Blackberry Frosting

We're lucky to have blackberry bushes at the end of our garden which are loaded with plump, juicy berries every year. I've made blackberry jams and jellies, blackberry muffins, blackberry and apple pies and even creamy smoothies. But I'd never thought about blackberry buttercream frosting. 

My daughter wanted a cake with pink filling and I was stuck for something to color the buttercream with. She was eating a bowl of freshly picked blackberries and the rest, as they say, is history.

Step 1) If your butter is hard then you need to remove from the fridge and wait until it is softened OR put it into a microwave-proof bowl and zap for 20-30 seconds.

Step 2) Pop the butter into a large bowl.

Step 3) Measure out your confectioner's sugar and put in a separate container.

Step 4) An electric whisk will make life a lot easier if you have one. Whisk up your butter until it is all soft.

Step 5) Sift in half of your confectioner's sugar and whisk again.

Step 6) Sift in the rest of your confectioner's sugar and whisk until all the sugar is mixed into the butter.

Step 7) At this point your buttercream may have clumped into tiny balls and perhaps it doesn't really look like buttercream frosting at all. Don't panic. It's really hard to go wrong with this recipe.

Step 8) Put your whisk away and add the blackberries into the bowl. Use a standard fork and mash those blackberries into the buttercream. I love this part because I love watching the blackberries break up and turn the mixture into a gorgeous shade of fluffy purple pink.

Step 9) Once all the blackberries have been mixed into the buttercream, you should have a very thick pinky purple frosting peppered with little pips which are simply bursting with flavour.

You can now use the Blackberry Frosting which you've made on cupcakes as a topping, sandwiched between butter cake or Victoria sponge (yum) and also sandwiched between cookies (double yum) OR just eat it as it is - we all fight over licking the bowl in this house!

One thing you may not think of is pairing the blackberry buttercream frosting with chocolate - please do. It works like a little slice of heaven on top of chocolate cupcakes or as a creamy layer between soft chocolate cookies. Chocolate and blackberry truly are a perfect match.