A hand spreading Russian buttercream on top of a dark chocolate cake

Russian buttercream

Name: Russian buttercream
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 120g unsalted butter at room temperature; 125g sweetened condensed milk; 1 tsp vanilla bean paste; ½ tsp fine sea salt

Edd Kimber

Published: February 17, 2022 at 11:08 AM

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Easy

Total time: 10 mins

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Try this simple, lesser-known buttercream made with condensed milk – it's great on coffee cake, but is a great frosting option for any kind of bake

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Alternatives

Complete the dish

Make this Russian buttercream, then try our Vietnamese coffee loaf cake, coffee cake recipe and Vietnamese coffee ice cream.

For more icing ideas, check out our basic buttercream, cream cheese frosting and chocolate buttercream.

Learn about Vietnamese coffee culture with our expert barista Celeste Wong's guide, including traditional rituals, how to order it and the perfect recipe for at-home brewing.

This is an incredibly simple buttercream with a wonderfully rich and smooth consistency. Unsalted butter is beaten until really pale, then condensed milk is slowly beaten in. As the milk is added, the texture becomes silky. The key to perfecting this is simple: make sure you beat the butter for at least 5 minutes before adding the condensed milk; it needs to be almost white. Any problems are easy to rescue. If, once you’ve added the condensed milk, the buttercream is split, that is a sign the butter was too warm. To rescue, put the bowl with the frosting into the fridge for 10 minutes and then rewhip until light and fluffy. If the butter is too cold to start with, you may find the buttercream is too dense. To correct this, take a third of the buttercream and microwave it for 10 seconds to warm slightly. Beat this back into the main bowl of buttercream.

Ingredients

120g unsalted butter

at room temperature
125g sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
½ tsp fine sea salt

Method

step 1

Put the butter into a bowl and use an electric whisk to beat for 5 minutes, or until light and pale.
step 2

With the motor running, slowly pour in the condensed milk, a little at a time, beating until the mixture is smooth and uniform before adding more.
step 3

Beat in the vanilla and salt until you have a light, fluffy buttercream texture. It is now ready to use on your favourite bakes.

Discover more of our buttercream recipes here

Authors

Three photos of Edd Kimber, his One Tin Bakes book and a brownie in a tin

Edd KimberBaking columnist

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