Can someone help me out here. I am lost about using butter or margarine. My main question is when making icing does it matter if you use butter or margarine. Is one better than the other. I have been using margarine and I notice that my icing is very moist. I dont no if that has anything to do with that. What are the differences between the two. Thanks for any help with this question.

Big difference in tate,texture and color if trying to achieve white. Have you tried using butter? Which do you like better. I like butter but I have also done margarine and people like that too! Butter is what I bank on! Now lets talk about the folks who use neither...just Crisco? Tried that? I 'd take margarine over that scenario.

I took the Wilton course and we used crisco to make butter cream. I found a recipe that substitudes crisco with butter and there is a big differents. The icing with butter is much better.If you use margarine you might find a differents in taste. There is one recipe in the wilton book it,s called " special butter cream " and you add whipping cream to the crisco butter cream. The criso butter cream might e a little easier to work with especially when it's hot.

With cooking with the two does it make any difference. Like making cookies or cakes will butter do better with baking. With the icing do you think butter makes it easier to work with over margarine. Sorry for asking so many questions but I'm just trying to learn the best way. Thanks

It all depends upon the recipe. For most things when I'm cooking I do use margarine instead of butter. However if the purpose of the recipe is a butter taste (example scottish shortbread) then I do use butter as you can taste the difference. For icing I do tend to use butter as maragrine has a much higher water content and makes the icing softer and more difficult to work with

Is whipped butter the same as regular butter.

I use margarine for all my baking. In quebec they are not allowed to color the margarine so it is almost the color of shortening which makes it good if you want all white icing. I have never had a problem with margarine in any of my recipes. Even my butter cookies are made with margarine and take great.

I only use butter. Butter tends to yield more depth and flavour that margarine is not able to.
Not trying to do a "spamertisement" but the following is something I read, and verified through snopes.com


Butter vs. Margarine

Both have the same amount of calories.
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 7 grams compared to 2 grams with most margarines.

Using margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% - when compared to women who have used the same amount of
butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.
Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.
Butter has been around for centuries where
margarine has been around for less than 150 years.

And now, for Margarine......

Very high in Trans fatty acids.
Triple risk of coronary heart disease.
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)
Increases the risk of cancers up to five fold.
Lowers quality of breast milk.
Decreases immune response.
Decreases insulin response.
And reportedly margarine is ONE MOLECULE away from being
PLASTIC.

whipped Butter is not the same. It has air whipped into to make it easy to spread. I got the e-mail about margarine being

and now I refuse to buy the stuff. However before that I would use them both in baking. If the other flavors were strong enough I would use margarine, if not then butter.

I grew up on margarine because it was cheaper than butter and my mom had a tight budget to work with. But now that I am married I only use butter, if I have margarine in the house it's because hubby screwed up the shopping list somehow ...but that hasn't really happened since he's a butter fan too. Also we don't use a lot of butter in our diet, unless of course I am making buttercream frosting
I would rather have something that is real and better for your body than something that is fake and full of chemicals.

I have 1/2 pound of margarine in my fridge that I really should check the dates on, I never use it. The only reason I have it is that one of the kids at story hour is allergic to milk products and I wanted to make them cookies.

Margarine is manufactured from solidified oils, which is very unhealthy. Aside from that margarine contains water which will have an effect on icings. If you like the taste I think you just have to get used to how to use it because of the extra water. I use only butter at home but I keep a tub of margarine for my daughter and sil who prefer it, and she keeps butter in her house for me. I've never used butter in my icings. I use Crisco and butter flavoring. Butter flavored Crisco is good too and makes a perfectly pale yellow icing. My icing is never greasy and I get big raves all the time.

**Just thought I'd throw that in for those who complain about all ahortening icing being so greasy.