I've Been Creating the Perfect Berry Buttercream Frosting

I had a Cook's Illustrated kind of weekend. Since Thursday, I've been on a quest to make the perfect berry frosting - something I've wanted to do since I had this divine berry frosting at my favorite bakery in Los Gatos last year. I went there as a special treat on Thursday and it gave me the push I needed to get to work on it.

After reading several recipes I set out to create my own version (or try to recreate the one at "Icing on the Cake."

I tried two methods I found in recipes. One was a recipe from "Sprinkles Cupcakes." It was okay, but I'd seen a lot of recipes like it on blogs and it just didn't have that really good berry kick that I wanted - it was too bland.

Then I tried one that used a berry syrup and a buttercream frosting made with egg yolks that you temper and something didn't go right with that. So I added the syrup to my regular buttercream recipe and that was better, but still not what I was looking for.

By that time I had a really well formed idea of what I wanted to do. I worked on it this morning and by this afternoon I had made the PERFECT berry buttercream frosting!! Now I just can't decide if it should be my secret recipe. I think I'll hang on to it for a little while. Maybe I'll share it a few months from now. I can't wait to make cupcakes tomorrow to put the frosting on. YUM!!