Anyone ever heard of or tried this technique?

http://bakingproject.com/2008/11/28/steam-buttercream/

hmm that's interesting. I've never heard of it. I imagine it would be more of a hassle than it's worth!

Interesting! I think I might try that.

Looks good for icing those teeny tiny mini cakes.

Looks cool! I have melted the store bought little containers you find in the baking aisles and have dipped my cupcakes in there so it gives it the same effect as well.

hmmm...looks interesting and I agree that it might work well for mini cakes, but honestly, it just looks like a big ol' mess to clean up!

Might be worth a try but I would line my drip pan with parchment/wax paper, freeze/refridgerate and then peel it off into my storage container. Mght make cleaning up a bit easier...

Looks exactly like poured fondant technique that you use for petit fours.

What is the poured fondant? Do you melt the fondant or something?

Looks exactly how I glaze bunt cakes and donuts. The only difference is make more and pour more.

Yeah, pretty much like poured fondant - just a mixture similar to buttercream, just done in liquid form - there are a few different recipes - you pour it on and it hardens. Also pretty much what you do when you cover a cake with ganache

Just some history. I did some mini heart cakes and attempted to do a poured fondant. It didn't work out so well. So I had heard something about melted buttercream. I couldn't find anything on it. So I just put some buttercream in the micro to see what would happen. You can't microwave it for too long. But it was workable. I was able to cover the mini cakes I had. This is time consuming and I probably wouldn't do a whole cake. I also covered some sugar cookies with it. The melted buttercream also tasted much better than the poured fondant.

super cool!

Yes, that's been around a while. The easiest and quickest (but not cheapest) way to do this is to heat the store bought buttercream in the microwave, I've use Pillsbury and BettyCrocker ready made and poured it over the Wilton mini bunny face pan. The trick is to keep it the right temp, not too hot or it's to thin, not to cold or it won't run/cover well.

A lady from my cake club made these cakes with poured buttercream...http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1912558

Plus at our meeting, she showed us how to make it, and it only took a minute...easy and effective, especially for those odd shaped cakes!

What is the consistency when it dries? Does it dry completely?

If I can remember correctly, I think she said it crusts like a regular buttercream would. You can PM her if you have any other questions.