It’s happened to everyone. You needed to get your cake ready and finished, but you were almost done; the cake was nearly made cooling, the layers turned out entirely. All you need to do is complete your Buttercream.
You’ve got the mixer running, and it is almost done but, then, disaster strikes your Buttercream breaks before your very eyes.
Before you react badly and throw the whole thing away, only to find that you are out of butter and your entire cake is ruined, there are a few steps you can do to try and fix your buttercream.
Here is how to fix your unfortunately broken Buttercream frostings, no matter the reason.
Why Did your Buttercream Break?
While Buttercream is often touted as being one of the most comfortable possible frostings to make from scratch, it is actually a surprisingly finicky, difficult thing to master.
Buttercream is, fundamentally, an emulsion made up of a mixture of fats and liquids. As with all emulsions, if the conditions arenāt right, the liquids and fats might not bond together to form a stable emulsion.
When you see your Buttercream break, you see it fall apart into its constituent parts. This can happen with hollandaise sauce or even mayonnaise and even occurs with a salad dressing that is left to sit for too long after mixing it.
The fundamental problem is the ratio of fats to liquid, something that can usually be carefully calibrated when mixing more simple ingredients.
However, when you make Buttercream, you aren’t working with simple ingredients; you are working with butter. Butter is tricky because it isn’t just delicious fat, but also water in the form of residual water leftover from the butter creation process. If it were just fat, you’d be working with pure Ghee, and that wouldn’t taste very good at all.
This means the main culprit when it comes to a broken Buttercream is a mismanaged temperature, causing the butter to either stiffen or melt before it is duly incorporated.
So, what do you do if your Buttercream has broken due to bad temperatures?
Fixing Your Buttercream: Stiff & Curdled
If your Buttercream has become incredibly dense, with a beautiful film of greasy texture to it, your Buttercream has curdled.
This happened when the butter you were using was simply too cold. This could be because you forgot to take it out of the fridge in advance, or even just because the ambient temperature around you was too cold.
Buttercream needs to be kept at a pretty constant temperature of 72 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit to maintain its emulsion as it forms, so it is likely that it dipped too far below this temp.
To fix it, place the bowl containing your Buttercream over a water bath in a basic Bain Marie setup.
Assuming your mixing bowl isn’t made of plastic, this allowed a gradual increase of temperature for your Buttercream mixture, warming it up and allowing the butter to loosen up.
Once the mixture has started loosening, and the frosting has slightly melted around the very edges, you put it back in the mixer. Start it slow with a whisk attachment, as there is now more melted fat sloshing around in the mixture.
Gradually increase the speed and resume beating it for about four to five minutes until it reforms and fixes itself.
Fixing Your Buttercream: Thin & Soupy
This is easily the most common form of a broken Buttercream mixture; instead of the creamy, glossy Buttercream you were expecting, you get a thin, soup mess.
The soupiness can vary from complete running liquid to just a gentle softness, but regardless it usually spells bad news for the longevity and stability of your Buttercream.
This soupiness happens because your mixture was too warm, making the butter melt and leech out its butterfat and liquid, making the whole mix far too runny to form a stable emulsion.
This tends to happen due to hot ambient temperatures, such as making Buttercream during a hot summer, but it can also be due to a too-hot electric mixer. Sometimes the constant whirring of the paddles can warm the mixture up far beyond what you were expecting.
To quickly fix this catastrophe, simply take the whole bowl and put it in the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes, or until the very edges of the Buttercream mixture beginning hardening again.
Most of the mixture will still be pretty soupy, but after mixing it for around four to five minutes at a low, then gradually higher speed in an electric combination, the temperatures will begin to equalize, and it will be like it was never soupy at all.
If it isn’t soupy but is instead just a bit lose and jelly-like, still put it in the fridge and re-whip it, but only do it for about 10-15 minutes instead.
