Vanilla Bean Buttercream Dream {aka Nanny Burke's Buttercream}
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 8:38AM 
I finally did it.
After four failed attempts, I finally made the buttercream I've been dreaming of. And it's all thanks to Nanny Burke.
You may remember my first attempt. Sure they looked good (and the cupcake itself was pretty good) but the frosting had as much flavour as a of a jar of Vaseline and the texture to match.
Then last week, I made Bacon and Baileys cupcakes. I used what I thought was a decent buttercream recipe but really, all you could taste was icing sugar. In an attempt to rescue it, I glugged in a bunch of Baileys. As you can see in the photos, it was somewhat of a droopy, oozy mess.
On Thursday, a really cute girl I know, A, said 'Oh - you need Nanny Burke's recipe!!' She e-mailed Nanny Burke in Cape Breton and asked for the recipe on my behalf. Nanny told A that over the last 50 years, she's tried a TON of buttercream recipes and this one was by far the best (and the easiest). On Friday I got a text from A with the recipe and a few notes from Nanny Burke.
So why, oh why didn't I follow my gut and trust the wisdom and experience of Nanny Burke? {sigh}
You see, I woke up Saturday morning, inspired by a recipe I had seen online for Swiss Buttercream. Ooooooh - a beautiful meringue-based buttercream that even a beginner could make without screwing up? Or so the recipe implies. Well guess what? I wasted 8 eggs and 4 sticks of butter on a nasty curdled bowl of grossness that I hurled into my green bin in a fit of frustration.
And then I turned to Nanny Burke.
Oh Nanny Burke, I know we've never met, but after making your buttercream, I consider us kin.
Nanny Burke's Buttercream is the stuff dreams are made of. As I was piping this perfect marriage of buttery sweetness atop my vanilla cupcakes, I constantly stopped to pipe some onto my fingertip. Some for the cupcakes, some for me, some for the cupcakes, some for me...
Ok, so are you ready for the recipe? It's ridiculously easy and by far the BEST frosting I have EVER had!!
Nanny Burke's Buttercream
2 Cups Unsalted Butter, room-temp/soft (I used 1.5 Cups Salted Butter and 1/2 Cup Crisco for firmness)
1 lb icing sugar, sifted (I used 4 Cups, unsifted - I'm lazy sometimes)
1 tsp Vanilla (I used Vanilla Bean Paste)
1/8 tsp salt (I omitted the Salt because I used Salted Butter)
Notes from Nanny Burke
~ Don't mix for more than 2-3 minutes
~ Sub in shortening for butter if you want to decorate with flowers or want a firmer texture
~ Make it once and then play with it
On a side note, here's something interesting that happened when I was baking these cupcakes. I used Ina Garten's recipe for Coconut Cupcakes without the coconut. I baked the first dozen at 350 degrees until golden on top, about 22 minutes. Then I had another look at the recipe and realized that I was supposed to bake them at 325. So I reduced the temperature on the oven for the second batch. Here's what happened:
I've discovered that it is MUCH easier to decorate a cupcake when the top of the cupcake is puffed up into a little dome. Anyway, it doesn't really matter because both batches were absolutely delicious (next time though, I think I'll omit the almond extract in the cupcakes and double up on the vanilla). Today is Tuesday, I baked these on Sunday and they are still tender and moist. I'd recommend making them for sure.
Whew - I did it!! I finally did it!!
Reader Comments (34)
when you bake at a lower temperature, whatever you're baking rises more slowly, and therefore much less. that's why you should lower the oven temperature a little to get level cake layers, but you should bake at a slightly higher temp for cupcakes so that you get the pretty dome.
also, if your swiss meringue buttercream seemed curdled, chances are you just didn't keep whipping it long enough. it will seem like it will never come together, but then it finally does and it's amazing. i highly recommend trying again sometime.
If you check out Stella's awesome blog BraveTart (linked above as Swiss Buttercream) you'll see she has tons of great recipes and gorgeous photos to boot!! I'm pretty sure J is right though. I didn't let my buttercream cool long enough - in fact, I'd bet money on it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Stella's recipe - it was just my patience level that day!! Thanks for the comments :)
I also tried swiss meringue buttercream ! it did curdle and look like porridge BUT it cam back together BEAUTIFULLY I almost threw mine out BUT I just let the kitchenaid do its thing and VOILA! perfection here is the recipe I used! ( this woman even has Pictures!! ) I shall try your version of american buttercream but for now its all SWB for me!! great cupcakes BTW :D http://sweetapolita.com/2011/04/swiss-meringue-buttercream-demystified/
I made _tried_ to make chocolate cupcakes (i added some melted chocolate and cocoa powder to the recipe) but they didn't turn out pretty. instead the batter just made a horrible mess. I'll still make buttercream and try to make them pretty, but i wonder what went wrong >:
what is "icing sugar" ?
thx