We tried to make buttercream frosting for a birthday cake, but it came out so buttery tasting that it was almost inedible. The same recipe was great when used in the US.
Is there a difference between Swiss butter and American butter that I need to take into account when baking? Like different fat content or something?

Salt?

Which butter did you use?

Cook Butter, readily available from all stores, is probably the best one to use.

We used "Die Butter" from Cremo, available in Coop and Migros (green, blue, yellow and pink-striped wrapper), which says it's for cooking. Apparently not salted since doesn't mention it.

The butter here is made from milk. Maybe you should try a good quality margerine with added butter.

I presumed that butter was made from milk all over the world!

I would increase the powder sugar, 2parts sugar to 1part butter. And a pinch of salt. I also had to get used to the unsalted butter here

A lot of butter in the US is 'whipped' and sometime, I think, mixed with buttermilk to give a more spreadable consistency. If you're comparing with 'real' butter there shouldn't be an appreciable difference in fat content, but it's certainly the case that some butters taste stronger than others.

I like butter. A lot. Unsalted only, but I actively like the flavour and am quite choosy about what I buy. Smell is the best indicator, so if you want
less flavour choose one that doesn't smell as nice

Or just use less of it, adding a bit of a light bland veggie oil (e.g. rapeseed) instead.

When I first came to Europe (38 years ago) I used to salt my buttered bread, but when I returned a year later, salted butter was a thing of the past, and has been since.

Of course, since moving to ZH in '86 and TI in '90, butter is mostly a thing of the past and olive oil (always virgin) is now the norm.

Tom

European butter does tend to have a slightly higher fat content, but only a few percent so it shouldn't have made quite that much of a difference in the taste and texture. I wouldn't recommend making it with margarine though. I used the square chunks of butter in wrappers, not the butter in the tubs, when making frostings in Switzerland and they came out alright. I wonder what happened. What recipe were you using?

I also have been making frosting for 14 years with the normal butter, no one has ever said a word except how much they like it, I use the normal unsalted butter. Never had to put salt in it. But if you want salted they sell it also at Coop, I use it only for popcorn.

When I frost my cakes with buttercream I use less butter and more heavy cream (or a bit of cream cheese if I know the cake will be kept cool). I like buttercream but not if its too buttery. I also always add a bit of salt.

I love salted butter on my bread. They do sell it in COOP (Fine Food - Fleur de Sel), but I also buy it in France (demi-sel). But only sweet butter for cakes/frosting because salted butter tends to have a higher water content.

EVOO is also wonderful, and probably healthier

IKWYM, I usually make buttercream frosting with Swiss or Italian Meringue (whip eggwhites, add hot simple syrup in a stream, whip till cool, then butter and flavorings). It's not as buttery and holds up a little better (not as runny).

I've also found adding a bit of powdered eggwhite helps stabilize the consistency a bit.

I made my son a birthday cake when we first moved here and I used the Coop's own brand unsalted butter mixed with icing sugar, chocolate powder and a bit of raw egg white (use lemon juice if this freaks you out). It made a really good choclate buttercream icing that did not run. Just keep mixing until you get the right consistency.

Hope this helps.

Here is the frosting recipe:

1/2 pound (227 g) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg yolk (optional)
1 pound (452 g) confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream (89 ml )
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (used 1 tsp vanilla paste)

Beat butter and egg yolk at medium-high speed until creamy. Beat in the confectioner's sugar at low speed. Beat in the cream, vanilla and salt, then beat at medium-high sped until fluffy, 3 minutes longer

Looking back at the recipe, I'm thinking now that the error was in the amount we used for the sugar, not in the butter. Think I got a bad conversion on the Internet in how many cups one pound of confectioner's sugar was equal to. Looks like should have used two cups, not one.

Thanks for helping me track down the likely problem, which wasn't the butter.

Do it the easy way and use a digital scale.

Tom

Yes, and find proper, i.e. non-US, recipes that don't use such an archaic mix of weights and volumes in the first place.