The Type Of Chocolate That Does Wonders For Stabilizing Buttercream

Want to make your homemade desserts look and taste like they came from a high-end bakery? All you need is a swirl of fresh buttercream frosting on top of whatever just came out of the oven. Not only does buttercream have a richer flavor than whipped cream, but its golden sheen also catches the light beautifully, making your newest creations that much more Instagram-worthy. While basic buttercream only requires room-temperature butter, sugar, and cream, there's a fourth ingredient that can take your frosting to the next level: white chocolate!

If you've ever tried making buttercream at home, then you know it can be tricky to get right. The frosting can become grainy or break apart, especially when you add water-containing ingredients like fruit purees — and that's where white chocolate comes in. The cocoa butter in white chocolate acts like a natural stabilizer, helping your buttercream stay smooth and keeping it from splitting — just be sure to aim for a white chocolate with a cocoa butter percentage of 33% or more. To put this trick into practice, all you have to do is melt down the chocolate until smooth, allow it to cool slightly until it's only warm, then beat it into your buttercream mixture until well combined. That's that!

As for the white chocolate, a cheap baking chocolate bar will work fine, no need to use the top-shelf stuff (it's best to avoid chocolate chips or candy bars). Considering how easy and inexpensive it is, why not give it a try?

Stabilizing the buttercream isn't the only thing white chocolate can do for you. Have a taste and find out yourself — the sweet, buttery base comes together with the subtle notes of cream and milk making every bite much more luxurious. The texture also gets an upgrade, turning incredibly smooth and velvety, but with enough structure to stay in shape when piped.

You can replace regular buttercream with this upgraded version in any recipe. For instance, want to transform ordinary vanilla cupcakes into bakery-worthy treats? After you've stirred the white chocolate into your buttercream, add vanilla extract to make an upgraded vanilla buttercream frosting and swirl it on top of the freshly baked cupcakes. Whoever you gift the fresh batch to will have a hard time believing it's homemade! Or, if you're planning a special layer cake for a party, whisk it into compact buttercream (a denser version of buttercream) and build your cake with it. The thickness, combined with the white chocolate, will allow your cake will hold its shape beautifully, even outdoors.

With its exceptional stability, rich, decadent flavor, and silky-smooth texture, it's the kind of recipe you'll want to keep close at hand, whether stored in your recipe box or bookmarked as your go-to frosting. Try it once, and you'll wonder how you ever baked without it!