I was going to make a carrot cake for my birthday and wanted to try [Stella’s Cream Cheese Buttercream](https://www.seriouseats.com/cream-cheese-buttercream-recipe) recipe. However, all I have is a KitchenAid hand mixer and I was wondering if anyone had successfully made this recipe with only a hand mixer.
Way down in the comments, Stella expresses concern that a hand mixer wouldn’t be able to incorporate the custard as well as a stand mixer. With my hand mixer, I’ve had okay results making stabilized whipped cream with cooked corn starch; however, I have to whisk in a few tablespoons of the lightly whipped cream to the cooked corn starch mixture to loosen it up to get it to incorporate properly once I add it to the whipped cream and not be chunky. Do you think that I could use that same method here? I’ve actually never made any kind of buttercream before as I normally don’t make cakes. I’m more of a pie and brownies with whipped cream kind of girl.
And is this pipeable frosting? I’m not doing anything intricate, I just wanted to do maybe a shell border and a few corner swirls on my cake.
Also, has anyone browned a portion of the butter, let it cool to solid, and had success?
by damnilovelesclaypool