Hey Guys !!

I am wondering if anyone knows of how to stiffen this icing. The recipe I have for it comes out a maybe a medium consistency. The Recipe that I have doesn't call for cream of tartar, is that what stiffens it ?? I didn't want to just add icing sugar to it because I thought that would make it too sweet, and I didn't want that. Thank you for any suggestions you can offer !!!

Steph

i use the WBH IMBC recipe, and she suggests to put it in the fridge for just a bit to stiffen it up. (after its in your piping bag). typically in meringue bc's you don't use any powdered sugar. just the sugar syrup at the begininng.

Awesome!!

Thank you so much ! I have that book too, and I remembered seeing something in the book before. Now that I am in a rush, I can't find anything on it. Thanks a million, its greatly appreciated !! Have you ever made flowers with it and then put them in the freezer? I am just concerned that they might melt on me ...

i haven't done flowers with the imbc yet. im a little nervous about trying since its so soft. i love the taste and the texture, but for flowers i've still used american bc with crisco.... let me know how it works out for you!

wouldn't the length of time you let the sugar cook impact the thickness of the frosting as it changes the sugar to the soft ball or hard ball to soft crack, etc stages?

I'm impressed you got IMBC to actually come out - I've tried it 3 times and figured the 3rd time was the charm - if I hadn't gotten the hang of it then I probably wasn't going to after 3 more tries.

I LOVED the taste of it - just couldn't get it 'right'.

Hello !
Well, things turned out pretty good with the icing flowers. It turns out ( I think) that I just put the butter in when the meringue was still a bit too warm. I also thought that it could be that the syrup wasn't hot enough because I had turned my heat down once it started boiling... who knows. I kept the icing in the fridge overnight and rewhipped it last night and it was almost perfect.
I had to make the icing twice last night ( I needed a second batch to finish the cake) because at first I was blaming the thin icing on the syrup not being at the right stage and cooked it at a higher temp... well it was way too hot because when I poured it into the egg whites it chrystallized on me. Not happy !!
When I remade it, I kept the heat at around 5 and this worked out alot better. This last batch was mixed a tonne ! I waited until the meringue was completely cool (which took a heck of a lot of time) but the results were great !! I even made the flowers ! I didn't put the icing in the fridge , which I would another time. It was getting to be about 1:30 am and I was tired and just wanted to go to bed (besides, the cake is for my grandma and she will love it no matter what ). On this cake, it didn't matter if the roses kinda tipped over as they are going on the side of the cake.
I will let you know how they handle the 1 hour drive, but so far I am VERY happy with the results !!
Moptop, what kind of troubles do you have with the icing? I am definately not an expert, but I might be able to give a few pointers.
Thanks to both of you for your advice, I really appreciate it.

To cool the meringue faster, set the bowl in an ice water bath and then whip the meringue. You can add the butter after only about 3 minutes of whipping using this trick.