Natural Pink Raspberry Buttercream Icing

I never think that a drop or two of food colouring when I make my icing is going to harm anyone in the long term, but in an age where we are increasingly concerned about food additives, colours, e-numbers etc. etc. in our diets it is worth looking at natural way of adding colour to our baking. Berries are a great source of pink/red ink and also add a beautiful tang to cut through the sweet buttercream. It is easily done by adding shop bought unsweetened raspberry coulis or making your own which you could enslave children to do it is so simple. To me this buttercream tastes like those long cylindrical raspberry ice-lollies of childhood. Were they called Milky Moos?

For the raspberry coulis
1. Defrost 55g of frozen raspberries with a tsp of water for a couple of hours. When softened they will give out plenty of water. Mash with a fork. If using fresh raspberries you may need to add an extra 1-2 tsp of water.
2. Press the pulp through a fine sieve to get rid of the seeds.

Buttercream
75g butter softened
200g icing sugar sieved
2 tablespoons of raspberry coulis

1. Beat the butter and icing sugar together until the butter is a crumbed texture.
2. Make sure the coulis is warm/at room temperature. Heat in the microwave for 10 seconds if cold. Otherwise your buttercream may curdle.
3. Add the coulis and beat the buttercream for 3-4 minutes until lighter pink and there are no longer any lumps.