Hey all, I'm new here. Although I'm a professional (self taught) baker,
I've never knew how to decorate cakes. So I'm taking the course. The first class we were taught to make the decorator icing with all crisco. Now, the next class we will be showing up with our cake ready to be decorated and with our frosting. I decided to make a chocolate cake (no one likes yellow in my house), and I plan to frost it with my chocolate frosting which is all butter. I plan to refrigerate the cake frosted until a while before the class. If I make decorator frosting with 1/2 crisco and 1/2 butter, will it pipe nicely and will it stick to my cake, if it's room temperature.

Also, I've never made vanilla frosting. My child is taking the class also. On his, we will be doing vanilla frosting. Should I do it with 1/2 crisco, 1/2 butter recipe or is there some other vanilla frosting that will taste good on the cake. Any ideas/answers would be great. THANKS.

As a Wilton Instructor I tell my students they can ice their cakes with what ever icing they want but to please use the all Crisco recipe for the in class use and decorating. The reason we use the all crisco is because it holds up better to the repeat use of it. You will pipe with it, scrap it up and pipe with it some more. Often times if you have warm hands it will soften the icing. The butter has a lower melting point that crisco and can soften from the repeat use, giving you a little bit harder icing to learn with on some things.

I agree with Texas...all shortening buttercream. What happens is, by the end of the class, if you use butter, you will have a soupy mess instead of buttercream. It will be a big dissapointment.
Edna

Thanks so much for responding. I'm going to make up the all
shortening buttercream for class tomorrow. I look forward to
learning how to do cakes - i can see how it must get addictive.

Hi and Welcome to CC, Beabaker.

Everything you need to know to make, decorate and assemble tiered/stacked/layer cakes:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-605188-.html

Above superthread has popular CC recipes for crusting American buttercreams, several types of fondant and doctored cake mix (WASC and other flavor variations) and so much more!

When you're done with the Wilton classes, you'll probably find the above recipes more palatable.

HTH