alpine and sweetex are the most common brands.

Once you have tasted and worked with hi ratio, you will never go back to crisco! Believe me! I use Crisco for things like greasing my pans and stuff like that...but for buttercream, its just too greeezy.

I always use the Wilton's whitener, not just because of the color....it gives the buttercream a different texture that I like. It seems to pipe better and crust better for me.

I found that "Land O Lakes" butter has the whitest color to it when trying to achieve whiter butter cream icing, and then if need be I use a smidgeon of Wiltons whitener as well

Never tried adding the Violet coloring paste but, will next time I do a white butter cream cake to check it out

Thanks for posting the tip about adding the violet color for a whiter looking icing.