I am totally thinking of experimenting with the European buttercreams now that use all butter. I may make a small test batch of BC with extra shortening, but I hate the greasy mouthfeel of alot of shortening and I think all shortening recipes lack the richness that butter gives. I usually use 1/2 buter, 1/2 shortening but it won't hold up that way anymore in the south. I don't know if I'm brave enough to try generic/store brand shortenings. I hate throwing out and wasting my work!

[quote I looked at the old crisco and it lists both soy and cottonseed oils, as does the new... but in different orders and hydrogenations.... interesting what a different combination and ratio will do!! [/quote]

That was the first thing I noticed when this thread started and I compared my old and new cans. The longer I studied it, the more confused I got. I know that the ingredients always are listed starting with the biggest amount on down to the least amount of the ingredient. That's when I got confused trying to figure out just what the heck they had done.

I have been thinking about giving up what little decorating I do and this Crisco thing may be what puts me over the edge.

Diane

i just checked out the crisco i had and it had no trans fat.no wonder it wasn't crusting as fast as it used too! i noticed too that there were more air bubbles in it

Has anyone tried the Target brand? Any reviews?

I also saw ARMOUR lard is that the same thing as Crisco? Anyone use that?

I haven't read through this whole thread but I just delivered a wedding cake and groom's cake a few hours ago and the icing had the new crisco-the icing on the wedding cake was HORRIBLE! I didn't know what to do! It kept peeling off when I smoothed it-it never crusted-I was so disappointed and I have a small wedding cake to do tonight and am sooo not looking forward to it! However, the chocolate buttercream I made (with unsweetend chocolate) set up just fine-must have been something with the chocolate! Is there anything to do with this??? Less crisco, more butter, more ps-is there a different type of shortening that anyone recommends. I'm just praying the icing on the wedding cake holds up until the wedding at 6pm-ugh!

Eme-thanks so much-will try less liquid and see if that works! I thought I had already been using the new recipe and just thought I was "lucky" in that I was not having problems like others-boy what a shock last night! Well, I'm off to try a new buttercream version with the new version of crisco-fun times!!

I looked on my container of hi-ratio and it doesn't list the amount of trans fat in it, if any. For that matter it doesn't give any percentages for any ingredient.

Anyone know if hi-ratio has trans fat? I'll have a real hissy if they change that!!!

You know, I just bought a new can of Crisco this week. I had stocked up (on old Crisco) when they were on sale a while back and had no idea that they had changed the formula. I iced my cake for an 18th birthday last night and nearly cried myself to sleep. The icing did not crust and was sliding down the side of the cake. It looked like my 9 year old daughter had decorated it!!! I am so glad that I came across this post tonight. I thought that it was me too!!! I ended up making a second batch of icing and putting less liquid in it, but it was on the dry side and hard to spread. It took me much longer than usual to get that cake iced nicely. I am so disappointed.....I use the 1/2 crisco 1/2 butter recipe and I really loved it!!! Luckily, my next cake is covered in fondant so I have some time to find an alternative to Crisco!

I hadn't had any problems with the new Crisco. I noticed no difference in my icing. But today it was rather warm in my house due to the oven being on. It was in the low 70's here today. I had to put the air conditioning on because the icing on the cake I had iced and waiting for decorations started sort of meltinig or weeping grease while I was baking the cookies to go with the order. It was looking very shiny and I could see greasy spots that looked like the top tier was dripping on the bottom tier. I got the Viva and sort of blotted it up. Everything was fine once the air cooled the house down. Makes me wonder how summer heat is going to affect my icing. I don't do wedding cakes so I only have to deal with outdoor birthday parties. The old Crisco held up to the heat marvelously. I will try less water next time and see what happens.

edited to correct typos.

I also answered the survey on the crisco website. I hope that they can do something to help us out!

I have to say that I had my family compare the icing. I showed them the "new" stuff and they said it was fine. Then I brought out the "old". Then they just said "oh", not so good! I didn't notice airbubbles as much as it just being whipped looking, so soft. It is so frustrating! So, I went to one of the grocery stores today and invested money I didn't have, into the old Crisco. People kept walking by and looking at me. Hey, to me it is worth it! I am just hoping one of you cake and icing geniuses comes up with a fix for us !!! Please oh please. I use the Wilton recipe for pure white icing, all shortening. I hope we get this figured out! By the way....those of you who said a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do! I bought 3 of the extra large cans (6 lbs I think) and 9 of the regular sized cans! Yes, a little crazy but I figure it's worth it!

Gabbenmom, you're lucky that you found it to buy. All I can find is the new.

Diane

I didn't expect to find that much. I hesitated to buy it all and decided better safe than sorry! I didn't even have to go store to store like I thought. They had a huge section of shortening. Wish I could share!

~Heidi

I wrote to crisco and they said they tested it with no different results but they have reduced their fat content almost 2%. I suggest that everyone write into crisco to complain and let them know. They told me that they weren't taking the old crisco off canadian shelves but we will see.

Okay, ladies.... I experimented with the new stuff using NO liquid in the recipe. I tried both piping gel and corn syrup, and used 1/2 butter, 1/2 new crisco. I'll try not to make this sound like a science lab report or make it too technical just remember that I do teach science

1. I used 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup crisco with 1# of pwd sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Both the piping gel and corn syrup work, but the corn syrup smooths out a tad bit easier. Corn syrup also tastes better and adds to the vanilla flavor. I used 3 - 4 tsp of corn syrup, added slowly and mixing well in between. Certainly more can be added, and probably should to make it more smooth.

