i went to the store yesterday and happened to pick up a can of walmarts all vegetable shortening. when i looked at the back of the can i noticed it is now 0 trans fat. what can i use now????

Indydebi's b/c recipe uses Dream Whip which replaces some of the partially hydrogenated oil missing from trans fat free shortenings:

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/6992/indydebis-crisco-based-buttercream-icing

Sweetex and Alpine (hi-ratio shortenings) both retain trans fat formulas.

HTH

Zero trans fat shortening really isn't that much different from regular shortening...we use it all the time (it's a requirement in CA) and the only difference is that it's softer and more temperature sensitive than regular shortening.

I've had to switch to high-ratio shortening I'm in FL where temps get way too ought for my bc to tolerate using zero trans fat shortening.

High-ratio here too!

I'm not sure how it reacts to humidity (it doesn't get too humid in the San Jose area), and we haven't had a cake sit outdoors in hot weather since the zero trans fat switch. It does get hot in our commercial kitchen at times, but keeping the cake in the freezer as much as possible during the torting process helps, and frosted cakes need to be kept in the fridge.

[quote="jason_kraft"]Zero trans fat shortening really isn't that much different from regular shortening...we use it all the time (it's a requirement in CA) and the only difference is that it's softer and more temperature sensitive than regular shortening.[/quote]

My experience is that ZTF shortening produces a very, very different product. And a much inferior one. i got a case by mistake and suddenly customers started complaining. It makes a much drier cake and the icing can separate and slide.

I specify WITH TFs to my suppliers. Fortunately my state hasn't become a nanny state like others. Yet.

You can buy hi-ratio and divide into smaller packages, wrap very well and freeze it. I did this with my last purchase of hi-ratio is it works just fine when I need to use it.

I should clarify, we switched from Sweetex to Sweetex Z, we haven't tried Crisco. All our buttercream frosting is dairy-free too so I don't know if that makes a difference.

Walmart cans here are zero TF but the 1 pound packages are not. At least they weren't two weeks ago when I bought them.
I'm able to get hi ratio in bulk packaging, as in any size package, at my cake shop, which for me is great as I don't have to buy the 50lb block and break it up. I also buy the walmart 1 pounders and mix the two shortenings together. Saves me a few bucks that way.

I live in California, and the ZTF does make a difference in some recipes. My buttercream is basically the same (it doesn't use milk either) but more other recipes have suffered greatly (which also don't use milk). The sweetex especially is tough to use. I'll use Crisco before I'll use Sweetex ZTF again, it was really bad.

I'm only a few miles from Oceanside, when is the wedding and I can help with the weather.

Rolled buttercream is the one I notice the biggest difference in. It's so soft now.

I've always used the walmart brand, right next to the crisco. There is also one on the shelf that is part vegetable shortening and part, I'm guessing, from meat? But anyways, would that be something to use or not?? Im asking because I did notice that the last time I used the walmart brand, my BC was much softer and I knew something was different.

We actually experimented with lard instead of palm oil shortening (for dairy-free and soy-free buttercream) and it worked pretty well. We decided not to use it though, since the number of different recipes was getting out of hand -- we couldn't use the lard frosting for vegan orders so we still needed to keep soy-free palm oil buttercream around.

IIRC Sweetex Z is 100% palm oil. Another alternative would be coconut oil but it's very expensive.

well how are the bakeries in ca. doing with their buttercream icing since CA is transfat free???