Hi all, sorry for the long post. I'm new and have read the forums a little bit. Here's an odd question to start with: is there a Buttercreme recipe that doesn't require a lot of powdered sugar? And 2nd a short story about what happened today, and yes it's sort of relevant.

I thought I was doing well: 1. My cakes didn't burn and 2. I got them out of the pan without breaking them. But then they cooled off and I thought I'd be smart and put them in a pan seperated by parchement paper to ultimately stick them in the refrigerator.... First one flipped without a hitch, second one flipped.... and broke in half. So they're in the fridge waiting on the icing to get made...

After reading some recipes and other forum posts, I tried making some not so sweet icing since my last attempt was so miserable I made my husband sweat from using the whole bag of sugar (he's a teeny bit sensitive to sugar). Here are my attempts, I need feedback, especially if you live in a sub-tropical climate or wherever you make cakes and it's humid when you do.

Note: I've read about this "high-ratio" shortening, no idea where to find it, I don't have a warehouse card, and I don't order these supplies online. Though, that said, I will look for it when I go to Orlando next since they have an "open to the public" specialty cooking store which is loaded with candy making supplies! :D If someone could also tell me what the difference the high-ratio stuff makes, I'd appreciate it.

Oops, one last thing, I use cane sugar for the powdered because I found that the other kind is grainy (saw it on a website years ago, switched to cane sugar and never looked back!). By 'other kind' I mean store brand, because it doesn't tell you what kind of sugar.

Icing Experiements:

1st Try: 1 cup Crisco shortening 1/4 cup butter (1 stick) 2tsp vanilla 2T Meringue powder 1T Whole milk 1.25c Powdered Sugar(cane) 4-5T cocoa powder

2nd Try: 1 cup crisco shortening 1/2 cup salted butter (2 sticks) 1 teeny pinch of salt 3-4 tsp of Vanilla 3T cornstarch 1.5 - 2 cups of Powdered Sugar (cane)

Results:

1) a bit tangy, prob due to the meringue powder, came out smooth/silky, not quite runny. This will be my filling cause of the weakness of it.

2) Beat it a bit longer in my mixer, thickened up a bit, got a stiff peak, still weak though (it's humid here).

Both: light on the sweet side and buttery, not sure about our humidity though.

Decorating: was thinking about going with some royal icing for writing, I have Nestle Bunch-a-crunch ready for a border, if I don't eat them all first. :P

I have both icings in the refrigerator for now to see if that will help them firm up a bit. Do you think it may get firm enough to pipe words onto with gel or royal icing from the store? This is for tomorrow afternoon, procrastination or just idea searching? xD This will be a simple cake though, nothing fancy, as I have not clue how to do fancy stuff (that includes those ribbon/shell borders, lols)

Thoughts? Suggestions? Anything? I need sleep.... oh look a cake!

AYou don't have near enough powdered sugar in your recipe to make it stiff enough to do things with it and it will probably melt.

www.littleladycakes.com/2009/04/high-ratio-shortening.html?m=1

High ratio shortening is more stable in the heat too.

So I guess my next question is How do you get butter cream not to taste like powdered sugar? Is there a way to cut back on the sweetness? OR should I use something different entirely (not fondant, can't stand the stuff)?
 

AThere is swiss meringue buttercream or Italian meringue buttercream they don't harden up and they melt really easily I've never used them other than that I don't have the answer. Sorry.