You might find this helpful. This recipe calls for flour for sweetness issues, it is great! And makes it stiff IMHO

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2523-Julies-Less-Sweet-Buttercream-Frosting.html

Thanks guys! I'm going to try the cornstarch and flour tomorrow! I will post results!

I haven't noticed a difference, but I haven't been doing this for years either, and the buttercream I make calls for twice as much butter as shortening. Personally, I'm all for the change. Trans-fats are getting banned some places and companies are recognizing that it might get banned all-together so they are making changes before it happens. Trans-fats is one of those things that is actually hazardous to your health (beyond the normal fat/calories thing) and that is why there is a big stink about it. There have been other foods that have been banned in the past, it's just one of those things. I really don't see it as someone telling me what I can put in my mouth, I see it as a problem waiting to explode and appropriate actions are being taken to correct it. Just my .02 cents

Love my Walmart "Great Value" brand shortening! Works great for me every time. Though, if I whip it too long, it does get too many air bubbles that I have to work out with a spatula. So maybe just using a different brand will help? Sorry if I'm repeating someone...I only got to page three of the replies!

I literally LOL with justfrostings remarks about Grandma, you guys are too funny sometimes. That was my thought though HOW DARE THEY MESS WITH CRISCO.....................

And after I wrote this I went to look at my can, I made some frosting yesterday and for the first time in my life had air bubbles even with the roller method, NOW I KNOW WHY........................

Hey, I remember making hand-crank homemade ice cream! We'd get a bottle of cream from the neighbors, mix it up with milk, sugar, eggs, and vanilla--and sometimes, I think, something called renet (probably like a gelatin), pack the freezer with coarse salt and broken-up icicles from the eves of our house and then crank away. Oh, yummy!! So rich it coated the roof of your mouth when you ate it. And don't go thinking I'm an octogenarian--I haven't even quite qualified for the senior discount yet!

Like Carol Ann (I think it was her.....>), I have never had a problem with the Trans Fat Free Crisco. I first started using it about 6 months ago or so (could be longer - I don't remember) when I happened to find a green can of crisco at Hannaford (used to be Victory) Supermarket here in Mass. Since then I have only used the trans fat free version. I was very excited when it was announced that all Crisco was trans fat free. I have always wanted to buy the big cans (3 or 6 lb) but wouldn't before because they have trans fat. I am not a "health nut" either, but figured why not make my icing a little better for everyone.

I weigh out my crisco, add my flavorings and water and let it mix on 1 or 2 on my KA for about 5 minutes or so while I weigh out and sift my ps. I also mix until the crisco is smooth with no "bits" of shortening visible. Then add my ps in about 4 additions. I don't mix higher than speed 2, otherwise I will get air bubbles.

Sorry this was so long! Just wanted to add my 2cents!

~Chelle

I hate to go against the flow but the trans fat crisco has posed not problems for me but the recipe I use calls for cornstarch and flour. I have no complaints. I am glad for the no trans fat recipe change.

Hi Mami--what recipe do you use?

3!

Hmmm, here's a thought...........I wonder if anyone here is brave enough (or just goofy enough) to try to develop a frosting recipe that uses oil instead of hydrogenated fat. (personally, I don't like crisco because of the weird distinctive taste it has). At work we get our shortening in 50# boxes, it still, to my knowledge has transfat but that will probably change here shortly, I wonder if it'll have an effect on our donuts? O well won't know til it happens. So if that happens and there are too many problems with the shortening in my frosting, I will try to talk my boss into getting the hi-ratio shortening (wonder if that's gonna go NTF too?)

I tried adding the cornstarch today and it actually worked pretty well! I added 2T to my regular batch (posted recipe in this thread) after adding the sugar. I don't think my icing will ever be the same but atleast this seems to help with the softness! Thanks for all of the help and suggestions! Please post any misfortunes or fantastic ideas so we can all learn how to deal with NO TRANSFAT!

