Hello!!

I'm pretty much new in this business, live in Dominican Republic. The weather here is pretty humid and hot, i live near the sea, so, not all the recipes works for me jejeje!

I'm trying to create a really good topping for my cupcakes. I tried with the royal one... it's almost impossible to have consistency i want!!! so... i took the buttercream recipe, DELICIOUS!

Now, i need a couple of tips that could help me, i love the flavor, but sometimer i think is not what i really need for my customers.

My people, can i have some help here?

Thanks in advanced!

The 2D tip gives a nice swirl when you go from the outside of the cupcake and swirl in. The 1M tip will give you a rose effect when you swirl from the center of the cupcake out.

I have never heard of topping a cupcake in just royal icing. I use buttercream, either a cooked recipe or uncooked.

Hope this helps

oh great! yes, it's pretty helpful. Honestly, when i first used the royal icing i had a pretty good weather here and they went beautiful!

When you say that you use buttercream, either a cooked recipe or uncooked, which one is the cooked and the uncooked? i'm sooo confused...

A cooked icing uses a cooked sugar syrup. And example would be Italian Meringue Buttercream. My personal favorite. But if the weather where you are at is hot and humid, it might not be the best for you. Sure it might be fine if it's kept indoors under a pretty good AC, but you might want something that is a little more stable.

American Buttercream is perhaps the route you want to go with. It uses shortening and powdered sugar. Nothing is cooked, it's just all blended together. What buttercream recipe did you use? If I knew that I might be able to give you some tips on how to flavor it so our customers would like it better.

I have heard of some people actually mixing a meringue buttercream and american buttercream together to get a the benefits of both frostings. I've never tried this myself, but you might want to give it a go. It would be a good idea to try actually if you're ever going to try making both a cooked and an uncooked buttercream. Set a little of both aside and just whip them together.

ohhh thank you very much!

The buttercream recipe i;m using is:

* 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
* 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
* 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
* 2 tablespoons milk

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

For Pure White Icing (stiff consistency), omit butter; substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and add 1/2 teaspoon No-Color Butter Flavor. Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes.

you could always try subbing almond for the vanilla. I like to use almond instead of vanilla and it always goes over well. Sugarshack uses creme bouquet in her buttercream. Haven't tried that yet myself but I hear it's amazing.

The nice thing is, you can try ANY flavor you can think of to flavor your frosting. Indydebi's recipe uses half a packet of Dream Whip. I don't know if you can get that in the Dominican, but I know you can order it online. I've used Dream Whip in my frosting ever since I tried her recipe. My hubby (who doesn't like cake or frosting) will sit down with a spoonful of her frosting and lick away at it like an ice cream cone. My brother claims I don't actually put dream whip in it, I just put some crack in there and that's how I hook everyone on my frosting! (Thanks again Debi!!!) So good luck! I would recommend making up a batch of your frosting, unflavored, then divide it into smaller batches and just try flavoring each one with something different until you find what you like.

woah! love this advice! ah! soooooo complete! ejejejej!!

Yes, ur tight, someone talked to me about that Dream Whip, but they don't sell it here. however, the buttercream it's the favorite one, no one really knows that;s the name, i don't reveal it eather! jejejej!!!

Thank you so much... i also saw your buttercream rose tutorial, so awesome, i got so man ideas in my head, thanxs!