Hello, I am excited to try to make Indydeb's buttercream for the first time, I'm new at to all of this and I have been using Wilton's recipe.
I'm abut to get started making it and would like to know if I can substitute water in place of the milk in the recipe?
If the milk is there in order to add fat because of the removal of trans-fat in crisco, can I use the store brand shortening with 2.5g instead of crisco? Or should I just leave the recipe as is!?
Haha the reason I am asking is because I am in Houston heat/humidity and I am making this cake for a 2 y/o birthday party, I'm scared about leaving milk unrefrigerated as I am making a fondant cake ( I know the sugar is supposed to preserve it, but I'm paranoid!.. I guess if none of you all have gotten sick it's ok lol)
Just to test it out, I frosted a slice of carrot cake with indydebi's BC and then I let it sit in direct sunlight from 11:00am to 3:00pm. When I inspected it, it was just as I had frosted it. Did I mention it was 101 degrees that day? I meant to take a picture of it so I could post it here on CC but I, being the klutz that I am, dropped it in the floor. Oh well, take my word for it, it holds up to heat beautifully! I didn't change a thing on the recipe!
Lol, I know you were mad when you dropped it! I HATE scrubbing crisco out of BOWLS after I make frosting, I cant imagine scrubbing it off the floor hahaha.
But ok well I made the batch, with water (before coming back to this thread). Tastes good to me! But I suppose I have nothing to compare it to but my older recipe. Anyways its nice and smooth
Oh and my fear wasn't that it would melt or anything with the milk in it... just that it might spoil or grow some unseen bacteria
American buttercreams (made with tons of powdered sugar, fat and a small amount of liquid/any liquid) are shelf stable (no refrigeration required) because the sugar (which is hygroscopic or water absorbing) controls the water activity in the liquid, be it water, milk, cream or non-dairy coffee creamer, etc..
Here's the science.
Water activity & microbial growth:
(Prolonging Bakery Product Life.)
http://tinyurl.com/ya8po4z
WJ Scott in 1953 first established that it was water activity, not water content that correlated with bacterial growth:
http://tinyurl.com/bmsato
Formulating for increased shelf life:
(Decreasing water activity results in hostile environment for bacteria.)
http://tinyurl.com/csu2b9
Cream cheese frosting & sugar as a preservative:
(Includes shelf stable cream cheese recipe.)
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-621145-.html
HTH
Hello, I am excited to try to make Indydeb's buttercream for the first time, I'm new at to all of this and I have been using Wilton's recipe.
I'm abut to get started making it and would like to know if I can substitute water in place of the milk in the recipe?
If the milk is there in order to add fat because of the removal of trans-fat in crisco, can I use the store brand shortening with 2.5g instead of crisco? Or should I just leave the recipe as is!?
If you've found some store brand with 2.5 gr transfat in it, that will help stabilize it in the heat. The sugar in the recipe will act as a preservative for your frosting. I don't use that recipe, but I do sub in different things for the liquid depending on the flavor. For example--if I make chocolate I use coffee-- if I make lemon, I use lemon juice. So water would be fine, but not necessary.
Thanks for the replies. It tasted really good to me (with water). Next time i'll try milk, I can't imagine it would taste much different though, but maybe because I have never been a fan of milk ( I use fat free in my cereal which everyone tells me tastes like water lol)
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