Disclosure: I received a copy of Buttercream Basics in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.

I love to eat cake and in all honesty I love to eat great icing. Over the years there have been many different forms of icing that I have tried in an effort to find one that I truly enjoy the most. I have found that Buttercream icing is definitely one of my favorite icings as it can be used to create some truly enjoyable designs that taste as good as they look.

Carey Madden walks you through every step of transforming simple ingredients into fully formed and decorated pieces of art. Working with buttercream may seem intimidating. Armed with Carey’s expert and easy to-understand instructions, you’ll be creating and decorating stunning cakes in no time!



Satiny smooth buttercream is the perfect medium for creating decorated cakes that taste as sublime as they look. This icing’s popularity can be attributed to its simple sweetness, versatility, resiliency and ease of use. You can start by making some of the less complicated projects and then work your way up to more intricate designs once you start to feel confident about your decorating abilities. Soon you’ll be able to use Carey’s techniques and advice to create your own unique designs. With just a little practice and some patience, you’ll soon be having your cake and eating it too!

Carey is delighted to see the return to honest clean food such as buttercream, along with the return to hand-crafted and heartfelt items and desserts created by devoted artisans. This book is perfect for both novice and intermediate home bakers with an interest in learning the fundamentals of decorating with buttercream and who are looking for achievable projects. Carey provides you with dozens of fabulous designs + 360 step-by-step photos. So have fun, because everyone deserves to have their cake and eat it too!

Fun Facts About Buttercream Basics:

Did you know that there are more than four different types of butter cream?

Did you know that you can make vegan buttercream?

Why do we pasteurize the eggs when making buttercream?

Did you know that you don’t need lots of fancy tools and expertise to make a beautiful cake?

Did you know that buttercream can be flavored with just about anything?

Buttercream can be either dense and sweet or light and airy?

Did you know know that butter cream can be made into any color?

Did you know that you can live a healthy lifestyle and still eat buttercream?

You can use the same buttercream without making any adjustments to fill, ice and decorate a cake.

Did you know that using ribbon is a fun and easy way to decorate a cake?

Did you know that Swiss Style buttercream has a meringue base, just like the top of a lemon meringue pie

Author Bio:

Through years of experience and thousands of cakes decorated Carey Madden has become one of the foremost experts in the field of buttercream decoration.

Carey honed her skills as a professional cake decorator at a premiere New York City bakery. She has taken what is a traditional and well-respected, yet overlooked, branch of the sugar arts and applied contemporary composition and innovative design to create unique and memorable cakes.

Her work has been featured in a number of New York City bakery guides, in Vogue and Mademoiselle magazines, and also on TV shows including The Chew, Good Day New York, and The Real Housewives of New York City.

She resides in Philadelphia where she is currently setting up her custom cake bakery, Violet, combining her devotion to buttercream and her dedication to food that is local, sustainable, organic and seasonal. Carey’s hobbies include reading, and dancing the Argentine Tango. She also hanging out with her two Chihuahua’s, cooking, hiking, fostering children and, of course, cake decorating.

Robert Rose Books is giving one of my readers the opportunity to receive a copy of this book.

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