Good buttercream for piping onto cupcakes

[Eyespy24]

My last few attempts haven't worked very well.
Does anyone have a foolproof recipe for buttercream to top cupcakes with a big piped swirl effect? I often find it ends up too stiff to pipe! Thanks

Try equal weights of icing sugar and butter, it sounds a lot but it's always worked well for me. And make sure your butter/margarine is room temp
Good luck

If it's too stiff to pipe, try gently warming it in a microwave for a few seconds (20 seconds does a full pack of fridge cold butter for me when I want a spreadable consistency)

80g butter, 250g icing sugar, 25ml milk plus flavouring if needed. Best for a loooong time until it's really fluffy. Always works.

1:2 ratio of butter to icing sugar - beat for at least ten minutes if you have a mixer, longer if you don't. At the end put a tiny splash of water in, a tsp is fine for a 250g/500g quantity. It magically transforms it into smooth as silk buttercream.

I love this website for all things cake related
artisancakecompany.com/recipe/easy-buttercream/
Their Swiss meringue buttercream is amazing, time consuming to make but tastes fantastic and you can make a big batch and freeze

For special cupcakes, I use French buttercream it's a bit tricky and you need a sugar thermometer but it tastes gorgeous.

The recipe I use is from one of the great British bake off books, the English quantities ( i.e. weights not volumes) are as follows but you make it the same way as the link.

85g caster sugar
2 large free range egg yolks
150g very soft unsalted butter
1tsp vanilla extract

The recipe says that this tops 12 larger cup cakes but I find that a bit stingy! I reckon on about 8 generously topped cakes.

Bonus is that you end up with lots of egg whites - bag them up and stick them in the freezer for meringues later.

Must admit I've never made the Swiss meringue icing so I'm going to use some of my stash of egg whites to try it out. Am I right in thinking it comes out pure white rather than creamy/buttery coloured?

Yes, it takes a while to make, as you have to slowly heat the egg whites and sugar first, then add the butter slowly. Lots of clips on YouTube showing you how to do it. I made a big batch a couple of weeks ago, half I used to fill and cover a cake, the other half I have frozen to use next time. It tastes amazing. I like the look of the French buttercream as well, will give that a go