Remember ā it is all about proper temperature control, so as long as you bring it back to the correct temp of between 72 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, your Buttercream will be beautiful in the end.
Liza Shaw says
My chocolate buttercream broke tonight and I put the metal bowl over a pot with boiling water. It just barely started to melt along the edges but once I stirred it, it turned to soup immediately. Ughhh… So now I’ve stuck it in the fridge. Can it be saved after this?? I don’t feel optimistic about it but we’ll see…
Laura Reyes says
Thank you! This tutorial saved me.
I was tasked with making the cake for my sonās rehearsal dinner and for the first time ever, the buttercream broke.
After a quick search, I found this tutorial. I placed the soupy, chunky mess in the fridge for 25 minutes, then, as instructed beat the buttercream on low for 5 minutes and it turned out perfectly homogenized, with a beautiful, fluffy texture.
Thank you, thank you. The cake came together after that and was eventually enjoyed by all!
Karlynn says
This is what Iām here for!!!! I am SO GLAD that I could help you out on your sonās special day! Congratulations to all of you!
Carolyn Iuliucci says
You saved my butter cream today! I was devastated when my blackberry buttercream was failed! Itās my birthday cake Iāve been wanting to make for weeks. Thank you so much! š
Karlynn Johnston says
So glad to hear it!
AJ says
I wish I had seen or known this before I threw 4 cups of butter that I thought was hopeless! I refuse to throw away the second batch of icing though and I want to thank you for this information! This saved me not just having to throw money away but also having to go out to buy some more butter. Thank you!!!
Elaine says
This site was so so helpful. My Caramel buttercream frosting was separating and I was so upset. Your āwork aroundā worked perfectly! Oh thanks so much!
Kat says
Thanks so much! This saved my buttercream and worked for both ways ( it happened twice ) I really think your very smart.
Arianna says
Thank you so much! My buttercream curdled so badly, I thought I’d have to throw it out. I left the butter out overnight, but I guess to was still too cold to use since it’s winter here at the moment. Tried the hot water bath and it fixed it in just a couple of minutes! My birthday cake is saved!
Faye says
These tips saved me today! Thank you so much!
Karey says
My buttercream split when I added some crused pineapple. Big mistake? Can it still be fixed? I don’t know whether to try the chill method or the warm method.
Karey Yellan says
I just wanted to update and say, thank you! I did the chill method and it worked perfectly.
Sam Eskenazi says
Apologies I didn’t get back to you originally! Glad to hear the chill method worked out, it can fix almost anything!
Alison says
Do you have any tips for when a coloured buttercream splits? I am trying to get a deep burgendy but find that it splits. Any tips? I am using a gel burgendy colouring.
Madhu says
Thank you for writing this stuff out so clearly. I kind of knew it could be fixed but could not remember exactly how. The whisking it after warming did the trick beautifully!
Linnea says
THANK YOU!!!! My buttercream broke while I was making cupcakes for Valentine’s Day. So upsetting! I followed your advice and within a few minutes found myself with beautiful, creamy, fluffy buttercream! Your tips are amazing š
Mahdokht says
You saved my cake. I was about to throw it all away before seeing this. THANK YOU.
Asiya says
I canāt believe it actually worked! Thank you so much, you saved my night š
Catherine says
From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU! You saved my buttercream frosting when I was ready to throw it away… and all from your home in the UK! Many thanks and I’ll now be following you. All the best to you and yours and I hope you all stay safe. Best wishes from near the San Francisco Bay in California š
Sam Eskenazi says
Happy I could help! When I first learned how to do this, I was amazed at how “science-y” cooking can really be!
All the best!
Rachel says
OMG!!!! This worked AMAZING!!!! I made a double batch and sure enough it broke. I was about to throw it all away and start over but I looked it up and read your trick and it worked perfectly!!! You saved me and you don’t even now it!!! Thank you so very muchā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø
khawla says
thank you i’ve tried your way and it worked perfectly fine!