I've used the butter flavored crisco before and it tasted pretty darn good

I'm with you, it's just absolutely crazy. and I am definately going to question it further, it's not the end of it.

I will have to find out about the swiss meringue buttercream. Iv'enever tried it.

I just tried out the dreamy cream and the faux fondant buttercream, my husband LOVES my buttercream (with butter) and he said these tasted bad, they did have a little bit of a funny taste, maybe it was the flour.

Maybe I will try out the butter crisco, but I do think all crisco is just too greasy in your mouth.

Are there any other options?????????????

Thank you for all your responds.

Ask Marilyn once covered something about butter. I was able to search the archives of Parade magazine and find it. It's the fourth question down. If it doesn't satisfy the frosting with butter question, it satisfies our curiosity about leaving butter on the counter (it's OK ... as long as it's real butter).
http://websearch.cs.com/cs/boomframe.jsp?query=ask+marilyn+archives&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3D7b816cf2750ff20c%26clickedItemRank%3D2%26userQuery%3Dask%2Bmarilyn%2Barchives%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.parade.com%252Farchive.jsp%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DCSBoom%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parade.com%2Farchive.jsp

Well that just sounds so ridiculous to me..I mean you are trying to get a license for food prep and most food requires refridgeration....Doesn't make sense.Here you are required to have a fridge with the proper temp to store cakes etc....for you to get licensed from the Health Dept.

Sugarbunz - You have a recipe for Swiss Meringue BC that doesn't use butter? The recipes I've seen all use butter.

My daughter lives in PA. She checked into getting a home baking license there. She could get a license easily if she was not making anything that needed refridgeration like custard pies, cheese cake, etc. If she wanted to make and sell anything requiring refridgeration she would have to take some classes before getting the license.

many states require anything with butter that hasn't been cooked (such as buttercream) remain in a refrigerated case until it is sold.

Price - I'm not sure if it's doable - but since this guy or gal (the inspector) seems to think butter is bad but crisco is good - I am wondering if she were to use crisco instead of butter - would he have issues with the egg whites (even though meringue powder could also substitute for the eggs)? It just sounds to me like whoever gave her this information has something specifically against butter. Hmmm, maybe he/she works for Parkay.

maybe the italian buttercream woudl work. I mean technically the butter and eggs are both being cooked.

I would ask.

We are told the same thing in Arizona under our Food Cottage law. No using real butter in buttercream. I totally questioned this after a fellow decorator told me. I wrote to our health dept and was told we can NOT use REAL butter because it's "potentially hazardous"... ( whatever!!!)   Using real butter IN cake is fine because it is cooked. When you make buttercream frosting, nothing is cooked, therefore this so called hazard.

Funny thing though and totally unfair and insane is that those bakers and decorators who have a business/shop/store front who get inspected by a health inspector can use real butter with no problems.  So all they are telling me is that if you have a "legal" piece of paper and get inspected, it's fine. Otherwise, too bad for us!

How stupid is that?!?!?

KimAZ