Three hours to fix a simple buttercream split

Last Saturday I was making a birthday cake for my neighbor and my buttercream broke completely. Separated into greasy liquid and clumps, the whole thing was a mess. I spent three hours slowly warming and rewhipping it, adding tiny bits of cream at a time until it came back together. Has anyone else had a buttercream split on them and found a faster fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

angela58722d ago

oh man, "greasy liquid and clumps" is exactly what happened to me last time i tried to make a quick buttercream for my sister's cupcakes. i was so mad, i almost just pitched the whole bowl out. but yeah, that three hour fix is brutal. i found a way that works way faster for me now - i just grab a clean bowl and a hand mixer, and i nuke about a quarter of the broken buttercream for like ten seconds until it's almost melted but not hot. then i add it back into the rest of the bowl and whip the heck out of it on high speed. it usually comes back together in like five minutes, no joke. sometimes i have to do it twice if it's really bad, but it's way better than slowly adding cream for hours. your neighbor's cake must have been worth it though, right?

cole_baker22d ago

lol @angela587 bringing out the emergency nuke method, i respect that hustle.

the_claire22d agoMost Upvoted

Saw that nuke method too and it looked WILD but honestly I respect the creativity. Ive been there with a broken buttercream that looked like scrambled eggs and almost tossed the whole thing in the trash. One time I tried the microwave trick and accidentally overheated it so the whole batch turned into a greasy soup disaster. But when it works it is MAGIC, I swear my heart skips a beat when that smooth texture comes back. Your neighbor must have thought you were a baking wizard after that save.