A Couple Of Questions. Need Some Advice!
Decorating By bostonterrierlady Updated 31 Oct 2008 , 2:08am by Sammysue00
I want to know why my frosting never comes out pure white. I used hi ratio shortening, powdered sugar,flavorings the only colored filling I had was vanilla and I was almost out so it wasn't enough to color the icing. And I used milk and some salt. Thats it. It always comes out creamy looking. Why? One thing I did have to add alot of milk due to the fact that I wanted it easy to frost with. I used 2 C Sweetex to 2 lbs. Powdered sugar.
Also I worked all day on a sheet cake and a 10 in. with a 6 in. on top. And I am never happy. I only do cakes a few times a year. But this has been my hobby for 30 some years. I read this boardf every day and watch my dvds. I make a actual study of cake decorating. And I still struggle. Any advice? I will try to post pictures tomorrow.
it doesnt' take much of the brown vanilla to color the icing. (It's what I use to color my icing when I need an ivory color.) It's probably just a case of "we're more critical of ourselves than other people are". You may see the icing as not "pure white", but I guarantee you, the customers don't notice that it's not "pure" white (unless it's really really ivory colored or something). 
Well some of the frosting did not have any vanilla in it. I made several batches. I made one batch of your recipe. It was really full of air bubbles. I mix as little as possible. As far as the white icing goes it is really a mystery. I used clear vanilla in a cake I made for my parents and it was ivory too. Sometimes I just want a really white icing for certain cakes.
You might want to try the Whipped Cream Buttercream icing recipe I posted in the recipes section. This is a very white icing. You can see it on the cake with the red roses posted in my pictures. I really like the taste, texture and workability of this icing. It is also shelf stable for up to 3 months without refrigerating.
It was really full of air bubbles. I mix as little as possible.
Mix that sucker!! I run that mixer to absolutely pulverize the fat particles. Large fat particles in a creamy mixture will make holes in the creamy mixture. i mix the crisco, dream whip, mix, vanilla and a couple cups of sugar together (sugar just to bind everything and absorb the milk) ..... run the mixer until it looks smooth as silk ... 3-5 minutes. Then I add the rest of the sugar, more milk as needed, and just let the mixer do the work until it's smooth as silk.
Icing ingredients need to be beaten to tiny particles then blended together in a creamy mixture. If you mix as little as possible, you're not getting each component down to the smallest particle possible.
This may or may not be the 'scientific' explanation ... but it works for me.
They also have an icing "whitener". I've seen it at Michael's a lot. It's in a small bottle usually near the other icing colors. I believe even if you use clear vanilla it can still make the icing slighty off white, but if you add this whitener and use the clear vanilla it might help?? I usually don't bother with it though... most people never notice that my icing seems slightly off-white.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%