OMG! What a great idea. As a somewhat newbie, I get so confused. I try to save all the posts that I think will work for me, but to have 1 place for the buttercream icings, would be fantastic.

by the way - when is this article going to be out?

I would love to know how to keep buttercream soft and creamy, not crusty!!! Thanks!

I've heard about using powdered egg whites to stabilize buttercream, but I can't seem to find a recipe for it. I live in the tropics and keeping icing from wilting is an ongoing challenge. Any help on this subject would be great. I can't wait to read the article!

I have a question about IMBC - has anyone used salted butter instead of unsalted? Does it work any differently, or taste significantly different? Unsalted butter is just so expensive! At between $4-$5 per pound, it gets pretty pricey to make a batch.

[quote="jkalman"]

This seems like a lot of fat for this much pow.sug. Does it leave that filmy residue on the roof of your mouth??

I just recently discovered that you can flavor a basic butter cream recipe with snow cone syrup. The lemon is clear, however, the apple, cherry, and grape are colored. But the colors are really great for kids and they love the flavor. To make it you just cut the liquid out, be it oils, liquid flavor, or water/milk.

Great idea to do an artical on BC!!!

What is sifting the powdered sugar. I've seen it mentioned to prevent clogging of tips but how is it done? [/quote]

sifting means getting out the lumps. I do it by pouring the powder sugar straight from the bag into a wire mesh strainer and then shaking it into the bowl.

HTH

I want to know how to make pretty square corners with buttercream. Mine are not good.

CakeLady, I also use whipping cream in my BC. The recipe I use is a little too soft and I needed somthing to thicken it up a bit. Still a little too soft but could also be because the weather is warmer. Still toying with it to see what I can do, most of the BC is way too sweet.

chocolateandpeanutbutter
I use salted butter only in my IMBC and SMBC. It turns out just as it would had I used unsalted. I just prefer the taste of the salted. It makes the icing not so flat or bland.

Butter costs the same here whether salted or unsalted. I just tied it with the salted once and preferred the taste of it so I only use it that way now.

If you think about it, some add salt to egg whites to get them to whip better, right?

Just a quick note on smoothing buttercream. We use the very thin flexible fake credit cards that come with a new wallet. We even have a small wallet size picture that has been laminated. I first smooth with a bench scraper then finish with the flexible card with little or no pressure. Best trick I've come across.

I have experimented with buttercream a lot and finally come to find that half real butter and half crisco is much better than only using crisco. I also use heavy cream or half and half instead of water. My husband is my taste tester and he's says this is the best.

Our buttercream is a high ratio shortening and butter, and evaporated milk, you get that "cooked" flavor with the evaporated milk but not the headache of the sugar syrup and whites.

Help! I have never had this problem. I ran out my regular shortening and had to use crisco my icing looks grity but its not grity. Cant get it smooth no mater what i try. Have todo a wedding cake tomorrow. What can i do.

Please include info about humid areas!! I moved to a coastal area and have had a heck of a time adjusting my recipe without making it tooo sweet. And Ive found that milk is a definate no no.

My thing is to really cream the butter I mean for quite a while with the electric mixer. This does two things: 1.) makes the butter less yellow and more white and 2.) actually makes the end result more creamy.

Put all wet ingredients in after beating the butter. Then add, slowly, the sifted (or use the bagged powdered sugar so that it doesn't have lumps) powdered sugar. I also use a little salt, most recipes don't call for it, but pastry chefs the world over always say that a bit of salt brings out all the good flavors.

I also loved swiss and italian buttercream but don't find it to work to well when covering a cake with fondant.

That's my two cents, I do love buttercream but hey what could be wrong with a pound of butter and some sugar?!

Use a paddle attachment when making buttercream for fewer airbubbles.

Cheryl
Crazy Cakes

I have a question...maybe a not so bright one but almond extract is made of the oils so if someone is allergic to nuts that would be a definite no no right? and the imitation is also from the oils right? or not?

I had a couple people make comments about the butter cream frosting having a crisco taste. I never really noticed it until I tweaked my recipe a little. I now heat up my butter a little ( not completely melted ) before I add it to my crisco. I also started adding a little almond flavor ( not enough to give it a almondy taste) It really seems to make a difference. And I was suprised that It doesn't get to soft.

But it anyone has any other Ideas I'd love to hear them.

C

I believe water is better than milk--because if you use milk you will have to refridgerate the cake--using water you don't have to worry about that. Sorry for my spelling-- [/quote]

I thought the sugar in icing acts as a preservative, so icing made with milk is fine to sit out. Thoughts?

The tip that I have to offer relates to flavoring the icing. I have learned that whipping the shortening first for at least 1-2 minutes with the paddle attachment helps to loose it up. After whipping, I scrape down the bowl and the beater and add in my flavorings. Then, I set the mixer to low-medium speed. I scrape the bowl again and then add the powdered sugar and meringue powder. I also tend to use more flavoring to thin the icing than water.

Second, I'm not sure if anyone else here on CC has noticed a difference when using the new 0 grams Transfat Crisco. I have had so many problems with the shortening. It tends to maintain a gritty texture and often has clumps of shortening left behind, no matter how much I mix it. I saw a post in one forum that suggested adding milk, but then you must refrigerate it. I purchased the off-brand from WM and must say that it performed quite well. It took just a tad longer to crust; but all in all, it is much better than the new shortening formula.

I have two cookbooks from Magnoia Bakery in NY and the buttercream recipe is yummy. It uses milk and unsalted butter. It's fluffy and tasty. I've never tried a buttercream recipe like it. I've made several. In the past I only used the Wilton buttercream recipe half butter and half shortening. It great too but sweet.