I'm planning on trying my hand at some cupcakes bouquets for mothers day on sunday, I want to either do the rose swirls or the ones where you pipe the petals individually, my problem is with buttercream. When I make mine, which is 250g butter, 250g shortening, and almost 1kg of icing sugar (I think just over 8oz each of butter/short. and then 2lb of icing sugar) its quite stiff, or then it just goes floppy. I'd like a recipe thats easy to pipe with, but tastes nice and holds its shape. Am I asking too much from a buttercream? lol

Also, one other question, I'd like to try this recipe for rosewater cupcakes http://domesticgoddessadventures.blogspot.com/2010/02/rose-water-cupcakes-with-flour-frosting.html but it says the frosting is very soft so you cant really pipe it, could I add more flour or anything to thicken it up and just do the rose swirls with it? Or is it a bit of a no go for rose swirls?

Thanks in advance for any help

Jenny

I find it unusual there is no liquid in your recipe. That is probably why it is too stiff. You can add a couple of tablespoons of milk, heavy cream and/or flavoring to help loosen it up.

Two most popular recipes are Indydebi's and sugarshack's

Indydebi's
http://cakecentral.com/recipe/indydebis-crisco-based-buttercream-icing

SugarShack's
http://cakecentral.com/recipe/sugarshacks-icing-and-tips

Both the petal and swirls are super easy.