tmkdimples You should be able to do your cakes today for Saturday. We start wedding cakes for Saturday on Thursday. Have a great day!
auntiecake - thanks so much for the advice. I have to admit I'm a little nervous (I'm planning on doing a tiered cake decorated with brush embroidery inspired by seriouscakes) since it's the first time not for family. Then Sunday I have to do my son's first birthday cake! The more I can do ahead, the better off I'll be! 
robinleah - is that handwriting affliction contagious? I believe I may have gotten it, too! 
I'm also beginning a cake today that's for Saturday. I baked my layers today and will try to get everything frosted tonight. Tomorrow I'll stack and decorate. Mmmmm, cake!!
I am a newbie, and I am a buttercream gal also. I love my Buttercream. I have played around with fondant, have not made a whole cake from it. I will probably just use for decorations etc.., I do not like the flavor of it either. I personally think it is easier, and less work than Fondant. So great post on Buttercream.
So I have a question...Tomorrow I have a cake that I am doing just the decorating in buttercream...The rest of the cake will be iced with cream cheese frosting...So my question is how long can I keep the buttercream?? And what is the best way to keep it??? Thanks for all your help!!!!
So I have a question.....So my question is how long can I keep the buttercream?? And what is the best way to keep it??? Thanks for all your help!!!!
I am assuming you are referring to keeping the buttercream which you do not use on this cake. It would be good, sealed, on the counter for several days. If you want to keep it longer, I would freeze it and you can keep it for a year.
HTH
Yes thank you BCJean....I am sure I will have a use for it...But not till next week...Wow it will freeze for a whole year!?!? Does freezing change the consistency?? Thanks for you help!!
The consistency will be the same after freezing. When you are ready to use it, let it come to room temperature, while still sealed. When it is no longer frozen, open the container and stir it really good or if you have a lot you can put it back on the mixer and rewhip a couple of minutes. When I have finished decorating I always store my leftover colored icing.
I have never actually had icing in my freezer for a year because I always use it up, but there would be nothing wrong with it if you did.
Not trying to exclude anyone here, I just thought it would be fun to have a thread to post interesting things about buttercream, recent cakes, tips, ideas, how-to's, questions, etc.
For instance, I have recently discovered that my frosted cakes do not like to be kept in a plastic carrier. I never have a problem with the frosting 'wilting' except when they're in a plastic carrier! Anyone else notice this? I had 2 cakes this weekend that I was taking to a picnic and both started having meltdown issues before I left the house, and it wasn't even warm in my kitchen! I think the cardboard from the cake boxes helps to absorb some of the moisture but in plastic it has no where to go.
i prefer buttercream over fondant. I don't care for the tast of it either. I had such a hard time with the class and I did not like how the instructor taught the first two classes so I did not go back. I am going to teach myself in the coming weeks. She taught from the back to the front of the instruction booklet.
I'm excited to get on you-tube and get all the great videos I keep hearing about!!!
BCJean~Your webiste is great!
Fondant and I have not become friends 
I have only tried to use it once during course 2 (store bought Wilton brand) and it was TERRIBLE!!! I LOVE BC but I would like to try fondant sometime... I didn't taste it because it smelled AWFUL!!! If I ever use it again it will have to be MMF or some other type of homemade (although I hear good things about SatinIce)
I think all of you BC users are extremly talented, smoothing that stuff out and making the flowers and designs (espcially RIGHT ON THE CAKE!!!) takes a LOT of hard work and practice... You're my Cake Heros!!!
O, I have a question for the butter cream queens of CC.
does anybody else have the cottage cheese problem?? Maybe somebody's got a solution for me.
Buttercream is all I have worked with. I'm adding a few chocolate clay items to my newset cake for the first time. The only problem I seem to have is getting it perfectly smooth. I have done the VIVA method, but can never get it right. Various reasons, I have figured out. Icing to "airy" too much icing, a non crusting recipe etc. Thank goodness I'm not professional, lol. I'm still looking for that "perfect recipe" so I that each time I make it, it wont be completely different to work with.
