When I was making a Cake for this past weekend for Children's Day, I was wishing I had a tastier buttercream recipe than the 1/2 crisco and 1/2 butter. I decided to try adding things in my own proportions and I'm pretty happy with the recipe. (Picture in my photos)

1 1/2 Cups unsalted butter
1/2 Cup Crisco
2 Lbs powdered sugar
pinch of salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. orange extract
4 Tbsp. heavy cream (or enough to give desired consistency)
1 tsp. meringue powder

I had a little problem getting the icing as smooth as I would have liked. (That seems to be a problem for me anyway. I'm not sure I'll ever master the art of smooth icing! ) The cake was still partially frozen when I was decorating it (10:30 at night). I'm wondering if the cake was too cold and that was causing some of my smoothing problems. I wasn't happy with the writing on the cake so I had to take that off and redo it and that messed up the side of the cake. Then to top things off, I was taking the cake out of the refrigerator, caught it on the door and knocked the whole corner off so I had to patch that! My picture really shows up the mistakes. I think the cake looked better in person! (Darn digital camera! ) Any how, I think the icing tastes great! I will probably be making it my butter cream of choice. If you decide to try it, let me know what you think. Oh! One more thing. I beat the icing for about 15 minutes in my KA on the lowest speed. (Think I had seen a baker on the food network do that!)

Holy Schmokes that cake is adorable! I love the writing on the sides too! Noah is sooo cute, love his little toes. Great job.

When you say "heavy cream" is that whipping cream before whipping? I have a cake to do for a little party Saturday. I'll try it out. I just bought orange extract the other day too!

kos

Yes, I used heavy cream (whipping cream - before whipping) in place of milk or water. I think it gave the icing a much creamer, smoother taste. The icing is still sweet, but I thought it helped cut the sweetness just a little. (Don't know if it's my imagination or not).

If you mean smooth as in texture, no sugary grit, then some here are some tips;

Use a 10x powdered sugar. This kind has no cornstarch in it. The regular stuff you buy at the grocery store is 6x and does have cornstarch. The manufacturer puts the cornstarch in the product so it is easier for them to pack, not so good for the home baker, which is why you always have to sift, even several times, to unpack.

10x, you never have to sift and produces a creamer frosting.

Also, I was told in class that the smoothest way to get icing is to beat it by hand with whisk and/or spoon. This will also increase your muscles, lol.

If you are talking about smooth, as in spreading and frosting the cake, then the frozen cake will sieze up the icing, so let it thaw first. I would also suggest the Upside Down Frosting Method found on this website under "Articles."

Rodneyck, thanks. I always use Domino 10x powdered sugar. The problem I have is getting my icing to look perfectly smooth on the cake. Some of the pictures I look at on this forum have been smoothed so perfectly its unbelievible. Thanks for the tip about the frozen cake. I'm sure that must have been part of my problem.

Wow your cake is amazing. I can't tell that you had any problems with getting the cake smooth.

I hope you don't mind if I try this recipe. I have some whipping cream that I don't want to go to waste.

Thanks for sharing.

Wow those figures are amazing! Did you just teach yourself that, or have you taken classes?

Thanks so much for the nice comments. AgentCakeBaker, if you decide to try the recipe, let me know how it works for you. I would be interested in other peoples opinions. I will be baking a birthday cake for a friend this coming week and will be using the recipe again.

imartsy, I took Wilton class 1&2 and that is it so far. I got the courage to try scuplting from this forum! I was looking at all the great work on here and decided I wanted to give it a try. The 1st book I bought was titled "The Sculpy Way". It has great directions. It just takes time and patience. When I had questions the book couldn't answer, I came to Cake Central for help. Cake Central is the best resource I have!!!! I made my first figures this past January for the cake I made for my neices 16th birthday. They took me forever! Now I've gotten a little faster and see improvement in my work each time I make another figure. Give it a try. You'll find out how much fun it is!

Your figures are amazing. Excellent sculpting. I will have to try the recipe on my next cake. It sounds creamy.

Angie

Price where did you get your book from ? I looked on Amazon for it and they don't have it. Thanks !

In what order did you add your ingredients? I would like to try this variation of buttercream. Cream together butter and crisco then...

VickiC, cream butter and crisco, then add sugar, when that is mixed well add meringue powder, salt, & extracts and add heavy cream a tbsp. at a time until you get the consistency you want. I then let it whip in my KA at the lowest speed for about 15min. Good luck, hope you like it. Let me know how it turns out.

dolittle, I purchased my books at AC Moore and Michaels in the clay section. If I get a chance I will get my books and give you the titles of some of them.