Chocolate Buttercream

Silly ol' me use to think a stick of butter was 250 grams. For clarity, it is not, 1 stick = 125 grams. Needless to say, some things didn't turn out so well. I made a simple vanilla buttercream once (way back at the beginning of my culinary adventures) with what I thought were the right ratios. Essentially it was 250 grams of butter to about 250 grams of icing sugar. I even put it on my cupcakes and gave it to my friends who then proceeded to eat the cupcakes. I'm not sure if anyone realised what I'd done and why the icing was well so.. buttery. Anyway, they probably gained a pound of two because of me that day. hehehe... ^-^

I now have in my head that it is 1 cup of icing sugar to roughly 60 grams of butter for buttercream plus vanilla, a dash of milk, etc.

Sometimes, you just need a recipe to guide you and this is one of the best Chocolate Buttercream recipes I have come across. Light, fluffy, buttery, chocolately and absolutely not sickening sweet. I used it to pipe words, I used it to pipe borders and to fill my cake.

Chocolate Buttercream (adapted from addapinch.com)
Makes about 8 Cups

Ingredients:
375 g butter, softened
5 C (650 g) icing sugar mixture
1 C cocoa (I used Hershey's)
1/3 C milk (or less, depending on consistency required)
1 t vanilla essence (mine was organic)
pinch salt

Method:
1. Beat all ingredients together until well combined, fluffy and pale in colour. You may choose to add milk last and as required until the right consistency is achieved.