Hi, I´m from Colombia South America, so I can´t buy Crisco here
I´m starting a cake decorating business, where my speciality are the cakes decorated with star tip, i think it is called figure pipping.
The thing is that I only have the recipe from Wilton, but I hate it, the taste it´s awfull but works good.
There´s someone in my city that has a great cream, it kind of tastes a lot like vanilla, it´s sweet and is gret for star tip. Of course she won´t give me here recipe, all I know is that she wen´t to Wilton School and brought it from there.

I´ve tried bettercream and love the taste, but the problem is that it only last for two days out of the fridge, and that isn´t very good. The other thing that I don´t like about it is that I can´t dye the colors ahead and keep them in the fridge, because it always have to be whipped before using, and if you whippe it too many times it wont get stiff, and the process becomes really slow and time consuming.
I went to the what´s your buttercream recipe post, but I think that most of them are for icing the cakes, and I need it for the figure piping and for it to crust a little bit, so the shape of the star tip will be completely defined on the pattern.

I hope someone can help me with this, because some of the recipes I´ve seen have ingredients that I don´t know exactly what they are like popcorn salt, half and half that isn´t sold here(need a replacement), or some shortening brands.

Please help me I´m alone in my country and you are my only hope, since very few people does this kind of work here, and won´t share anything.

thanks to all.

Maria

Can you get a high ratio shortening? I use 4 cups of shortening, 1Tbl spoon clear vanilla, 1/4 tsp butter flavoring then add 4lbs (2bags) Powder Sugar then like 1/2 cup of milk take out the icing I need for borders and flowers then add some more milk to make it a med consistancy for the frosting for the cake. Sometimes I use liquid coffee creamer french vanilla instead of the milk. Just use a good shortening whatever they sell there. Hope this helps you.


Sorry I had to rewrite I forgot to add the sugar.........duh

Just ask for a high ratio shortening from a food supplier, as long as it's high ratio I don't think the brand matters. I use Sweetex, but many use Alpine. Where you live it may be some other brand. This recipe smooths well, check my photos. The one cake that's got the green border oval has the air bubbles is when they changed the Crisco, so I switched to the Sweetex and all is well again.

María, no te entiendo muy bien lo que necesitas.
La receta de wilton no te gusta? Crisco es manteca vegetal, de la que es blanca. Yo vivo en Venezuela, aquí la sustituyo así. También la puedes hacer toda de margarina, que también tinta bien y es buena para estrellas, si la quieres mas firme solo agrega un poco mas de azúcar, o baja la leche, tu ve ajustandola, también trata con diferentes vainillas. existen otras recetas de buttercream, pero creo que la de wilton es la mejor para estrellas, sobretodo si quieres que aguante calor.

Debster,
Thanks for your help, I´ll ask tomorrow what a high ratio shortening is. The other thing is that the butter flavor that you find here is awfull so I might have to use something else.


Paola,
El problema es el sabor, las mantecas blancas que se consiguen son regulares, por eso he pensado en una receta solo con margarina o mantequilla, pero no se como reaccionarian con el clima.
Creo que tengo un buen trabajo de ensayos por hacer, muchas gracias por tu ayuda.

Toba Garretts book the WELL Decorated Cake has a great icing in it. It's 2 cups unsalted butter 1 cup hi ratio shortening or any other shortening 1 1/2 teaspoon of flavoring 3 pounds of powered sugar 3 Tablespoon meringue powder 1teas salt up to 1/2 cup milk or water to desired consistency beat 5-8 min until light and fluffy Its delicious I hate greasy icing.

Half and half is a mixture of half milk, half cream, you can use either of these alone or mix them. I've made my recipe using just milk (crusts quicker) and just cream (softer frosting).