Cheap Way Of Making Frosting

Baking By kyekuu Updated 13 Apr 2016 , 6:25pm by SimplyIcedCC

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kyekuu Posted 11 Apr 2016 , 8:11pm
post #1 of 10

Hi, i am trying to open a business of cupcakes in Africa and i have been practicing how to make them and they turn out perfect. The problem comes to the COSTING. Just today i have found out that my butter cream frosting is expensive, its twice amount of the cupcake cost. So i was wondering if there is substitutes or other way of making a good frosting without butter. Since butter its is expensive here.

 if you are wondering about the cost.  one cupcake without frosting is 18cents and cost of frosting in one cupcake is 1.89$ so i was hoping for another alternative

9 replies
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AAtKT Posted 11 Apr 2016 , 8:40pm
post #2 of 10


You can always use vegetable shortening.



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cakebaby2 Posted 12 Apr 2016 , 6:32am
post #3 of 10

You can use shortening, but it isn't buttercream then is it? I don't see why you cant just make a nice frosting and charge for it. It doesn't matter if it adds to your cost, you'll be charging for it wont you?

Surely better to sell the cupcakes with delicious frosting than be left with them because the frosting is horrible and cheap.


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costumeczar Posted 12 Apr 2016 , 11:46am
post #4 of 10

It costs 18 cents to make one cupcake and $1.89 to frost one cupcake? What the heck? What recipe are you using for icing?

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kyekuu Posted 12 Apr 2016 , 11:48am
post #5 of 10

butter is just expensive here

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kakeladi Posted 12 Apr 2016 , 4:58pm
post #6 of 10

Using 1/2 and 1/2 (shortening and butter) might help.  Shortening alone with butter flavoring is another possibility.  It's just going to depend on what taste you want.

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CatPoet Posted 12 Apr 2016 , 7:25pm
post #7 of 10

Can you do ganache instead?   I know butter is expensive there,  I have friend who makes wedding cakes for a living and she is using  ganache because it cheaper then butter cream.

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Jinkies Posted 12 Apr 2016 , 9:28pm
post #8 of 10

Try googling some vegan recipes.  They don't use butter and you would be amazed at what people come up with.  

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julia1812 Posted 13 Apr 2016 , 6:13am
post #9 of 10

Hey kyekuu. I think you made a mistake in your calculation. Don't know where you are located exactly but if you go to Nakumatt in Dar 500g of butter is around 12,135tzsh (5.6$). If you are making american buttercream it's gonna cost you around 18,148tzsh to make 1.5 kg. I use between 20 and 25g per cupcake. That's between 0.11 and 0.14$. I now Tanzania is more expensive (I remember paying between 2 or 3 times more). But even then it's impossible to make a buttercream swirl that cost you 1.89$ because that would mean 500g (one pound) butter costs more than 100$!!!

Maybe double check. Add up all the ingredients' cost for one batch (and power usage). Then divide that by the number of cupcakes you can frost with it. So if you can frost 60 cupcakes with one batch divide by 60.

Coming back to your question: you can use shortening instead of butter or use half butter half shortening  (that's what I do - also hold up better in the heat). Do you have mpishi poa? I use it all the time. Doesn't have a nasty aftertaste and is pure white.

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SimplyIcedCC Posted 13 Apr 2016 , 6:25pm
post #10 of 10

Oh my, that's expensive lol!  Are you sure your calculations are correct?  If so, as others have stated, try using half butter/half shortening :)

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