Russian Buttercream, Yay or Nay?

Maybe you’ve already seen it passing by. Russian Buttercream is the newest hype!

And the fun thing about this buttercream: you make it with just two ingredients! Unsalted butter and condensed milk. Okay, and for a bit of extra flavour, a pinch of salt and some vanilla extract. So no eggs involved, and you can make it super quickly!

My curiosity was triggered, so I decided to try the recipe for you. In the original recipe, you use 226 grams of butter for one can of condensed milk. For convenience, I just used a whole block of butter, because it already seemed sweet enough to me 😊.

You will need:

• 250 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (397 g)
• a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the butter until light and fluffy.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as you go.

Add the condensed milk in 4 additions.
Make sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next, otherwise the buttercream may start to split.
What buttercream splitting actually is — and how to fix it — I’ll explain in another blog.

Finally, add the salt and the vanilla.
And voilà, your buttercream is ready!

And now, my opinion! The cream is smooth and has a lovely velvety texture. Its consistency is quite similar to a meringue buttercream. The buttercream isn’t pure white, unfortunately, but more of a creamy colour. You can clearly taste the condensed milk, and it is definitely sweet. Personally, I would find it too sweet to eat on its own, but paired with something tart it could be delicious. The buttercream holds its shape well when piping swirls onto cupcakes, and it also seems very suitable for covering a cake.

So it’s quite a fun alternative — give it a try and let me know what you think!