OK - I just looked at my can of Crisco and it says 50% less fat...

When I was making icing for my class and started icing my cake for class, I noticed air bubbles in my thinned frosting and was completely besided myself...

Although no one told me until I read this string... I knew frosting isn't suppose to have air bubbles...

Thank you for the cornstarch & flour comments, I will give that a go until I can find a shorting with the fat still in it!

PS... I'm near sick and tired of the government, lawyers and doctors telling me what is good or bad for me... These are sad days we live in when people cannot push away from the dinner table full of fast food items, make a little time for exercise or plain think for themselves, yet want to sue because of one too many Big Mac's, French Fries and the likes... give me an ever lovin' break! Moderation!

Off my soap box now...

Just saw this and had to post....


Does Less Trans Fat Make Food Healthier?
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP Medical Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -

A major change in the national diet is under way: Heart-damaging trans fat is rapidly disappearing from grocery aisles and restaurant food, too. But are its replacements really healthier?

It's a tricky time for consumers, because the answer depends on the food - and some are losing trans fat only to have another artery clogger take its place, that old nemesis saturated fat.

"Right now the public has to be very careful ... if something says 'trans fat-free,' what else is in it?" warns Dr. Robert Eckel, past president of the American Heart Association.

Trans fat has become the new fall guy for bad nutrition. Chain restaurants are struggling to get it off the menu after New York City and Philadelphia required restaurants to phase it out by next year. Bills to restrict or ban trans fat in restaurants or school cafeterias have been introduced in at least 20 states.

At grocery stores, the government began forcing food labels to disclose the amount of trans fat in packaged foods last year, and the race was on to see which manufacturers could eliminate it first.

The irony: Americans eat about five times more saturated fat than trans fat. And while gram-for-gram, trans fat is considered somewhat more harmful than its cousin, too much of either greatly increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other ailments.

Trans fat is created when companies add hydrogen to liquid cooking oils to harden them for baking or for a longer shelf-life, turning them into "partially hydrogenated oils."

There is no single substitute. So food chemists and chefs are taste-testing their way through different cooking oils and fats - both naturally occurring ones and chemically modified ones - to find replacements that don't alter each food's taste or texture.

What are the options? There are some heart-healthier oils, called monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oils - such as olive, canola or soybean oils. Unlike trans and sat fats, these liquid oils don't raise levels of so-called bad cholesterol, or LDL cholesterol.

Frying chicken in canola or soybean oil instead of partially hydrogenated shortening is an easy switch.

But you can't make, say, a pie crust with olive oil. Industry is finding that the toughest foods to rid of trans fat are baked goods, such as pastries, cookies, pizza crusts.

Substituting animal fats, such as butter or lard, or tropical oils such as palm or coconut oil may keep the taste, but they are super-high in saturated fat.

"You need to find a replacement for a solid fat that doesn't have the health implications, and that's the tougher battle," says Susan Borra of the International Food Information Council. "We are changing the entire fatty acid profile of the food supply, and we're not sure we know what it's going to look like at the other end."

And that's where the concern comes in. Merely substituting saturated fat for the trans doesn't give the food more bad fat altogether than before, but it doesn't make it a healthy choice either, Eckel explains.

So the heart association is beginning a major campaign to teach consumers about the different fats and how to tell what foods they're in. (It's partly funded by a 2005 court settlement in which McDonald's was accused of being too slow to remove trans fat.)

How much fat is too much? Federal guidelines say between 25 percent and 35 percent of total daily calories should come from fats, but the bad fats should make up only a fraction of that. The heart association says less than 7 percent of total calories should be saturated fat - the average American gets about 11 percent now. Trans fat should be less than 1 percent of calories, half today's average.

A centerpiece of the heart campaign is a Web-based calculator - at http://www.americanheart.org/facethefats - so consumers don't have to do that math. It tallies just how many grams of fat people of different ages and exercise habits can fit into a day, with lists of foods that fit the bill.

