White Chocolate Buttercream

I was in a 2-week training class for work, and when we introduced ourselves, my personal fun fact was that I like to bake, especially cupcakes.  When the others in the class heard this, they asked me to make some for the class one day.  Luckily, I had enough time to squeeze in some cupcake baking before the last day.  I decided to try another new frosting recipe, and this white chocolate buttercream sounded interesting.  There is an excellent detailed tutorial with pictures here.  I recommend checking out the original blog and reading the details and notes there before making this frosting.

Dark chocolate cupcake with white chocolate buttercream

White Chocolate Buttercream

Makes ~3-4 cups (will frost 2 dozen cupcakes, piped)

Ingredients

• 1 C unsalted butter, softened
• ~2 1/2 C confectioner's sugar (or more, depending on desired consistency)
• 6 oz good quality white chocolate, chopped (NOT chocolate chips or candy melts!  I used Cadbury white chocolate bars.)
• 1/4 C heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Put the chopped chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl.  Heat in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time at 60% power, stirring in between, until chocolate is fully melted.  Set aside to cool.
2. Once chocolate has cooled, cream together butter, salt, and powdered sugar until fluffy.
3. Gradually add the vanilla extract and whipping cream.
4. Fold in melted and cooled chocolate.
5. Turn mixer up to medium-high and mix for about 3 more minutes.

I beat the butter a little before adding the sugar, and then added the sugar slowly as I creamed them together (a good idea to avoid the powder "explosion" of adding it all at once).  The original recipe calls for sifting the sugar and the salt together, but I typically skip sifting when I bake things, partially because I'm impatient and partially because I don't have a sifter.  In my experience, it hasn't really made a difference.  Also, the recipe has you add the vanilla to the cream before adding to the bowl, but that's really not necessary if you are mixing well and scraping the sides.  Additionally, I used a whisk attachment when making this frosting, and whipped on a high-ish speed for at least 3 minutes at the end.  This gave the frosting a nice fluffy, whipped texture and it was the perfect consistency for piping onto cupcakes.

Piped on top with a large star tip

The Verdict

Wow!  I'm not a big fan of white chocolate by itself, but this was excellent paired with dark chocolate cupcakes.  This frosting was so good by itself though, and I found myself licking the spatulas, the whisk, the bowl, and finding excuses to stick my fingers in leftover frosting.  It's not overly white chocolatey, but you can tell it's there.  Everyone loved it, and I will keep this recipe to use again!