Hi All,

I am looking for a great Buttercream recipe..  The one i use is very soft but i don't normally cover cakes in Buttercream.  I usually use fondant.  I will be making a cake covered in the buttercream roses (technique).  What is the best (consistency and flavor) to use for this?

Personally I like Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but to make rosettes most buttercream would work fine - American buttercream, shortening buttercream, I've also done them with cream cheese.  What's important is the temperature where the cake will be served. If it's hot, butter and cream cheese bases will not be good choices.

Thank you...  i haven't found a recipe i LOVE!  I use a recipe that calls for both butter and shortening.  The party will be indoors and the cake will be refrigerated.  I'm also curious if i would be better off using a crusting buttercream... 

I love IMBC, but I would suggest a crusting buttercream since the flowers will be on the outside of the cake.  You *could* do a non-crusting bc, but it would just make me leery during transportation.  I would say a good, old fashioned, American buttercream would work. Since the cake will be temperature controlled, I'd go with an all butter bc, just for the taste of it ;)

You can find a recipe titled "2 of everything" in the recipe section of this site.  It is a super tasting, albeit soft icing.  That can be adjusted by decreasing the fat used by at least 1/2 to 1 cup.  One of the important things to remember when making b'cream is to use some salt, and no less than 2 TABLESPOONS of flavoring.   Many recipes only call for 1 or 2 teaspoons :(  Just increasing flavoring helps soooo much :) 

There should also be a recipe somewhere on this site for "buttercream for air drying flowers".