I guess I just need to vent a little and well, curious too... so I need to know, how do you all react to people who are interested in a cake and when they taste it they complain the cake is TOO sweet?!?!?

OK, what is it about CAKE they don't understand? It is icing and sugar and more icing! So I suggest a fuit filling, so it is a little more tart and cuts down the sweetness, but NO! They want a BC filling ... Oh yeah, a not too sweet BC!

It just frustrates me!!! IT IS CAKE AFTER ALL!

Oh and just for the record, my BC is really not super sweet, I do add a good amount of popcorn salt and use salted butter, it is yummy (IMO anyway!!!) And for fondant, I either use MMF or Satin Ice.

So how do you all handle this kind of customer?!? I'm afraid she will never be satisfied, no matter what I do! And I'm not willing to change my recipes ... I guess I will not take her order! TIA

I really have no help for you, but I want to offer my empathy. Because I for the life of me cannot understand what cake is suppose to taste like if it isn't sweet. I always thought it was suppose to be sweet. Personally I think the sweeter the better! I love peti fours just for that reason! Just wanted you to know you are not alone!

That is when you smile sweetly and say 'Oh, yes! that is the nature of cake'.

I can understand what you are saying. My step-mother is the same way. She is always saying cakes are too sweet. Well, I have been experimenting and have been tweaking my recipes to add less sugar. I actually like my recipes with less sugar now. I do add alot of really good vanilla or other flavors to make sure the taste is great. Maybe try a recipe out and see if you might like it. The SMBC that I use is not that sweet at all as well because of cooking the sugar with the egg whites. Just a suggestion. I always have to keep my mind open to try new things. I never know what I might find new that I like.

tell me about it! i live in a house of diabetics!

when i make cupcakes they don't want me to put frosting on them. but i tell them it's not cupcakes without frosting! and when i do put frosting on they complain it's too sweet or that it's too much frosting. and i'm like, have you even seen pictures of REAL cupcakes? I barely put like 3 tablespoons of frosting on my cupcakes even less.

but you know what? OTHER people like my cupcakes, they may not be my family but they like it, are willing to pay for it. so maybe i should just make cakes for them.

and i'm with you about people who say cakes are too sweet. duh. that's why it's called sweets. and the reason i love cake is because it IS sweet. argh. it's frustrating.

my mom is the same way. For her birthday I made over the top chocolate cake just because I know she doesn't like frosting. When they don't want it sweet I offer a whipped cream icing.

Gaby you could make me a cake

My DH won't let me have cake (well for good reason..but..)

I WANT A CAKE THAT IS SWEET

that's why i use the WBH house BC. it's not as sweet. everyone likes it here.

To be fair - American style layer cake IS really sweet if you're used to European style cakes, which use a lot less sugar, and tend to be more on the rich/boozy side.

My folks are English, and the "sweets" I grew up on were shortbread, scones, fruitcake, trifle, etc - loads of butter in everything, but not so much on the sugar side. When your palette is used to that, American buttercream is a shock to the system.

When I'm making things for my folks, I always lean towards the less sweet - I made a dark chocolate mousse that's more chocolatey/rich than sweet on Sunday - they loved it. If I do make a layer cake, I tend to use SMBC and genoise with a filling that also is not so sweet.

I always chuckle and say , "Yeah cake isn't even supposed to be diet food." and move n with the conversation.

However, American desserts are very, very sweet. European traditional desserts are much less sweet.

an interesting thing to do is find your favourite recipe. then find the equivalent euro or Aussie version. You will notice the amount of sugar varies greatly.
It is cake and is it meant to be sweet but you should also be able to taste all the other flavours of the cake, not just sweet. The complexity of the chocolate, the spice, the butter.
If you want to see what i mean go to http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/collections/baking+recipes
and have a browse. Do a test for your family and see what they say.
I really do worry about american recipes sometimes because they just seem like so much of stuff that isnt needed!

I know exactly what they mean. That's actually one of the reasons why I started making cakes. My family and I find buttercream to be WAY too sweet. After lots of experimenting, we have settled on Rich's Bettercreme. It's not nearly as sweet andhas a good flavor.

And I'd have to agree with HerBoudoir. I'm Mexican and a lot of our traditional sweets are no where never as sweet as AMerican sweets.

Wow! Thanks for that site gingerkitten79! I bookmarked it because I have already seen tons of recipes that I want to try! Now I just have to figure out exactly what caster sugar is (is that just regular white suger?) and how to convert C into F temps.

Thanks for all the replies, I love all the different opinions and suggestions!

I do know overseas everything sweet is less sweet than in America, I am a naturalized American myself, I was not born here in the US, so I guess that is the reason why it frustrates me even MORE. My cakes are doctored up cake mixes, so to be fair, I call them half scratch half cake mix (makes me feel better about my baking) ... and I do cut down the sugar on most of them!

Anyway!!!! Will try the WBH buttercream, I've heard so much about it and I have the book Thanks!

Oh Christi, I'll bake you a cake!!!!! You know what I would LOVE to try?!? I want to send a cake on the mail to see how it travels, just for fun, but I would love the oppinion of a PRO with pics and everything, as I want to see all the before and after shots!

Caster sugar is marketed in the States as "superfine sugar" or 5x (as opposed to powdered sugar which is 10x). Domino makes 1 lb boxes of it.

