When they say add sugar slowly to eggs whites...they mean slllloooooooowwwwly. Ugh! What a nightmare. I made a cake yesterday for my boyfriend's birthday. The first thing I did was make a brown trout with the chocolate transfer method. That went awesome! It gave me high hopes for the rest of the day. I made my cake with a new recipe from the Death by Chocolate Cake cookbook. That turned out perfect too. Then I tried to make Kaye's BC from the Whimsical Bakehouse book. I followed instructions the way I thought I should but apparently I added the boiled sugar too fast to the eggs - the sugar just hardened into a few hard lumps in the bottom of my bowl. Unfortunately since I was using my KA stand mixer I didn't even realize this had happen until I was "finished"making the BC and noticed the mixture was nothing but egg whites and butter (yuck!). I wanted to take that book and throw it out the window and just make some class buttercream from Wilton (something is better than nothing, right?). Much to my dismay I remembered that I was OUT OF POWDERED SUGAR. My sweet bf came in to check on me in the kitchen about that time (he probably heard all of the growling and grumbling) and said that we could just eat the cake as is. Ha! Anyhow, I decided that I had to give Kaye's BC another go because I didn't have time to run to the store to get powdered sugar. I added the boiled sugar slllloooooooowwwwly this time. So far so good. The I realized I was one stick of butter short now. D'oh! How's this for improvistation - I just added some of the butter/egg mixure from the first try and it turned out to be ok. I added chocolate and it tasted pretty good. It ended up being a little softer than I wanted but guests were arriving and there was now nothing I could do but try to hurry and decorate. You can see the picture in my pics file. I had planned to make a fishing rod out of fondant but just completely ran out of time. Next year he's getting a fondant covered cake.

Take heart, I messed that recipe up at least twice before I got it, but I'm glad I kept at it because that stuff is the bomb! Everyone raves about it. I think my husband would eat an old boot if I put Chocolate Buttercream on it.

Your cake turned out great. Your choc transfer is perfect. I like the whole design of the cake! Great job under pressure. Glad you didn't give up! I would have suggested using the butter mixture from the first batch too! Good save!

Your cake looks fantastic. I know it was hard for you, but you can't tell at all. I love your "trout".

I'm glad to hear someone else has had problems with this frosting. I tried to make it once and I had a lot of hard sugar on the sides of my bowl, and a lot of crystalized sugar in the pan I was using. I don't think I go enough sugar mix actually into the frosting because when it did finally come together it tasted like BUTTER that was frosted onto the cake - kinda of gross. I haven't been brave enough to try it again.

It's very soft, that's why it's easy to ice your cake with it. You can always put it in the fridge for a bit to firm it up. It makes a great filling when you add choc or fruit puree, or liqueur.

Montanakate, hope you'll give it a try again. I put a lid on the pot as I boil the sugar so that the moisture drips down the sides dissolving any sugar crystals. Don't put any utensils in the syrup once the sugar is all moistened. You'll get strong arm muscles. Hold the pan 12-18" above the mixer bowl and pour in a thin stream aiming for the space between the beater and the side of the bowl. You should be pouring for a couple mins.

Also, my candy thermometer stinks, so I just take a little syrup out with a wooden spoon and drizzle into a cup of cold water. If you can form it into a ball with your fingers, it is "soft ball" stage.

Once I overcooked the syrup and it became amber colored. I made the icing anyway, had a few sugar drops on the whip and a couple in the icing, but the icing tasted caramelly. Yum.

In reading your reply Leta it looks as though I may have overcooked the sugar a little bit too. So I guess the combination of overcooking my sugar with adding it to fast to the egg fluff was my downfall. C'est la vie.

Thanks for the nice words! Y'all are too sweet!