For some people, a single meal of a cheeseburger and small fries would just exceed the daily limit of bad fats. Others who are taller and more active could fit in two burgers and be OK.

Many companies are searching for trans fat alternatives that are healthier than saturated fats, Borra stresses. Indeed, the heart association brought together food makers, food chemists and health experts to explore all the options last fall, and among those generating interest are different ways to blend liquid and harder fats, in hopes of reducing the artery-clogging portions.

For now, reading the food label - the Nutrition Facts panel on the back of the package, not just the "trans-free" icon on the front - is key, says Michael Jacobson of the consumer advocacy Center for Science in the Public Interest.

---

LanaC thank you for posting the article!

Now I definately know it's not "me" when I say my icing is thin, unstable, and full of airbubbles! And above that...they've ruined my icing to save nothing!!

you would have thought i was squirreling away food for a hurricane or snow storm. i when out last night a purchased every can of the old crisco i could find in three grocery stores. my family now knows, for sure, i have offically lost my mind!!!!!!

Maybe I can find the "old" Crisco on Ebay so I can avoid this mess altogether! I am finishing off my last little bits of the old--don't want to mess with the new!

THis sounds like back when New Coke was introduced! I heard of people filling their basements with the original coke like the was the beginning of armegeddan!

I really see this ended as a presentation of two options - one "healthy" crisco (OMG) and "unhealthy" crisco. Just like we have butter crisco, we'll have leaded and unleaded.

I still chuckle over the concept of trying to make grease more healthy.

Okay, first of all, I have to say that I do, for the most part, agree that it is a good thing that there has been such a push lately to make healthy foods more accessible to the public. The markets have been flooded with "mulitgrain" "whole grain" "no trans fat" options, and I for one am thrilled about that! I understand that things get difficult when we have to alter our tried-and-true recipes to fit these changes, and I know how frustrating it is when you have a deadline that you're worried you won't be able to meet. Thankfully, we have a great resource here at Cake Central, and I'm sure that the brilliant bakers here will find a way make frosting just as good as, if not better than, our old recipes! Soon we'll all be wondering what we ever loved about those old recipes, because the new ones are so much better! lol


I have to get off the subject just a little, though, and address this comment:

Military families are given health insurance as a part of their meager benefits package, just as many others are offered health insurance through their jobs. Just as tax payers aren't footing the bill for your medical coverage, tax payers also aren't footing the bill for those military wives' coverage, Tricare health insurance is. I understand the sentiment that you were trying to get across--obesity is an epidemic in this nation, and as a nation we are paying the price for this problem--but please don't try to make it seem as though the government is just shelling out money for military wives to do frivilous things like face lifts or butt tucks. Like I said, even if you find bariatric surgery and excess skin removal frivilous (which I don't, because bariatric surgery is most often used as a last resort for people who have tried many, many other options first), the government is not directly paying for those things. The military gets precious little pay and benefits, not nearly what they deserve for the sacrifices they make, especially in these trying times. Please don't begrudge or belittle the few benefits actually given to those who defend our country.


***


Sorry, I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but the military issue is, of course, near and dear to my heart.
Now that I'm down off my soap box, let's make some cake! lol

I wanted to let everyone know that this morning I went to Crisco's website and did a short survey and sent them an email to alert them about the problems people (nationwide) are experiencing with their new product. MAYBE if we all band together and do the same we could get our old Crisco back.

Here's how to do it:
go to www.crisco.com
bottom of the page click on the "contact us" link
It will walk you through a short multiple choice survey and then allow you to send the company an actual email.

Are you with me SweetConfectionsChef????????

-Michelle

Msauer: I did the same thing last night. I also notice they have a forum. Maybe someone should start a link about the No trans fat shortening and the problems it has. Hopefully it will be notice by the supervisors and make a note of the problems the new shortening causes, and do something. Plus contacting them, through the email might get the attention that is needed.