Who knows about icing cupcakes?

[GreenTeapot]

A friend gave me the most delicious chocolate muffin today, iced like a cupcake. It was awesome.

The icing was soft, like buttercream, but light and smooth and not too sticky - it had almost set on the outside of each piped bit but was still creamy. And it tasted of chocolate, not just sugar.

I know she bought it from a bakery so no point asking her how she did it - but as I am dieting and therefore fantasising about food 24/7 I'd love to know how to recreate it for when I'm a size 8

It sounds similar to what I've gotten when I used this recipe and added a good amount of cocoa powder. Truly delicious.

To ice them evenly, take the middle bit out of your microwave and spin it around while piping!

Make your butter icing with a food mixer so it goes fluffier, i always use real butter, icing sugar and cocoa powder (mix it with a drop of boiling water first).

DoubleNegative, that sounds/looks like the sort of thing. It was absolutely amazing stuff :)

This is the recipe I use and will generously decorate 12-15 cupcakes: 250g Butter, 500g icing sugar, 2tbsp milk, 1tsp vanilla extract, 200g melted chocolate (dark, milk or white, they all work really well).

leave the butter out of the fridge for at least an hour before you start. Then, cream the butter using an electric whisk until it's really soft and the colour becomes lighter. Add the vanilla extract and milk, whisk again until fully combined. Melt the chocolate and let it cool for a few minutes. Slowly add the melted chocolate, whisking as you go. Once all the ingredients are combined sift in the icing sugar (fold in using a spoon first to avoid an icing sugar cloud covering the whole kitchen). Whisk again until light and fluffy.

I find using cocoa powder can give buttercream a bitter taste and much prefer to use real chocolate :-)

thats like the one I use doublenegativepanda to make fancy cupcakes - its got kind of cold white sauce in it!!...I think its called 'velvet buttercream' - if the cold custard/white sauce looks at all lumpy just press it through a sieve.