Making cream from butter is the process of mixing butter and sugar that creates a creamy thick cream for use on cakes. This common skill will ensure that the butter spreads evenly over the cake mix, while providing air to the mixture that helps it rise. Therefore, making cream from butter is an important thing to learn.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Softening Butter
Step 1. Butter should be at room temperature
Remove the butter from the refrigerator at least an hour before processing. Cold butter will not rise when whipped.
- Butter is ready when it has reached room temperature. You can test it by touching it with your finger; If the butter is as soft as a ripe peach and your fingers can easily leave indentations, the butter is ready to use.
- But if the butter feels smooth and shiny, it means the butter is just starting to melt but is ideal for processing. Place the butter back in the refrigerator for 5 to 10 minutes until it hardens slightly.
Step 2. Grate the butter
Don't worry if you forget to take the butter out of the fridge - all cooks forget this too. The trick is to use a cheese grater to grate the hard butter into thin slices. The increased surface area of the butter allows the butter to soften very quickly, and you'll be ready to work in no time.
Step 3. Put the butter in the microwave
In case you're really in a hurry, you can also heat the butter in the microwave. But don't let the butter melt, the cream won't form properly and you'll have to start over with new butter. For microwaves:
- Cut the cold butter into even-sized pieces (to ensure all pieces are evenly soft), place the pieces in a special microwaveable bowl and heat for no more than 10 seconds.
- Take a bowl and look at the butter - if the butter is still too firm, put it back in the microwave for another 10 seconds.
Part 2 of 3: Using the Stirrer
Step 1. Put the softened butter in a suitable bowl
Beat the butter with a hand or standing mixer on low speed, until it becomes soft and thick.
Step 2. Start adding sugar gradually
Add sugar to butter little by little. The goal is that you can work the butter so it dissolves and doesn't create lumps or sugar granules in the mixture.
- The whipped sugar will split the butter and create air bubbles in the back. This gives the mixture a breeze so it can expand and give a soft, dense finish.
- Most recipes call for caster or primed sugar to make the cream. This is because superfine sugar has the perfect consistency for cream - with a surface just enough to allow it to aerate the butter when whipped (unlike powdered sugar), but smooth enough not to give cakes and pastries a grainy texture (unlike granulated sugar).
Step 3. Increase the stirrer speed
Once all the sugar has been added to the butter, increase the speed of the mixer (high speed for a hand mixer, medium/high for a standing mixer) and continue beating until the entire texture is smooth and thick.
- Don't forget to always scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula, to mix the sugar or butter that sticks back into the sides of the bowl.
- Scrape off any mixture trapped in the stirrer.
Step 4. Know when to stop shuffling
As you continue to beat, the volume of the butter and sugar mixture will increase in depth and the color will become lighter. Sugar and butter are perfectly creamed when they are creamy white and almost doubled in volume. The texture is thick and creamy - almost like mayonnaise.
- Do not beat the butter and sugar excessively. Once the mixture has become pale and thick and has formed soft peaks, you should stop.
- If you don't stop, the mixture will lose some of the air and the cream won't rise properly.
- As a rule of thumb, the butter and sugar should be perfectly creamy in about six or seven minutes, when using a mixer.
Step 5. Use as written in the recipe
If the butter and sugar have creamed well, the baking process will go smoothly.
Part 3 of 3: Making Cream By Hand
Step 1. Place the softened butter in a bowl
You can use any type of bowl, but some cooks recommend using a ceramic or stone bowl to make the cream.
- This type of bowl has a rough surface that will catch the butter and speed up the creaming process.
- Metal or plastic bowls have a smooth surface that doesn't catch the butter.
Step 2. Start mixing the butter
Before adding sugar to the bowl, you'll need to make your own cream. This will make adding sugar easier later.
- Use a fork, wire whisk, spatula or wooden spoon to soften the butter before mixing.
- Just like ceramic or ceramic bowls, wooden spoons are believed to catch butter more easily and speed up the creaming process.
Step 3. Add sugar gradually
Slowly add the sugar to the butter, beating for each addition. This allows the sugar to mix and prevents it from flying out of the bowl.
- Continue beating the butter and sugar after all the sugar has been added. Beat vigorously and continuously - you'll need to work on it for a while, so don't go too fast! Change hands if necessary.
- Think about how many calories you burn while whisking - you definitely deserve an extra cookie when you're done!
Step 4. Know when to stop shuffling
While it's impossible to beat too much butter and sugar, you have to stop at the right time.
- The mixture is done when it is thick and there are no lumps, and is a paler color.
- To test it, pull a fork over the mixture - if you see streaks of butter, you'll need to keep whisking to continue with the recipe.
- If there are streaks of butter in the mixture, this means the mixture is not uniform and the end result will have an uneven texture.
