Does anyone have this recipe? I heard it is really good but do not know for myself. I need a good frosting for a wedding cake.

I haven't tried it but you can probably be sure it's good. She's pretty famous for it and her wedding cakes.

http://cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-1987-Sylvia-Weinstocks-Buttercream-Icing.html

This is a great article about how a "Sylvia" wedding cake is made.

http://www.modernbride.com/food/?wd_cakembm1101.html

Thanks so much. I didn't realize how time consuming her recipe was. Do you know of another great icing for wedding cakes? I will try hers though.

Sylvia's recipe is the only one I use for my buttercream. As long as you have a good mixer (Kitchenaid) it's not very time consuming. Any boiled icing requires time to cool down before the butter can be added. While it's cooling/mixing, you can utilize the time for other details of your cake... or make it ahead while baking your cakes. It generally takes about 1 1/2 hours for me to make, but well worh it when you taste the final results!

I'm going to give this recipe a try.... I have a kitchen aid mixer....but it's old....(need a new one) looking into the one at Sam's club...700+watts...someone mentioned it in another post...


heavenlycakes
So how cool does this mixture have to be, before you add the butter...and do you use unsalted or salted butter?????
Tia
cakegal

The bowl should be cool to touch before adding. Always use unsalted butter, salted will give it a bad, salty taste.

I am making a chocolate wedding cake for my niece. This is the first time I have made this recipe and I will NEVER go back to Crisco frosting again. Light, fluffy, not too sweet, in a word DELICIOUS!!! My only problem is incorporating chocolate to get a dark color. I put in the suggested amount of chocolate and it is a light color, any suggestions? Too much chocolate makes it too stiff, so that is not a good option. Thanks in advance.

Can you add more thinning liquid so it wouldn't be as stiff? If the taste is good but you still want a darker color, you could try add brown coloring instead of more chocolate.

What should I use to color brown like chocolate? Should I mix red and green or is there a true brown coloring people like and isn't bitter? Thanks

I use AmeriColor's chocolate brown. It doesn't have any bitter taste and it's darker than Wilton's brown.

THANKS!!!!

Regular butter is salted......it tastes yucky with regular butter. I have halfed it for my last cake, works fine.... I would not use margarine, it is such GREAT icing, the margarine would probably make it bad ;-( It is worth the investment in unsalted butter! Make half a recipe..... Good luck! Jan

I agree--don't try it with salted. I tried it half and half and it was even too salty. The 2 salted to 10 unsalted is good, but try a half batch and see what you think.

Let it cool for sure. I didn't cool it enough on my last batch, and it was super soft and had to be chilled longer before I could use it.

Also if you're piping with it--fill a couple of bags, because you'll have to keep popping them in the fridge--it softens quickly in your hand and goes from perfect to ugh pretty quick. I just keep putting it in the fridge or freezer to keep it firm enough, but it's worth it.

To get it dark enough, add the chocolate and some brown. I also found a Wilson's chocolate extract flavor that is very dark brown and adds dark brown color and flavor at the same time.

Also if you chill it very long, especially if it's colored, be sure to beat it WELL before working with it. I've had times I didn't beat it well enough before reusing it, and it will sort of separate, and a bit of colored liquid will actually sort of weep and drip out of the tip while you're piping! ack! So beat, beat, beat beat it before piping.

It sounds like a bit of a hassle, but believe me, it's worth it. I used it for one wedding several states away and had people offer to fly me back down for their wedding, and they were going back for seconds and licking their plates~! It's delicious and worth every minute.

A cooling tip for once you add the hot sugar to the whites or yolks (depends on what version you are using):

Normally, it takes 10 to 15 minutes, usually the later, of whipping in the KA to bring the mixture back down to room temp in order for safe addition of the butter.

Tip: If you have the KA with the bowl that raises, you can put another bowl of ice water under it to cool it down faster while whipping.

If you do not have this KA, then pack ice in a freezer bag and place the bag around your bowl.

I love the meringue buttercreams!

I JUST made this buttercream. I halved the recipe, but other than that I followed the recipe it to a "T". It is WONDERFUL! Like silk. I whipped the egg whites with the sugar syrup for 25 minutes and I used unsalted butter. I have not iced my cake yet, but stored the icing in a container (with some plastic wrap right on the top of the icing) and put in the fridge. Plan to ice the cake with it this weekend. Will let you know how it turns out. But this buttercream......tasting it was like a religious experience! Ha!