Wow granny! If I have time, I will have to experiment this weekend! I've bought the creamer so I'd have it when I had the time to try the recipe!

Thanks for taking the time to post the picture! With icing that smooth, I may finally achieve my goal of wonderfully smooth icing!

So Granny, YOu are making full batches now? Good for you. I am going to try it. Hope my mixer can hold it!!

Yeap Tirby, DH got me a COOKS 700 watt mixer for a late birthday & mothers day gift, the first of June.....I love it, cause now I can make the full batches .....and it sure beats doing 1/2 a batch with my hand held, and the best part is I get great icing.

God Bless,
Sharon

Granny, what a wonderful gift! I'm going to have to make 1/2 batches - I have the classic KA.

By the way, I just noticed.....we have the same birthday!

yh9080, I am happy you have a KA and don't have to make 1/2 batches with a hand held like my killer hand held.....yes it is a wonderful gift he gave me, I know my arms and hands are on a cloud of BC

RE: same birthday
Let me say Happy Very Belated Birthday

God Bless,
Sharon

Can anyone tell me how many cups of icing the recipe makes.
I would make it but am dealing with memorial service for my Mother in Law. So I just dont have time but I'd like to know.

tirby, So sorry for the loss of your Mother-in-law, my prayers go out to you & your family. God Bless & be with you all in this time of need.

I don't know how many cups it makes for sure, but I get just over a gallon of icing when I make the full batch, and there is 16 cups in a gallon....so I do know I have 16 cups, but the left over icing I have is in a 3 pound bowl that is not even 1/2 full, so I don't know how many cups is in it for sure.

BUT....if I had to GUESS, I would GUESS 16 to 18 cups. Please remember this is a GUESS it could be more then that.....one of these days when I have the time and think about it I am going to have to measure it out.

I hope this helps you some.
God Bless,
Sharon

luvbakin wrote:

Thank you for that info! I truly appreciate it! Now, if I can just find Sweetex/hi-ratio shortening in Birmingham!

Happy Belated Birthday to you!

Sugarshack, thanks so much for your recipe and method for mixing! I can't wait to try it. I've always marveled at the way the icing looks in the Wilton books (or other books) and wondered how in the world they get it SO smooth and why aren't they sharing their secret! Thanks to you now we all know!!

Your icing tip is on the same plane as the Viva paper towel method. The two best, MUST-KNOW tips! Thanks again!!!!!

Well - now that I have sponged off about 2 hours of work today reading this thread!!!LOL!!! I can't wait to try SugarShacks recipe for buttercream!! It looks and sounds divine!!

Sugarshack - just wanted you to know that my very best friend in the whole wide world lives in Hammond!! I think I recognized a Ponchatula High cake in your album - which is where her children all graduated from!!
I was there 2 years ago this week and we celebrated 2 of her kids birthdays and one of the cakes came from B&B!! If only I knew then what I know now!!! I'm going to see if they will pick up some flavoring from B&B and bring it with them when they come back "HOME" next month!!

I am still new to decorating (began in March) and just found this site in May -- but still can't believe I didn't find this thread until today!! I'm really glad I did and thankful it was a slow day at work for me so I had time to read!!LOL!

Oooohhhh I am so excited to try this new icing!! and can you believe it - no cake orders for this weekend!!

Thanks again SugarShack and everyone else for all the help and instructions!!

Suzycakes.

I made icing tonight for this weekend's cakes. I really wanted to try Sugarshack's recipe but the big cake for the weekend (my parent's 50th anniversary) wasn't the one to do much experimentation on. So I decided to quadruple my Wilton BC and it mixed up so nicely! As usual, my water sloshed out when I tried creaming just the shortening and water, so I started adding the PC. When I had added all of my PC, I thought I would follow Sugarshack's directions and let it mix on 6 for 5 minutes or so. Unfortunately, I started to get air bubbles just after the 3 minute mark. However, it won't matter much since it will be under fondant for the anniversary cake.

I can't wait to try Sugarshack's! That is definitely on the agenda for next week!

yh9080, have you try checking with any cake supply shops/store to see if they have any Sweetex or Alpine hi-ratio shortening...or you might be able to get a store to order it for you.

My friends have a little store so they order the Alpine for me from their supplier.....maybe you could try and see if one of the stores around will do that for you.
Hope you can find some of it some where around you.

