Butter Icing vs Buttercream

From the time I started selling my cupcakes till now, I have experimented with so many kinds of butter-based icing. Mostly, based on comments i received. In the end, I classified my clients under 2 categories...

1. Like the icing but dislike the sweetness

2. Dont mind the sweetness at all and specifically wants the 'sandy' textured icing

Ok, so what is the difference?

Basically, butter icing consist of mainly, butter and icing sugar. It has the 'sand-like' texture. To pipe certain motifs or design such as piped roses, medium to hard consistency would be used. To achieve this, more icing sugar needs to be incorporated into the icing mixture. So of course, it would be very sweet. During my childhood, this is the kind of icing used for home-made birthday cakes

Buttercream contains milk apart from the normal butter. The sugar is normally granulated sugar, boiled with water or milk & a bit of flour. Some buttercream may contained egg white or egg yolk. I used milk, butter and cooked sugar in my buttercream. The end product is a shiny, airy, soft and less sweet icing.

So, do let me know which Icing you prefer when you place your orders. By default, I would use buttercream