This buttercream is decadently chocolatey because it's made with two
different kinds of chocolate: melted chocolate and cocoa powder. It's
easy to make, stores well, and can be used for all
sorts of frosting and cake decorating techniques.
To make this chocolate buttercream start by preparing two types of chocolate.
First mix a third of a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder with a quarter
of a cup of hot water and stir it until all of the cocoa
powder has dissolved to make a thin paste
almost the consistency of melted chocolate. Leave it to cool.
Now for the second type of chocolate measure out three quarters of a cup of
chocolate chips or weigh out 175 grams or six ounces.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave at 50% power for one minute and stir it
until it's smooth. If you use a bar of chocolate, before you
melt it you should chop it into roughly the same sized pieces
so they all melt at the same speed. After stirring it
if there are still pieces of solid chocolate in it, melt it for another 30
seconds. When it's smooth, leave it to cool. The
recipe for this chocolate buttercream is on www.britishgirlbakes.com if you want to
see it written out with the measurements in grams, ounces, and cups. Now make a
batch of my 4 Minute Buttercream using five four ounce sticks of butter
or 565 grams. Make sure the butter is at room
temperature and add a 32 ounce bag of powdered sugar
(which is the same as about seven cups). Mix on the lowest speed of your mixer.
I like to add the sugar a quarter at a time, mixing for one minute
before adding the next addition so that it doesn't spray out of the mixer when
you turn it on. Add half a tablespoon of vanilla extract
and for plain vanilla buttercream you would add milk or cream to thin it out
to the right consistency but instead we're going to add the cocoa powder and
chocolate you prepared earlier. Stir everything together, mixing until
it's all the same colour and the buttercream should be silky
smooth and easily spreadable. If it's too stiff and it pulls off the
cake when you try to spread it on, add milk or cream a tablespoon at a time
until it's the right consistency. I have a very detailed tutorial on my
4 Minute Bbuttercream and how to check the consistency if you're looking for
more tips on that. You can use this chocolate buttercream
to frost a cake and I'll give you some fun variations on frosting techniques
with this chocolate buttercream in a moment.
This chocolate buttercream also pipes well so you can use it with a 1M piping
tip to pipe swirls or ruffles onto cakes or cupcakes or mini cakes
or a round tip for these dollops of buttercream filling on a naked cake
or an open star tip like a 4B tip for buttercream borders
or a petal tip for these flowers. It even works for buttercream carving
and I have an entire online course on that. Brown buttercream might sound like
a boring base for cake decorating but you can jazz it up by creating an ombre
or watercolour effect. For watercolour frosting don't mix the
chocolate into the buttercream completely.
Mmix the cocoa powder and water mixture in first to give the frosting a pale
brown color and then pour the melted chocolate into
the bowl but only stir it a few times to create a marbled look. Spread
the frosting onto your cake and you'll notice lots of different shades of brown
in the frosting. When you scrape the cake with a frosting
smoother you'll take away the texture on the frosting and when the frosting is
smooth the watercolour effect will be even more
dramatic. If you're enjoying this tutorial please click the thumbs up
button and subscribe to my YouTube channel for a new cake decorating
tutorial every week! To change the shade of brown of your
frosting, play around with the amount of chocolate you add to the buttercream.
Ii'm adding a small amount of melted chocolate and the cocoa powder and water
mixture to this bowl to make a light brown buttercream and
then setting some of that aside in another bowl before adding more
chocolate to this buttercream to make a darker shade and then setting some of
that aside and adding even more chocolate to this final amount of
buttercream. You can use these different shades of
brown to vary the colours of chocolate buttercream filling between cake layers
or create a pretty ombre design on a cake. For ombre
frosting spread the three colours in layers around the sides of the cake
so that the colour gets lighter or darker as you go up or down the cake.
Yyou can smooth the frosting with a frosting smoother or add texture with a
textured cake comb like this pleated one and the chocolate
buttercream makes a cake that's beautiful as well as delicious!
I store frosted cakes in the fridge until two to four hours before serving.
To store just the chocolate buttercream, cover the bowl tightly with cling film
or put the buttercream in an airtight container
and leave it at room temperature for up to three days or in the fridge for a
week or in the freezer for a month. When
you're ready to use it, take it out a few hours before so that
it can get to room temperature and then stir it to get rid of any air
bubbles. Another option for chocolate frosting is chocolate ganache
and I have a detailed tutorial on that called 4 Ways To Use Ganache.
Thanks for watching this tutorial! Remember to click the thumbs up button
and subscribe to my YouTube channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every
week!