The answer is....Indydebi's Buttercream. You won't get the 'cottage cheese' look, which is a problem with the trans-fat free Crisco. Also, it is incredibly easy to smooth. It's better than any buttercream recipe I've ever used 
.
I love going to this site:
http://www.cupcakecafe-nyc.com/
They pipe everything right on their cakes, makes me want to try harder!!
I just checked out this site and I'm blown away! Are you serious about them piping everything directly on the cakes? Those are buttercream flowers? If so, I am truly, truly amazed. Well, even if they aren't, I'm still amazed.
I'm thinking of baking myself a birthday cake this weekend and I would love to try doing a floral cake like one of theirs.
If I succeed, I'll let you know. If I don't, well, that will be my secret.
moxey2000 -I have been using the zero transfat crisco for a year and do not have this problem, but I also use cream instead of water. Fat does not mix well with water, I'd think that's giving it the cottage cheese effect.
Kim_in_CajunCountry-yeah, all bc, all right on the cakes, crazy isn't it? I think it's actually a meringue bc but I'm not sure. Someone on CC who worked there had pics posted and I think that's what she said. They're now offering classes to teach this, anyone up for a road trip???
And definitely let us know how it goes, I pipe all my stuff right on the cake but I'm not nearly as good as they are!!
Ha ha ha! Did you see the PRICES for the classes? The first class is Mondays 6-9 pm for a total of three Mondays (9 hours total) for $795 plus a $50 material fee.
I guess that's how you keep down the class sizes.
I'll just keep reading, watching videos, and feeding my CC addiction until I've learned everything I can - not that one ever stops learning!
lol-yeah, I did see the price for the classes, just gonna have to keep at it on my own! I don't know about you guys but I still learn something new with just about every cake I make!
Ok, gang..... this thread inspired me to pull out all of my old "BC Books" .... here's the dummy cake that resulted. It only took me less than 3 hours to ice and decorate it. (So stop telling me how "fondant is so much faster!" )
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1264153
The bottom tier design came straight from my 1977 Wilton book ... stacked piping on top of the tier (3 layers made with 3 descending size star tips) with BC stringwork and BC rosebuds made right on the side of the cake. Large BC beads are the bottom border and I topped it with some ivory ribbon-like material that had loops of pearls on it for an old-fashioned victorian flare.
The middle tier combines the "old-fashion" chantilly lace with a hint of modernism with the dots going straight down.
The top tier was inspired from "Wedding Cakes" magazine (the one published in England .... I cut 4 squares of off-white chocolate to box in the top tier and tied with a ribbon, like so many that I see in this magz, then made rosebuds and half roses right on the cake with BC, cascading down the corners to camoflauge the connecting corners.
Dummy sizes are 4/8/12.
Oh ... and I was screwing around and screwing around trying to get the 4" iced smooth before I remembered I was just going to cover it up with squares of chocolate anyway! 
The cool part is I made a deal with a photograher ... he becomes my #1 photograher referral and in exchange, he came in today and did a photo shoot of some of my dummy cakes and will make me posters of them to put on the wall....FREE! That's also part of the reason I made this cake ... so I'd have a new one for him to shoot!
Gosh, I sure LUV'D doing some good old-fashion BC decorating again! It was great! I hope I combined enough modern look with some old techniques so brides want this cake ... I can't wait to make it as a real one!
You don't even have to use fondant accents if you don't want to...go buttercream all the way! Spread a thin layer of buttercream (maybe 1/8" thick) on a sheet of waxed paper, lay it on a cookie sheet, and pop it in the freezer. Once it's frozen, use cookie cutters or fondant cutters to cut out the shapes. Re-freeze. Apply the frozen shapes to your cake.
I'm also a BC only decorator. I just love, love, love my BC.
I think we have something going here! Indydebi and GeminiRJ, I love your cakes!