God Bless,
Sharon

Sharon,

I've checked with Sysco and they tell me they don't carry it. I'm going to try ordering some from the site Sugarshack listed in a previous post. I haven't checked with the only cake store I know of in Birmingham. I refuse to do business with them since they've been so rude both times I've called.

Thank you fo all of your sugestions and help! I truly appreciate it!

Just a suggestions for yh9080 -- you might try using a small mom and pop type store or restaurant as a source to order the hi-ratio shortening. I am in a much more rural area than Birmingham -(BIG TIME RURAL)- anyhow I have a cousin that has a small grocery store with the old fashioned meat counter, plus he cooks pork butts, chickens, makes veggie and fruit trays etc -- and he was able to get a 50lb box of hi-ratio shortening for me.

The sweetex was going to take 3 weeks to get shipped in every time and cost about 55.00; the alpine was going to take about 2 weeks each time to be shipped and cost about 48.00; but he is able to get me just a plain hi-ratio shortening - there is no name on the box - just hi-ratio - for 36.00 and he can get it every Thursday for me. I've made one batch of icing with it and it is definitely lighter and less greasy than regular shortening. But I am going to try SugarShacks recipe with my next batch.

But anyway back to the suggestion - sometimes the small time stores are the best way to go. Hope this helps.

Suzycakes

Suzycakes-thanks for the suggestion. I plan to do some more checking around.

luvbakin - I made another batch and followed your suggestion in the previous post and my buttercream turned out super smooth. It was much easier to smooth and work with. Many, many thanks!

Yea! yh9080 that you were able to get that lined out and end up with a more smoother icing Doing the Sugarshack cha-cha for you .

Great tip you gave to her luvbakin

God Bless,
Sharon

I haven't finished reading this but boy is this helpful! I'll save the rest of the posts for later!

Thanks SugarShack..can't wait to try your recipe. My biggest challange is to get the icing smooth.

Hello from North Louisiana! Thank you for the tips...can't wait to try them out! Beautiful work...I am a newbee...just learning....I hope to be that creative and knowledgable some day....

Kellyshe, Please make sure you read all the post, Sharon (sugarshack) has some great tips on making her icing.....and there are other tips also that can help you out.

Tirby,
Luvbakin wrote this is post:
I have the classic KA 4 1/2 qt mixer and this recipe fits in there. Hope this helps.

God Bless,
Sharon

Edited to say:
Hello Veronica! and welcome to CC....hope you enjoy it here and have fun learning new things, tips, recipes & decorating!

Granny3angels - I did the sugarshack cha-cha all weekend! Even though it was the Wilton icing, I followed Luvbakin's advice and Sugarshack's instructions for icing and oh my, oh my! I haven't done many square cakes in buttercream but the one I did on Saturday was really smooth and even the corners were easier. And the round cake I did last night was the absolute smoothest and had the sharpest edges I've ever done. And with very little effort! It was so smooth that my co-workers thought it was fondant!

This week's agenda - try Sugarshack's buttercream recipe.

I am happy for you yh9080 that you had such great results

I have people ask me to on some of my cakes if it is fondant, love the look on their face when I "no, it's bc icing"

God Bless,
Sharon

I just need to jump on the bandwagon and add my own Kudos to Sugarshack!!

This thread has been SO INFORMATIVE, and I can't WAIT to try that icing!!

I have had SO MANY issues with the Wilton BC recipe, and just recently found out a SMALL fix for the 0 trans fat Crisco......but this DEFINATELY sounds much better!! just gotta find that Hi-ratio shortening!! I live in a bigger city (Jax, FL) so there SHOULD be something around......if not, there's ALWAYS the internet!!

Thanks again Sharon!!! Your cakes are BEAUTIFUL and your ideas and suggestions are a Godsend!!!

My cake obsession (very new at this) has now been brought to a whole new level!!!

Thanks again!!!

I tried this method last night and it was wonderful!! SMOOTH SMOOTH SMOOTH! My only question is, I haven't seen merengue powder in any recipes, so how do you get the BC to crust?? Newbie Questions!!!!

Ya know, once i thought about it I knew that someone was going to say that! So another question, why do we use merengue powder in BC recipes, and what would happen if I used it in this recipe?