2. The texture still looks like it has a lot of air bubbles, maybe a little frothy for lack of a better word. It still does not stick to things like the original crisco based frosting would.....for ex., when I had some on my finger and scraped it off, it almost peeled off. However, I spread the frosting on wax paper (no cake available) and it stuck to the wax paper pretty well.

3. It does not seem to be breaking down like the recipe did when liquid was added. It does not have a sheen or layer of shine to it and it does not look like it is separating with the little globs of fat that I saw before. It sat out on the counter for a good 45 min. to an hour, and was actually not too bad to rework.

4. This frosting does not seem to crust as much as just 'set' itself...quickly, I might add. To smooth, I used my tried and true method of using a hot, DRY spatula and it smoothed out very well. The rough, bubbly texture disappeared and it looked incredibly smooth, almost like fondant (that could be a really good thing!). I could then use the Viva method or Melvira's method to continue smoothing.

5. When applying to my surface, the frothyness or bubbles were still there, but, again, after smoothing using a hot spatula, the surface was incredibly smooth. HOWEVER, the frothy texture was still under the surface, causing the knife to drag when cutting (the cake)

6. The frosting appears a little dry when applying , but the smoothing made it "look" like regular frosting. When tasting, I did not think it tasted dry, or crumbly. Actually had a pretty good mouthfeel, smooth and not really too sweet (this surprised me, as I think this ratio is Extremely sweet normally!)

Summary: I used and preferred the corn syrup due to smoothing properties and added vanilla taste. The hot, dry spatula worked wonderfully to smooth out the frothy texture that seems to be inherent to this product, leaving a smooth, nearly flawless surface. This frosting looks dry and can drag on the knife but does not taste gritty, or dry, and had less of the greasiness feeling in the mouth. It is possible to go back and rework it, but it does tend to pull off, a bit, from the surface. It will smooth back out tho', much easier than before (with liquid it was ridiculous, and almost need to be scraped off and recoated). For crumb coating, I would add more corn syrup and put the cake in the fridge to set up. Crumb coating could be an issue. It also pipes much better, but more corn syrup will need to be added to keep edges smooth.

Conclusion: Do not use liquid (except flavorings), instead use corn syrup to thin out the frosting. Piping gel is not recommended due to taste and not smoothing as well as corn syrup.

Okay, this was just a little experiment. I don't know if it will work for everyone or anyone....I just hope this helps a little.

when did this new crisco come out cuz mine still has trans fats or is this only in the states?

Here in the states, our gov't and FDA decided that trans fats were really bad for us ( it IS fat) and as of the first of the year, all products had to have the trans fats listed on the label. New York has banned it in their fast food and maybe restaurants, and about 20 other states are looking into banning it also. Soooooo, Crisco started producing a product without the trans fats.....causing disasters for many of us!

Eme- Thanks for you complete lab report!! Loved it!

No it is not just in the states. Canadian crisco just doesn't have it advertised on the label. I compared my old can to my new and there was much less trans-fat in it.

Yes, I understand you had a different ratio of fat:sugar:glucose/corn syrup/piping gel, hence the "almost."

Good luck with all of your experimentation! It's certainly interesting to see your results. What a bummer so many people are having such difficulty! I would be panicking if experiencing the things I'm seeing described here (sliding icing, "frothiness," etc).

Cakepro...."got it"...sorry, being such a literalist today

If you have not experienced the same results, may I ask what you do differently?? Are you able to use the high ratio?? (would really like some input on that) Or have you just been lucky? What's your secret?

Thanks, Eme for your complete lab report. I've saved the info in my recipe document for icing, on my computer. If I ever run into the problems mentioned, I will know how to compensate, now.



Thank you!

Ok, dont want to alarm anyone, but it just occured to me, since the cutting of transfat....

BTW - EME, thanks again for all your work and research at least we can adjust our recipes.

Now we know we cannot had liquids and should add more corn syrup in effect more sugar.

So to continue my thought... So if they went after transfats and basically won, could the next thing be sugar, the less transfats made us add more sugar. I did a search on Google with Government cutting sugar and got a few articles in UK, US and other places about how we should cut sugar from our diets.
A few articles were how people are using substitutes to limit their sugar intake - cool! There were over 1.27 million articles so most of the articles were about importing sugar and nothing directly related to cooking (in the chain), but... it makes you think!

I already bake for people with allergies (Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Peanuts, Almonds, Soy, Banana's, Chocolate, and Diabetics and a few more obscure allergies) Put it this way, I cannot bake for all of them at the same time they would have an "Air Cake", without the ballon.... more allergies!
I also have 2 small boys (1 more on the way) and I want to keep them heathly and happy so I try all kinds of substitutes like rice syrup and maple syrup/sugar, agave and other natural sugars, apple sauce or other fruit or gourd purees instead of the butter or oil. Sometimes my baking works out and other times, they look at it, look at me and say "we have to try again Mama" or our youngest will say, " I dont like it" or I get the plain "YUCK and spit!" So I try again.

It all comes down to this for me, we dont have cake all the time. So when I make a cake, it's because we are celebrating something and we just want something sweet and delicious that looks good that we can all enjoy even if it's just a small piece!

Ok, I'm done it's dinner time and the boys are calling!

Ditto to Crisco. Looked into getting Alpine. Can't find anywhere to buy other than Sugarcraft. 3-cans of 3lbs for for around 4.40 each, not bad but shipping is more than product, $20 to ship!
Anyone know where else to buy it from?
TIA