I knew that you guys would have some great ideas! I can't wait to try some out some of these.
I do have one question.....I have read about Creme Bouquet before, but I am clueless as to what it is. Please someone fill me in.
THanks so much!
Luv2cake,
It's a flavoring that is sort of a citrusy-vanilla emulsion. CK makes some that I use - this is what it looks like:
http://www.ccwsupply.com/cakedec/flavor5.asp
Usually, just a few drops will do unless you use it in place of the other flavorings.
I always use Itlaian Meringue "buttercream" but the "buttercream" is in quotes because all of my cakes are kosher pareve, which means (among other things) they can't contain ANYTHING dairy--so no butter-- I use high-ratio shortening. I was concerned about using raw egg whites, but have been using reconsittuted dry egg white powder, which is supposed to be pastuerized so that salmonella is not an issue. Usually I use the buttercream under fondant, so I don't do a lot of decorating with it. When I really need to pipe, I often use royal icing, and so far I've always used reconstitued dry egg whites for that too.
I only use real vanilla, and so far the color has'n't been a problem. I think if I needed the icing to be really white, I would use sugar that had sat for a couple of weeks with a vanilla bean in it. That makes great vanilla flavored sugar, and the beans can be used for a long time, over and over. You just add sugar as your container gets emptied.
I never use salt in cake or icing. So far, only one person has complained, and she always salts anything I cook. No one else has even noticed. Other flavorings I use are lemon and orange oil and orange extract and lots of different liqueurs.
It does seem from his thread that I'm not the only one out here who doesn't use a lot of powdered sugar icing. I was beginning to feel pretty lonesome and out of touch...
SquirrellyCakes I love your posts!
Thanks Itsacake!
I think a lot of Europeans, people from other countries, other traditions and cultures are in the same boat when it comes to buttercream, they find it too sweet when it is American Buttercream (also covers Canadian Buttercream, same thing, haha).
In a lot of countries a high ratio type shortening or butter is the main ingredient with a bit of sugar added and other flavouring and such. Or the icings are mainly cream and such.
Americans and Canadians have the same kind of reaction to fondant, they prefer buttercream because that is what they are used to.
So the preferances seem to be acquired tastes.
I grew up with icings that had butter no shortening added so that is what I am used to. Some people grew up with bakery cakes, so that is what they are used to.
I grew up when cake mixes were first introduced, in Canada that was around 1960. I remember when they first came out. Actually I liked them better then as they were not as sweet as they are now. I grew up with these and homemade cakes. I have always preferred homemade because of the texture.
I think if I had grown up with dry from scratch cakes, I wouldn't have liked them.
Personally I find a cake mix cake iced with the all shortening class icing, very sweet. I suspect that it is the combination. Mind you, that doesn't stop me from eating just about anything that is cake, haha!
I had a lot of Finnish neighbours in one area that I lived and we had a Finnish bakery. The icing they preferred was mainly made with a high ratio shortening, it took me a long time to find that out, haha! It wasn't a shortening that was available to us and we thought it was butter based but it didn't quite taste like butter either.
ITSACAKE, it would be wonderful if you have time in the future, if you posted your KOSHER PAREVE Italian Meringue Buttercream without the butter recipe! I am certain that a lot of folks would love to try making it. Many of us have a fascination with trying things from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds and religions. I think it is wonderful when we can share things like this and learn about others.
I just love it when people share some insight into their heritage!
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes
Wow, these are all great tips and secrets! I mainly use the 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortening buttercream class recipe with usually 1/2 tsp. butter, vanilla and almond flavoring with a pinch of salt. Instead of milk, I sometimes use the french vanilla creamer. I would love to try the creme bouquet, butavan and bavarian creme flavorings in the future.
Squirrellycakes, I love reading your posts as well. You answer questions that I didn't know that I needed answers to. You're just like my mother-in-law in one sense--she always buys Christmas presents for me that I didn't know I needed, lol. Anyway, thanks for all the knowledge and experience that you share with all of us here at CC. I know it's greatly appreciated! I was looking to see if you had any photos, but see that you haven't. I would love to see some of your creations!
Thanks, Janice
Thanks for all the different secrets! I can't wait to start experimenting! I use 1/2 Crisco 1/2 butter (Smart Balance). I add a drop of butter extract due to the lack of 'real butter', haven't had any complaints if I forget it though! I agree that people that are used to 'icing in a can' will never compain about homemade! I had an issue where I ran out of time and couldn't whip up my own and actually used the store bought and....ugh!!! No complaints, but its way too sweet for me!!
I have a real problem with the icing melting while I working with it. I know its because my palm temperature runs high due to my natural reaction to birth control! I found information somewhere to keep a bowl of ice water and a towel next to the work area and when the buttercream starts to melt, dunk the hands in the ice water, dry off and start decorating again. I have done this with great success!!
...I had a lot of Finnish neighbours in one area that I lived and we had a Finnish bakery. The icing they preferred was mainly made with a high ratio shortening, it took me a long time to find that out, haha! It wasn't a shortening that was available to us and we thought it was butter based but it didn't quite taste like butter either...
