I am looking for a good all butter buttercream recipe, and any decorating tips to go along with it. I have a customer who insists that her icing not have hydrodgenated oil in it. She ordered from me a year ago and swears that I made her an all-butter icing then... which I am sure I would have remembered! Anyway.... I currently use a 1/2 shortening 1/2 butter crusting recipe. So for any of you who use all butter, I have a few questions... does this crust? How do you get your cake smooth? I will be using a FBCT for this cake, how easy is it to do this with the all butter buttercream?

TIA for your help!

Does anyone use a recipe that doesn't use shortening that is good for decorating? Anything?

I would not think all butter would crust, but I could be wrong I suppose. I also use half butter and half shortening

Hey, here is a recipe I use all the time (I don't like using shortening) and tastes nice. It spreads and pipes well and crusts so you can smooth it with the paper towels etc. It also doesn't need to be refridgerated.

Just note that it will be slightly more yellow tinged than with the shortening but just make sure you beat the butter well to get it lighter (if i want it even lighter I sometimes add Wilton's white-white or americolor bright white). Havn't tried it with a FBCT yet but i would like to try one day but i am thinking it would be fine.

CRUSTING BUTTERCREAM:

500 g unsalted butter
1 kg icing sugar
8 tsp boiling water
2 tsp vanilla essence

Beat butter well until light and fluffy then gradually add the icing sugar beating well then add water and vanilla essence, beat some more.

Also you can halve or double the recipe no problems

HTH

This is great! Just today I was wondering about this! Thank you! Thank you! I can't wait to try it!

Yes, all-butter + PS will crust. It is the PS plus a fat that causes the crusting, not the shortening. You can use all butter in the standard Wilton recipe. As for icing the cake and decorating, it functions pretty much the same as shortening recipe.

Thank you so much, such a relief!!!

I will be darn I didnt think it would crust because if I use too much butter it never would....however, maybe I needed more ps.....good to know thanks

When I ran out of Crisco one day I tried using all butter in my buttercream recipe, and while it worked I found the butter kept melting. The heat from my hand when I piped the icing made the butter melt, so I had to keep putting the icing in the fridge to let it cool down and try again. The cake tasted great and it turned out in the end, but I was really surprised at the melting!

If you're going to sub butter for the wilton recipe, or a shortening based one, you will probably need less liquid, since there's more liquid in butter.

That explains my issues! I probably used the same amount of water - thanks akgirl10!!!

Here the recipe I use and love:
Ingredients
1 pound of butter (salted or unsalted)
2 pounds of 10X powdered sugar
1/4 cup of buttermilk (I use flavored liquid coffee creamer)
1.5 tsp good vanilla

Instructions
In a 5 qt mixer using a paddle attachment, soften the butter. Slowly add sifted sugar. Add salt vanilla and buttermilk. You can adjust the consisitency by adding more liquid if you prefer a softer icing. This is a good base icing that can be flavored in many ways.

Enjoy!

you can just use your normal recipe, and swap the shortening for butter. you just have to trust your judgement, add a bit less or more powdered sugar/ liquid to get what you want.
indydebis crisco icing works well with all butter. i also use a traditional bc, all butter. hence why butter cream is called buttercream!
xx

Thanks for all the responses and tips! Sounds like it should work, but I don't plan on switching recipes anytime soon!