Come on buttercream decorators....lets show everyone you can do it with buttercream. The little fondant or gumpaste figures can be done with buttercream also. I recently did this cake and used all buttercream for it. The turkey was decorated on a cookie so I could make it stand up. The haystack is a cupcake and the little pigs are just piped on buttercream using the haystack for support.
You don't even have to use fondant accents if you don't want to...go buttercream all the way! Spread a thin layer of buttercream (maybe 1/8" thick) on a sheet of waxed paper, lay it on a cookie sheet, and pop it in the freezer. Once it's frozen, use cookie cutters or fondant cutters to cut out the shapes. Re-freeze. Apply the frozen shapes to your cake.
I cannot WAIT to try this!!!
ETA: Except for the fondant bees and the RI flowers, the bee cake in my avatar is all buttercream and often gets mistaken for fondant! Thank you, Melvira!!!
wow BC cutouts!!!!
that is amazing. I too cannot wait to try this!
A couple of hints to make the cutouts go easier for you: The metal cookie sheets help to keep the icing colder longer, but you can use whatever you have. Work quickly, as the icing defrosts just as quickly. I often will cut and then refreeze for bit. Once it's hardened up again, I will slide a spatula under the icing to pop loose the cutouts, which I then transfer to another sheet or container. Back in the freezer. It helps to be working with multiple trays so that you have something to work on while the others are freezing. Hope this makes sense!
I am primarily a buttercream decorator. I've dabled in fondant accents, but as others said...I really LOVE the taste of my buttercream, and there isn't much I can't do with it .
I use the excuse that I was never one to play with playdoh as a child - could never get the hang of it. So fondant is a little intimidating .
I use the excuse that I was never one to play with playdoh as a child - could never get the hang of it. So fondant is a little intimidating
.
PLAYDOH........that's what fondant tastes like....yes, thank you I knew it reminded me of something!!! ( I really hope that the fondant only decorators don't read this thread )
Buttercream decorator checking in!! I took lessons years ago from a Wilton decorator, she was AMAZING with buttercream. Years of inaction have passed since then, so I'm just back into doing cakes. I was shocked at how much fondant has just taken over. It just seems like cheating to me, and I'm really enjoying reading that others want to stick to buttercream as well.
BTW, Serious Cakes... I used your icing recipe last weekend. AMAZINGLY yummy!
Buttercream decorator checking in!! I took lessons years ago from a Wilton decorator, she was AMAZING with buttercream. Years of inaction have passed since then, so I'm just back into doing cakes. I was shocked at how much fondant has just taken over. It just seems like cheating to me, and I'm really enjoying reading that others want to stick to buttercream as well.
BTW, Serious Cakes... I used your icing recipe last weekend. AMAZINGLY yummy!
Well, I said I was inspired by Cupcake Cafe's buttercream cakes and was going to bake my own birthday cake. I fell in love with their wedding cake covered in lilacs. Couldn't find any info on how to make them, so I just made up my own. The end result was something between a hydrangea and wisteria. The kids thought they were grapes. I was also disappointed that I added too much ivory color.
But it was buttercream so it tasted divine even if it didn't look the way I intended.
I've also been shopping eBay for older Wilton yearbooks and vintage cake decorating books. I just won a 1954 Wilton Encycolopedia of Modern Cake Decorating for a whopping $3.00! I'm hoping it has some good, old fashioned, buttercream techniques in it. I'm currently bidding on The Wilton School Decorating Cakes and the 1974 Wilton Yearbook.
I was beginning to think that something was wrong with me because I'm not really interested in doing fondant cakes!
By the way, I finally watched the first Amazing Wedding Cakes episode and I loved the part where the decorator admitted that she didn't like doing buttercream because it's difficult to get it to look as smooth as fondant. She liked fondant because it was quick and easy to make it smooth. So...I guess I should be proud to be a buttercream decorator. On more than once occasion someone has thought that a cake was covered in fondant, rather than buttercream, but I'm still striving for a perfectly smooth cake!
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