You can substitute equal amounts of granulated sugar.

anyone ever tried Filipino desserts? LOL my bf always asks me if i put sugar on top sugar. most of our desserts are candied fruits like jackfruit, banana, sweet potato(not a fruit but you know what i mean), jackfruit, etc. we just put coconut milk and tons of sugar and boil everything. =D so i don't mind sweets.

Here in America, the equilivent to Caster Sugar is superfine *granulated* sugar. It is hard to find - usually only in 1 lb cartons. You can put your granulated sugar in a food processor and 'grind' it finer as a good sub.
The reason for needing it to be finer grain is it will blend better w/other ingredients and will not be gritty.

Castor sugar is great for use in curds as well and it dissolves great in cold drinks like lemonade and iced tea. I always buy it but it is so expensive. I want to try putting it in the food processor or blender for a bit but how long should I do it for and would a processor or blender be better?

Thanks,

I agree with what everyone is saying about American vs. other countries. Our desserts are much sweeter usually. But I find it frustrating to make cakes for my family. My husband and mother both like plain white cake with no icing. How am I supposed to decorate if they don't want icing?

Oh well, makes it easy on me. I don't make cakes for them usually. But, my hubby's birthday is in June and I'm determined to make AND DECORATE a cake for him. I don't think I've made one since his 50th birthday and he'll be 60 this year. I think that is special occasion enough.

[quote="tracycakes"]How am I supposed to decorate if they don't want icing?

Oh well, makes it easy on me. I don't make cakes for them usually. But, my hubby's birthday is in June and I'm determined to make AND DECORATE a cake for him. quote]

Well, my DH doesn't necessarily like cake, either, but you can do a plain white cake and do the Kitty Litter Box cake. That's what mine wants for his b-day. Of all the designs and decorations and so forth that I can think of, and he wants cat s***!!!! Unbelievable!!!!

I do understand what they mean as well. It's along the same lines (to me, at least) as something being too salty or too spicy.

For example - I love Jamaican food, it's part of our family. It's flavorful and spicy and I have a pretty good threshold for spice. There's a place I know where the jerk chicken is sooooo spicy hot that my eyes water constantly and nose runs. It gets to the point where I can't really enjoy it because I'm trying to cool my tongue after every bite.
There's another place where it's just right - enough kick to please my spice-meter and give a good burn (lol) but not so much where I can't really eat it.
Yes, it's supposed to be spicy but that doesn't mean I necessarily want a full tablespoon of cayenne or whatever on my plate.

I've made recipes before where the sugar content was extreme and when I modified it, it was still sweet and good but not so sugary sweet.

I guess everyone just has different sweet teeth!

I think cake can be too sweet.. most grocery store cakes are sickly sweet with the icing and the nasty cake..

I much prefer the European style cakes.. a chocolate cake that is super chocolatey but not sickeningly sweet.. a white cake with just enough sweet and salty to balance eachotehr out. It's like getting a pasta dish at applebees and getting one at a good local bistro.. dish A will be overly salted because they have a base sauce that comes to them in bags.. and dish B will be nicely balanced because they make it to order. This is why I bake scratch cakes and use SMBC.. because it's not cloyingly sweet and I can control how much sugar and salt goes in.

Everyone has different tastes.. I hate american style buttercream.. my husband loves it.. could eat it with a spoon. makes me shudder to think about it. He likes SMBC too and will eat it happily.. but I am not the same.. I can't eat american style BC.. I scrape it off.

JKalman, you sound like me. I'm not an icing person at all. Even as a kid, I scraped the stuffing out of oreos, twinkies, etc. OK, I'm weird!

But I do like cream cheese icings or ganache...still have yet to try an IMBC or SMBC. I've gotten my American BC to where it's not overly sweet and people like it...but I still don't eat it. lol I taste a tiny bit to check the sweetness but that's it.

This is too funny. Yes, I do like the less sweet European BCs but cake is cake people! What do you expect???

I made a cake for a little girls 2nd birthday about 3 months ago. The guests and family loved it. The only one who thought it wasn't sweet enough was the mother. I guess when people are used to the store bought cakes that are covered in sugar, iced then buried beneath another mound of sugary icing, and they get ahold of a scratch made cake that uses SIGNIFICANTLY LESS icing than the store bought cakes they tend to think that it isn't sweet enough and like many of you, I prefer the European "style" of cakes. Oh well, pay me enough and those sugar junkies can have a cake that is dripping with sugar.

Happy Caking Ya'll,
Em

Ironbaker.. I did/still do the same thing with oreos and cakes. Was never a twinkie fan..

You should try making SMBC.. it's great stuff. So light and silky smooth and not overly sweet. Tastes like a good vanilla ice cream.

5 eggwhites and 1 cup of sugar in your mixer bowl whisked over a double boiler until the sugar melts and it is too hot to touch (you can use a thermometer and take it to 160 degrees if you are worried about salmonella) then pop the bowl on your mixer with the whisk and beat until it's fluffy and you can touch the mixer bowl and it's cool to the touch. Then add 3-4 sticks of room temp, unsalted butter a little at a time until it smooths out.. it will look lumpy and wierd for a while, but it will be fine. Then add 2-3 TBSP of a real vanilla. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm