Buttercream secrets + Severed Finger Halloween Cake

I am going to share a recipe for the best most intense buttercream EVER.  It’s a real game changer . I have the secret to Intense buttercream. Ramp up your cakes in the simplest and cheapest way possible with this intensly beautifully flavoured buttercream. You will be amazed at how simple this is to get the flavour into creams and icings. AND while you are here check out my cool Halloween severed Finger Cake!…..
Halloween is fun.
Yep this cake is complete fun BUT it is the secret the buttercream is holding that is going to change how your cakes taste forever.

I am going to reveal the secret to intense buttercream, a flavour that only improves. This one is intensely Strawberry flavoured  buttercream and it is the BEST. It’s made with the simplest of things you could ever imagine…..a packet of jelly crystals. This idea is going to change your frostings forever !
No matter what cake flavour you want, use this trick to ensure everyone will be asking how you did it.

So I discovered how to intensify buttercream flavouring

The very interesting thing about this cake is the discovery of how I could make intensely strawberry flavoured buttercream without spending a fortune on freeze dried strawberry powder. This little trick worked when I made these Strawberry Meringue Ice Cream Sandwiches, so I thought it may work with buttercream.
I pre-tested the theory out by adding some mango crystals to cold cream and leaving it overnight. By morning I had an intensely mango tasting cream that I later whipped and served with a slice of cake.
Yipee!
Normal texture just totally intense in flavour the longer it sits. So, I went ahead and added a packet of jelly crystals to my ordinary buttercream. This is genius. It adds buckets of flavour but very little colour and no texture change.

This is a pretty easy Halloween cake. It’s a basic 3 tire vanilla number with buttercream frosting.  The severed fingers are from the Halloween shop. The shards of glass are made of Isomalt sugar. These are special sugar crystals you melt and pour onto a tray. The liquid sugar can be coloured and even shaped. It’s for sugar statues and moulds and it stays in glass like shards without sweating and melting like ordinary praline does as soon as it sits on top of a cake.

You can, replace it with plain praline sugar shards if you can’t get your hands on Isomalt sugar. Its not hard to prepare the Isomalt, however it is a sugar that you melt to a liquid that is as hot as lava and by god you need to be careful with it. You’ll find it at cake and chef supply shops.

You could also use a few smashed boiled lollies. You can melt these to look like glass too, if this suits you better. Here’s a recipe for boiled lollie stained glass .
There’s delicious blood made from golden syrup..teehhee… It looked gruesome enough to turn a few peoples stomachs.

Watch the video to see how this intensely flavoured buttercream is made and check out my easy decorating lesson.

Use any cake recipe you like and coat it in buttercream or use this white cake recipe from this Pretty Ribbon cake or this easy sponge recipe .
Now after the video here’s the recipe for the game changing flavour bomb buttercream and some directions on how to melt Isomalt sugar if you are keen.

Secret to intense buttercream on a Severed Finger Cake

I am going to share a recipe for the best most intense buttercream EVER.  It's a real game-changer . I have the secret to Intense buttercream. Ramp up your cakes in the simplest and cheapest way possible with this intensely beautifully flavoured buttercream. You will be amazed at how simple this is to get the flavour into creams and icings.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Halloween

Ingredients

  

• 500 gm unsalted butter
• 250 gm cream cheese
• 240 gm Icing sugar 2 cups
• 85 gm strawberry jelly crystals 1 packet
• 125 ml lemon Juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Decorations

• 500 gm Isomalt sugar crystals
• 2 teaspoons light coloured golden syrup or corn syrup
• 2 drops of red colour paste

Instructions

 

• Beat the butter and cream cheese till light and creamy.
• Add the flavoured crystals and the vanilla
• Continue beating and add icing sugar in three lots. Beating well between additions.
• Add the lemon juice and combine well.
• The buttercream is now ready to use.
• This amount will cover a three tire 20- 24 cm cake.

To make the blood

• Mix the syrup and colour together and set aside till needed.

How to use Isomalt sugar.

• Fill a bowl with a bit of cold water. This is to cool the bottom of the pot. Prepare a large tray and cover with baking paper.
• Put 1/2 the Isomalt into a pot. Put the pot onto a medium heat til the sugar melts, you can stir in all the loose pieces so they melt together, then add the next 1/2. Stir carefully till the new dry bits have started to incorporate. Add the thermometer and continue cooking. The sugar will start to look like a clear bubbling liquid. Bring the sugar up to 195 C and then turn off the heat.
• Put the bottom of the pan into the water to stop the cooking. Dry the base once cooled as water will affect the sugar if it drips into your tray
• Pour the sugar onto the lined tray.
• BE careful!!
• Once set the Isomalt can be put into a storage container and kept for some time.
• Use some of this sugar as pieces of glass. They will not melt even in the refrigerator.
• You can always use praline too but this will melt quickly.
• Find the recipe for Praline here.

Notes

Isomalt doesn't crystallise like sugar and water does
You need to use clean implements / spoons and spatulas
Stop the sugar going over 190 C by plunging the base of the pot into water
If you want to colour the sugar do so when it is done. use gel colours rather than liquid colours.

If you would prefer to make praline. Then folloe these directions

• 200 gm caster sugar (1 cup)
• 60 ml (1/4 cup)
• 2 drops lemon juice

1. Prepare a baking tray by greasing then lining with baking paper
2. Put the sugar, water and lemon juice into a thick bottomed pot and put over a medium heat. Give it a quick stir to dissolve the sugar. After this do not stir again as it is boiling. you can give it a bit of a swirl by picking up the pot and haking it and swirling gently. 
3. Let the sugar syrup boil vigarously until it starts to colour. The edges will colour first. Swirl to distribute the coloured sugar and leave n the leat till it is a dark golden colour. 
4. pour the syrup straight onto the baking tray and tip iy so that the sugar spreads over the tray. DO NOT TOUCH THE SYRUP.
5. The syrup will cool in about 10 minutes and you can snap it into shards
6. Keep excess in an airtight container in the fridge for months on end