Strawberry Buttercream for Ella

A little something for a little girl’s first birthday. The theme that her parents requested was Mary Had A Little Lamb…so off I went with some modelling with the fondant!

The inside of the cake was a basic yellow cake, with strawberry buttercream that I adapted from the Sprinkles Cupcake recipes on Martha Stewart

Strawberry Buttercream

• 1/4 cup strawberry puree that’s been cooked, reduced, and thickened
• 1 cup butter at room temperature
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 vanilla bean

1. Cream butter and salt in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes on medium-low speed
2. Sift in the icing sugar in two parts, stirring just to combine each time. It’d be helpful to drape a cloth over the mixer when you do this to avoid icing sugar flying everywhere
3. Scrape in the vanilla paste from the bean pod, and add in the thickened strawberry puree. You don’t need to thicken the puree, but I think it helps to intensify the flavour
4. Mix on medium-low speed until combined. Don’t mix too much – too much air would make it very light and airy and harder to stick on cakes…not that it’s a bad thing, though, if you’re partial to lighter frosting and you’re making cupcakes

The little lamb had somewhat evil eyes, I know – food writers suck, don’t buy them. For the little girl, I opted to use a toothpick and the black food colouring paste I had, which worked out much more precise and looks way nicer!