1St Time Making Butter Bc Icing Wow!!!!!!
Decorating By notjustcake Updated 5 Sep 2006 , 3:03pm by mkerton
WELCOME TO THE REAL BC WORLD! KEEP COMING!
I my opinion, Wilton's b/c is like CEMENT! 
I refuse to subject myself or my clients with that STUFF... I prefer MBC, but that's just me 
Princess3,
keep researching and - don't stop there!
Not one of Wilton b/c is not good... As a WI, I usally tell my students to make YOUR OWN because they can identify the ingredients.
Once again I think I already said but all this people I know have been lying to me telling me it's good cakes and all when the icing is horrible I hate it when people think hurting my feelings is more important I'd rather know the truth. I am never amking that stuff again but ican see how helpful it was when it came to learning and still learning their techniques. My basketweave still looks like $^T^*&^$@!$%^&*(
cakedecor,
let's just say you were perfecting your skills on the lairs... 
moving forward they would not lying to you... 
Regardless of what your cake taste like your baskeweave looks very GOOD! don't be so hard on your self. 
; Be condfident that you next cake will be on point- your point- not WILTON!
My recipe calls for salted butter, but mine is 1/2 butter 1/2 shortening..the dream recipe looks to be 2/3 butter to 1/3 shortening.
The Buttercream Dream calls for 1 cup butter (1/2 cup salted + 1/2 cup unsalted) and 1 cup shortening, so it's a half butter half shortening recipe. The Wilton recipe in my booklet also calls for half butter and half shortening. It looks to me like the Buttercream Dream is just the Wilton recipe doubled (with an extra teaspoon of vanilla). Honestly, the only difference I see is that Buttercream Dream specifies that half the butter be unsalted and half salted. I do agree that a little salt cuts down on the sweetness.
I froze some this week and I'm waiting for it to thaw so I can practice piping with dual colors.
I hate the wilton BC too and will never use it again. I have a really good recipe that I've had a lot of compliments on. It slightly crusts, enough to do the viva method, but it doesn't crust a lot. It's a higher butter ratio to shortening because I personally can't stand crisco, but I want the crust. If you are interested in the recipe, PM me and I will give it to you. My husband isn't really an icing person, but whenever I do a cake I always seem to see him sneaking some. 
mine is pretty close though mine is 50/50 butter/shortening and a bit less dairy...2 TBS whipping cream, 2 TBS milk......
honestly I am not sure why its ok to be out of the fridge....but it seems fine to me...got the recipe off the Wilton Forums but I guess that doesnt prove that its "right" or correct.
I think it has something to do with the preservative enzymes in the butter itself, since butter can sit out unrefrigerated for days and days.
I also use half butter, half crisco...I use salted butter, as well as butter and clear vanilla flavorings both, and heavy cream. Once it's been beaten for a few minutes, it's really quite white IMO. And the flavor is incomparable. The salted butter seems to cut back on the sweet a bit.
I use Duff's french buttercream recipe. Emailed him and got the recipe from Mary Alice. She's very nice and even told me I could share it.
I prefer Wilton's Snow-White BC with the almond & vanilla flavor if I need a crusting BC. Other than that, I'm fine with my BC not crusting.
Posted below is the exact file as sent...
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French Buttercream
Recipe courtesy Duff Goldman, Charm City Cakes, Baltimore Maryland
Ingredients:
10 egg whites
15 Oz. granulated sugar
2 1/2 pounds of room temperature butter
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15 min
Yield: Roughly four pounds of buttercream (enough to ice a 3-tier cake)
Equipment:
5 qt. mixer w/ bowl and whip attachment
Rubber Spatula
1) Start whipping egg whites slowly in the mixer by themselves (no sugar or butter yet) until the whites are foamy. Make sure to have a completely clean and dry bowl when you start your process, any fat or liquid at all in the bowl will stunt the protein development of the albumen (egg white protein) and you will not have a proper meringue at the end, the results could be disastrous.
2) Increase the speed of the mixer and slowly start adding the sugar until all the sugar is incorporated.
3) Once all the sugar is in, increase the speed of the mixer even further and whip until the mixture is shiny and stiff. You now have a meringue. You know when your meringue is done when you pull out the whip, hold it horizontal, and if you have what looks a sparrows beak on the end of the whip.
4) Replace the whip, turn the mixer on medium and start adding the butter a bit at a time, once all the butter is incorporated, turn the mixer on high and leave it for a while. Depending on the weather, the buttercream could take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to form. You will know when it has formed when you hear the motor of the mixer starts to slow down and whine a little bit, also, when you first add the butter, your meringue will break down and look nasty, this is good and is what you want. When the buttercream is done, the mixture will be homogeneous and consistentand tasty.
