do that too! It all depends on the level of cream-cheesiness that your cupcake flavour requires.

If using this method I briefly mix the cream cheese so it's softened and add sifted icing sugar to taste. Everyone has different preferences on how sweet they like it so definitely work with your own palate!

 

This recipe works really well on red velvet or cheesecake cupcakes where you really want the cream cheese to be the focus but if you don't need such a heavy cream cheese frosting, I usually mix the cream cheese with a regular buttercream (I've done a post with how I do my regular buttercream).

 

For the quantity I used in the buttercream recipe (250g unsalted butter to 500g icing sugar) I use 200g of full fat cream cheese. I whip the buttercream until it's really fluffy and light then add in the cream cheese. Don't beat it too much as it'll go runny - I'd recommend doing this bit by hand with a spatula as in an electric mixer you run the risk of over-mixing it so unless you're confident with it, err on the side of caution and use your good old trusty arm-power (gently though)! It should still be lovely and thick when you finish mixing - don't be tempted to over-mix it!

 

I love this lighter (tasting but definitely not lighter on the calories!) cream cheese frosting on carrot cake (I have an awesome carrot and apple spice cake I'll post soon) and also my maple and bacon cupcakes among numerous others. If there's such a thing as someone being addicted to cream cheese frosting, then I think I 'suffer' from it (I use the word lightly as I 'suffer' it quite happily indeed).

 

Tips

Make sure your buttercream is reeeeeeally smooth before you add in the cream cheese to stop it going lumpy.

It also helps if both your buttercream and cream cheese are room temperature. Nobody likes an unsoothingly lumpy frosting.

Sift your icing sugar first! In buttercream it's not so imperative but if just using cream cheese and icing sugar it's SO important if you want to avoid a lumpy texture!

Be happy and bake with love - it'll taste so much better!!

 

I hope you love this frosting as much as I do!! Chocolate cream cheese frosting (melted chocolate (as in the first recipe) with just cream cheese and icing sugar) must be my all-time favourite food item (especially on my cheesecake cupcakes) and is an unbeatable pick-me-up for a rainy or depressing day (not necessarily on a cupcake but straight from the bowl if necessary!!)

 

 

 

Super Simple Buttercream

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!!

 

 



Bacon and Maple Cream Cheese Cupcakes!!

Okay, first blog post EVER. I'm SO out of my comfort zone with computers (unlike when I'm in the kitchen and covered in flour!) but I'm going to give it a go. I thought I'd start off with something that almost everyone loves... BACON! Until recently, I was a vegetarian and the thing that made me kick the 12 year habit was bacon... Thin, crispy, salty, GORGEOUS bacon. What better way to honour this newfound love than to combine it with my other all-time favourite thing to eat... cake! I did a bit of research into bacon and maple cupcakes but quickly gave up on research and just decided to wing it and experiment with my own. Perseverance isn't one of my strengths so all I wanted to do was get stuck right in.

Okay, here you have a picture of the finished product (along with another experiment for the day in the form of a strawberry cheesecake cupcake). Considering I had to make up a batch of cream cheese frosting anyway I thought I'd use up the strawberries that I had in the kitchen. 

I decided to make a vanilla base with a favourite recipe of mine (based on one from the Hummingbird Bakery) which results in gorgeously soft and fluffy cupcakes every time (honestly, that's not an exaggeration!) and load it up with some maple bacon. All I did was cook the bacon in a dry frying pan and then add a generous glug of some maple syrup (the real stuff, not pancake syrup!!) towards the end of the cooking time so it would caramelise. I'm a real fan of super crispy bacon and really, that's what you need for this recipe. Soggy bacon in a cupcake (or any other time for that matter) just won't do! It's worth noting that once you take the bacon from the pan, avoid putting it on kitchen towel as you will end up in paper-coated bacon, which to be honest, isn't all that great!

Once you've got your sticky, crispy, gorgeous-smelling bacon cooked, let it cool then chop it up into little glossy shards. Don't be tempted to munch away at it as you make your batter!!

 

I made my regular vanilla batter next, and then divided up the bacon into the cupcake pans before cooking, reserving some for the top of the cakes when they're iced. If you're planning on making these take your butter out of the fridge so it's nice and soft for when you make your icing.

 

(Ignore the crushed biscuit on the pan, it was from the strawberry cheesecake cakes going on in the adjacent holes!)

When they're cool (or while they're cooling if you're reeeeally impatient) it's time to make your gorgeous maple cream cheese frosting!

 

I start off with a simple buttercream. That buttercream in itself is pretty damn tasty but I use it as a base for my cream cheese frosting. If you wanted to make your cream cheese frosting with just cream cheese and icing sugar, be my guest! It's worth noting that you will NOT need twice the amount of sugar to cream cheese. I'd recommend doing it a spoonful at a time and adding sugar to taste.

If you're doing a buttercream-based cream cheese frosting, take your buttercream and add in a 200g packet of cream cheese.

Take your cream cheese and add it into your soft and whippy buttercream along with a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup to taste (don't overdo it as you'll be drizzling some over the top of the cakes and don't want a maple overload (if such a thing is possible)). I blast it in the electric mixer to get it nice and smooth but seriously, blast it for a few seconds, not for a long time. If you over-mix it then it'll go all runny... not the best consistency to ice a cupcake with! If you're worried that you'll overdo it, by all means mix the cream cheese in by hand and it'll reduce your potential for failure.

The cream cheese frosting should be nice and thick and a good piping consistency.

 

Now you've got your cooled cupcakes and your frosting made, it's time to ice those babies!! By all means just get a spatula and spread on that mapley cream cheese yumminess but I like to pipe it on. That proved difficult considering I didn't have a piping bag and nozzle to hand when I made these as I was at my parents' house, but I just improvised with a food bag and snipped off the corner.

 

Ice nice big swirls onto the tops of your golden cakes and top with the reserved candied bacon from earlier (if you've already eaten it despite my prior warning not to give into temptation then that's just silly.. they really make an awesome cupcake even better!). Drizzle over a bit more maple syrup (I don't think I need to give a reason to justify this step).

 

There you have it, sweet, salty, fluffy, crunchy and heavenly smelling cupcakes. Perfect for fellow bacon fans, cupcake fans or, as my friend quickly pointed out, an AWESOME hangover cure. Who wouldn't want one of these to wake up to after a heavy night out?!

 

I hope that making these cupcakes and tasting how awesome they are makes you forgive me for the excessively long first post!!