The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (4 page)

Bags and nozzles terminology

Piping nozzles are also known as ‘tips’ in

various parts of the world, but for brevity we

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will just refer to them as nozzles from this point

forwards in this book. In the same way, piping

bags are sometimes called ‘pastry bags’, but in

order not to be too ‘word-y’ we’ll just call them

piping bags from here on in.

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Colouring Buttercream

The colours you use will bring your cake to life.

Choosing the right colour combination is essential

to make the design more natural, or more striking.

In this section we will tell you how to blend these

colours without sacrificing the quality of your

buttercream.

To tint your buttercream you can use food colouring

pastes or gels, and the amount you add will

determine the vibrancy of your colour. Pastes and

gels blend well with the buttercream and the

colours do not bleed. We do not recommend using

food colouring powders and liquids, as both can

affect the consistency of your frosting and will

create a high tendency for the colours to bleed.

Liquid colours will make your frosting soft, and if

you use powder, you will find that after about 24

hours some of the tiny particles that did not totally dissolve on mixing will create blotches of colour. In addition, the powders sometimes have either a salty

or bitter taste.

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To regulate the amount of colouring you add, we

recommend

that

you

use

a

cocktail

stick

(toothpick), dipping it into your colour then adding

it to the buttercream in tiny amounts at a time until you get your desired shade. Do not re-use the

cocktail stick after it has touched the buttercream

or it will contaminate the colouring and could make

it go off.

This colour wheel, basically a rainbow in a circle, is a great way to see how colours relate to one

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another. Adjacent colours, for example blue and

green, will always have a pleasing harmony, but

colours that are directly opposite one another on

the wheel, for example green and red, will also

create a lovely vibrant combination. Experiment

until you find colours that you love.

A rule when adding colour

Remember our ‘golden rule’ when making your

buttercream and
do not over-beat.
Bear in

mind that when you mix in the food colouring,

that counts as additional beating. To minimize

this, smear the food colouring into the

buttercream with a spatula or the back of a

spoon first until you see that there are no more

lumps or blobs of gel or paste then

fold-smear-fold-smear-fold your buttercream

until you get an even colour.

MIXING COLOURS

To tint your buttercream to make pastel and light

colours is easy. Bright and deep colours like navy

blue, black and red are the hardest colours to

achieve. But bear in mind as well that buttercream

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tends to become a shade darker after while. Let the

information below help you when tinting your

frosting.

Navy blue

To get a rich navy blue colour, we usually combine

few shades of blue like Sugarflair Baby Blue, and

Navy Blue (but not Sugarflair Ice Blue, which is too

light and bright) and a small amount of brown or

black food colouring paste or gel.

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Black

To tint your buttercream to a true black, we suggest

adding sifted cocoa powder (unsweetened cocoa) to

your buttercream until it becomes dark brown then

add black food colouring paste or gel. Cocoa is a dry ingredient so it will make your buttercream a little

stiff so add few drops of water to adjust its

consistency. The amount of cocoa you use will

depend on how deep a shade you wish to make.

Red

To make your buttercream bright red, combine

even amounts of any dark shade of pink (Sugarflair

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Claret or Dusky Pink), plus orange (Sugarflair

Orange or Tangerine) and any shade of red

(Sugarflair Ruby or Poppy Red). To make a really

deep red, add a hint of black or brown food

colouring paste or gel.

Tip

If you ever need to cover and decorate a big

cake and you want to be very particular about

the colour, it is better to prepare too much

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buttercream than too little as it will be hard to

mix the same colour again.

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Filling the Piping Bag

We find that the easiest, least messy and most

effective way of filling a piping bag is by using a tall glass or vase to hold the bag and then using a spoon

or a spatula to scoop the buttercream in. Try it and

we think you’ll agree.

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If you are using a nozzle, remember to fit this in the tip of the bag before filling it with buttercream by

cutting a hole for the nozzle to poke through, just

large enough for about half of its length to protude

out of the bag. Start with a small hole and make it

bigger if necessary, because if you cut too large a

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hole straight off, your bag will be ruined. Do not be tempted to overfill the bag, as you will end up in a

sticky mess! When the bag is sufficiently full twist

the top firmly to secure.

ATTACHING A COUPLER

Sometimes we use a tool called a coupler (see

Equipment).

This

two-part

device

lets

you

interchange several nozzles without changing the

bag. The two parts of the coupler are called the base (the bigger part) and the ring. You basically cut the tip off your piping bag to leave just enough of an

opening, put the base inside the bag (narrow end

first), put the nozzle of your choice over the portion of the base that sticks out of the bag then screw the ring on to lock the nozzle on. A coupler also secures your nozzle from popping out if the piping bag tears

(which can sometimes happen if you use

low-quality bags or squeeze too strongly!).

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