5) Remove the buttercream from the bowl and place in an airtight container. Buttercream can be kept at room temperature for a few days or in the fridge for a week or two, but always use warm buttercream when icing a cake. To warm up the buttercream, put it back in the mixer using the whip or the paddle, and apply direct heat with a propane torch you can find at any hardware store.
Notes:
1. Using a blowtorch directly on a food product is a very standard practice (see crème brulee) and anyone who says otherwise is a jackass who knows nothing about cooking.
2. Dont worry about using raw egg whites in your buttercream, the sugar cooks the eggwhites and makes them perfectly safe to eat, if you are still uneasy about this, use a pasteurized egg product.
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I've always used unsalted butter. It is very rich and I don't really care so much for the plain vanilla. I prefer chocolate. Melt down some unsweetened chocolate and whisk in some water (approx 6 oz choc to 1/4 cup water) and pour in slowly. I've substituted extra strong coffee for the water too....mmmm mocha. Even flavored it caramel with some thinned caramel icing from work........it's so tasty.
Oh, and I halve the recipe all the time. Leave it out for a few days...pop it in the fridge. I have some peanut butter in the freezer now. (Although DH doesn't care too much for it, I might mix in some chocolate on his behalf.)
I use Buttercream dream all the time. It's not a pure white color but 99.9% of the time I can't tell that the icing has a little tint in it. I used to use all unsalted but the icing was too sweet. Then I used all salted and the icing was too buttery/salty. Therefore I mixed the two and it tasted just right. The Buttercream Dream was a recipe I made from trial and error. Now it is the only thing I use.
just a little info for those of you who really want the "white" icing. I was told to add a teeny tiny smidgen bit of purple coloring to the icing and it'll it turn it white "white".... haven't tried it yet as I have no frosting to make for a bit... if anyone HAS tried please let me know. I guess you really only need like the teenest amount of purple!!! The purple offsets the "yellow" from the butter...
thanks bo
I absolutely love the Buttercream Dream recipe. The wilton's recipe is far too sweet to me. The only thing about the dream recipe is that it drys out too quickly while I'm icing the cake. I have to rewhip my icing all the time seems like. Any one else have that problem?
It goes on super smooth though.
Well, everyone around me absolutely LOVES the wilton BC. My husband says it tastes like the Oreo filling and he wants me to make another cake ASAP. I just finished the Level 1 class so I haven't really tried any other BC recipes, but I was going to....until my husband threatened to disown me if I did. 
hahaha Also, all my husbands co-workers thought it was delicious and I know they weren't just being polite.
I still plan on trying other recipes, just because I like experimenting, but I think the Wilton BC sometimes gets a bad rap around here. 
I do put half vanilla flavoring and half butter flavoring and I do think the butter flavoring helps to round out the flavor a little.
JMHO,
Christine
I absolutely love the Buttercream Dream recipe. The wilton's recipe is far too sweet to me. The only thing about the dream recipe is that it drys out too quickly while I'm icing the cake. I have to rewhip my icing all the time seems like. Any one else have that problem?
It goes on super smooth though.
I have that problem at times too. I noticed that when I add more milk for a thinner consistency that it doesn't dry out as fast.
I use a 3 to 1 ratio 3 parts crisco 1 part margarine yes margarine lol It tastes great and I always get compliments on it and in Quebec it is illegal to color the margarine so it looks like butter therefore there is very little color to it. I also use flavoured coffee cream instead of milk and add clear vanilla and butter flavouring as well. Since a good marjority of people use margarine on their bread and dont find it repulsive I figure that with all the other flavours going on it tastes just as good. Now if I were doing it for money I might think about using real butter but I find at least it tastes better than all crisco.
Thanks for all the advice. It cracks me up because this whole time I thought everyone used and liked the wilton buttercream!!! I cant wait to try the buttercream dream everyone is raving about. I have a birthday cake order for the end of September and I am going to do it then.
Here this is from www.baking911.com
Question: Why doesn't buttercream made with butter, powdered sugar and a small amount of milk need refrigeration?
Answer: Because of its high content of sugar and fat. Micro-organisms need water to grow. When the sugar content is so high, the sugar binds the water in such a way that micro-organisms cannot utilize it. Technically its called "water activity control."
JoAnn
Thanks for Duff's recipe but it is kinda long do you mind pm? me with you I would like to try it, well I have a friend who lvoes the lard bc gross!!!!!!!!!! This Easter cake was my first cake with the butter one and I haven't heard from my friend I figured I'll see her to morrow and hopefyllu she is honest my basketweave once again is bad but next time I'm gonna try sitting down to do it,
I've always hated the plain Crisco buttercream because it tastes so greasy, and the Buttercream Dream has a much better taste and texture. The "non-technical" reason that you can leave the icing out, even if it has milk or cream, is that sugar is a natural preservative.
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