O.K. ladies....it's been a LONG time since I've posted. So much has been going on. I've been doing cakes and working a pt. job plus the five boys so I've had my hands full. In Feb. I had surgery and took a while to recoop from that. But...I'm back on my feet now and decorating cakes once again.

This weekend I have a cake for a surprise 50th birthday. It's for a very close friend that loves my IMBC...the only problem is....it's an outside celebration and it supose to be near 90 !! I'm going to basketweave the cake and Im so worried that the icing will melt. Is there ANYTHING that I can add to my IMBC to help it keep it's shape. I didn't know if powdered meringue would work...????

If I have to use another icing I'm going to have to rely on you guys. I am so turned off by most of the icings that have crisco and 10x sugar in them. I don't like the way the crisco coats the inside of my mouth...and I don't care for the grittyness that the 10x gives it either.....So if you have a recipe that you know itsn't too sweet....greasy....or gritty...could you stear me in the right path??? PLEASE!!

I've missed posting with you guys. Sometimes I stop and look at pics. I'm anxious to join you in the decorating forms again!!

Looking forward to hearing from you!!

Chrissy

Does anyone know ????

i don't use IMBC but i really don't think there's anything you can do to keep it from melting. if you can get hi ratio shortening that should be fine. also check out indydebi's BC recipe in the recipe section. that's heat stable, i think.

HTH.

The only thing you can do, really, is replace a portion of the butter with shortening (hi ratio is best, but crisco would do in a pinch).

I saw where someone replaces a stick of butter with 1/2 cup Smart Balance shortening. That might be enough to stablize it. I would check it out with a sample cake now and stick it outside.

Otherwise, is it possible to keep it in a cooler or cold place until the cake cutting?

I have had SMBC out in the mid 80's and it helpd up more than fine. So long as you don't have a lot of heavy decoration on the sides you should be fine. Meringue buttercreams are quite stable in higher temps. If you can.. experiment with it. Ice a small cake and let it sit in the heat.. not direct sun, but in the shade. See how long it takes for it to melt off. You are going to be hard pressed to find an icing that wil not get soft on you in the heat. I would try to see if you can keep the cake inside up until you are going to serve it.

Well the cake has to sit outside as it's at a campground type setting. There isn't a fridge...or I'd definately let it in there. I'm supose to do a basketweave on the sides of the cake and I'm really not willing to risk it falling off and melting.

The lady that ordered the cake told me that if I had to I could use another icing. I hate to do that but I really don't think I much of of choice. I've looked at some recipes and I did pick one that I think will do. It's not IMBC and in my opinion nothing is as good as IMBC but I'm not willing to have a cake catastrophe.....so I'll do what I have to....

Thanks for helping me. I really do appreciate it. I'll post some pics of the flowers that I'm making and of course the finsihed product.

Chrissy

Well, there are some solutions and I don't think you need to use shortening.

Most importantly you need to do a test. If the weather now is similar to where the cake will be then I would do a basket weave on cake, not a dummy and put it outside for a day and monitor it.

Of course if you are really concerened or your test fails then you could always do your basket weave with RI. I know it will be rock hard and you probably wouldn't want to eat the frosting but it will look like BC and definately not melt.

Another option is to use Plugra butter. It will hold up in the heat better that regular butter. It has less water content.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plugr%C3%

A1http://www.kellerscreamery.com/our-brands/plugra/about/about-european-style/

where I live I buy it at Trader Joes but you could probably find it at whole foods. http://www.traderjoes.com/index.html


Also, where you asking about egg whites? I was told to always use fresh eggs and seperate the whites instead of powdered or egg whites in the carton. A pastry chef said the protien in fresh eggs holds up better to the hot syrup and won't deflate like older or dried egg whites.