Chocolate Buttercream

Chocolate, chocolate, CHOCOLATE! I love it soooooooooooooooooooo much.

I wanted an excuse to make a chocolate something. Father's Day (the first Sunday in September in Australia) came up. Hubby was away the Saturday before so I woke up in the wee small hours of the morning to start my project - chocolate cake decorated with chocolate buttercream. I kept reminding myself to NOT lick the beaters/spatula/mixing bowl/cake tin, as it was a cake for people other than myself!! With the chocolate cake chilling out in the freezer, I set to work on making my dreamy brown frosting.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM
Several hours in advance put out 1 block of unsalted butter, to bring to room temperature.

1 block sounds unhealthy, but explains why this icing tastes sooooo amazing.

Make a bain marie with a large bowl over a saucepan and add 3 egg whites and 1 cup white sugar.
Whisk by hand over simmering water until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is opaque.

You can see by the undissolved sugar granules on the sides of the bowl, that the mix is not yet ready

The mix is ready - opaque colour, sugar dissolved. Rub some mixture between your fingertips to feel that it is dissolved.

Immediately transfer the bowl to your stand mixer and mix on high speed until the bowl feels cool

I set my timer to about 5 minutes while the mixer was on. Enough time for tidying up.

You can tidy up and also melt 100g of chocolate whilst waiting for the egg whites to cool.

When the mixing bowl feels cool to touch, add your butter one spoon at a time, keeping it whisking on high speed.

Once the butter is all incorporated, drizzle in your melted chocolate.

Resist the temptation to eat all the buttercream from the bowl.

Fill your piping bag and resist the temptation to pipe directly into your mouth.

Let your imagination and your heart take control!

I used a ready-made chocolate writing icing tube from the shops