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes
lol!! This is a really interesting topic. Actually, Squirrelly--I am mostly Finnish and I know the recipe you speak of. Also, I have a Finnish recipe for BC that came directly from my family in Finland. That is what I use for my "family and close friends" cakes that aren't going to the "general" public because of the addition of whole, uncooked egg.
I, to some degree, find it amusing that my family has made the same bc icing recipe with raw egg in it for literally hundreds of years. We know of kn illness associated with such. All the babies in my family, including my own, have had this particular recipe on their smash cakes--again, no issues with illness. That being said, however, I will absolutely NOT use it with any cake that it outside my immediate family and close friends. It's just not worth the risk to me.
In addition to that--when you make it, you have to be really careful and beat it "just so" or it won't come up right. You can't really do any decorating on the sides of the cake with it because it is too soft. It also can't withstand heat very well. But the flavor--oh the flavor--completely makes up for these negative issues.
Now--before you all start flaming me, you should know that when I make it, I use only farm fresh eggs that are, at most, 2 days old. We are close friends with a family who raises some chickens so I know how their eggs are handled. Actually, you wouldn't BELIEVE the difference between store-bought eggs and the ones we get. They look and taste different. Did you know that most store bought eggs are approximately 4 to 6 WEEKS old before they even hit the local grocery store? Even the shells are different. The other joke is that I eat so much of the left overs--that by the time we are actually cutting the cake (usually the next day), I would definately know if it had bad icing. LOL!!
What we call "buttercream" here on CC (and what I use for my "for sale" cakes), is actually what my family would consider "decorator icing". I do finally have a "safe" bc icing recipe that is pretty good. Whenever I have my family taste-test one for me, I have to remind them that they can NOT compare it to "our" buttercream as that is comparing apples and oranges. They just are not in the same ballpark.
I agree, I guess it's just all what you are used to. My mom only made "our" buttercream and scratch cakes. That's what I prefer because that's what I grew up with. I remember even as a little girl when I would go to friend's bday parties with a "store" cake, I hated how they tasted. Go figure.
Lisa
llj68, I would love to try your "safe" bc icing. I will end up trashing the cake I made last night because I don't like icing. Store bought frosting in a can tastes better than any "safe" bc icing I've made thus far.
Yes, llj68, if you wouldn't mind sharing your recipe, I'd also like to try it. 
My husband is of Finnish descent from the U.P. He doesn't care for the sweet icing either!
I live in Houston and it is Hot Hot Hot. Seems most cakes I make are for outdoor parties so I've only made real buttercream once. I stick to Crisco so it won't melt off the cake!
same here jjanascog .. I'm in Louisiana and it's just too hot so I stick with all Crisco in my recipes for the summer months .. I can change up in the winter months when it's cooler 
I like to use a combo of flavorings ... one time I may use vanilla and almond.. another time butavan and vanilla.. it all depends on the customer and what I feel they'd like
I will be happy to post my recipe soon, SquirrellyCakes. It is just an adaptation of the Mousseline Buttercream in Rose Levy Berenbaum's "The Cake Bible," but it seems to work pretty well, and people like it.
Thanks, I think that it would benefit a lot of folks who likely were wondering how to get around the same issue.
Now I also have a question and I hope it won't appear as prying, it is really strictly out of a desire to be well-informed.
Is it acceptable for a person with your religious beliefs to purchase a cake from a person from a different religious background that would not keep a "kosher kitchen" even if they followed this recipe? I would think the answer would be no, because the kitchen would also be an issue with regards to what would be in the refrigerator and such. But I am truly curious.
I think it must be very difficult to adhere strictly to your beliefs in our present time and I greatly admire those that follow their religious or cultural heritage or beliefs in spite of this!
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes
Wow, these are all great tips and secrets! I mainly use the 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortening buttercream class recipe with usually 1/2 tsp. butter, vanilla and almond flavoring with a pinch of salt. Instead of milk, I sometimes use the french vanilla creamer. I would love to try the creme bouquet, butavan and bavarian creme flavorings in the future.
Squirrellycakes, I love reading your posts as well. You answer questions that I didn't know that I needed answers to. You're just like my mother-in-law in one sense--she always buys Christmas presents for me that I didn't know I needed, lol. Anyway, thanks for all the knowledge and experience that you share with all of us here at CC. I know it's greatly appreciated! I was looking to see if you had any photos, but see that you haven't. I would love to see some of your creations!
Thanks, Janice
Heehee, well thank you Janice, I can talk, can't I , haha! Longest poster in history, I think!
Sounds like you have a thoughtful mother-in-law, how lucky!
I do post the odd cake in posts, not in the picture gallery. I post pictures on another site, www.r-bdesigns.com in the forums but I have never much liked posting pictures - just a thing I have. I am trying to get over it. Actually I posted a few pictures from about 20-30 years ago, that I just came across in an old photo album, that was sort of interesting for me to see them again. The first cake and such, haha!
Thanks for your kind comments!
Hugs Squirrely Cakes
Thanks for all the different secrets! I can't wait to start experimenting! I use 1/2 Crisco 1/2 butter (Smart Balance). I add a drop of butter extract due to the lack of 'real butter', haven't had any complaints if I forget it though! I agree that people that are used to 'icing in a can' will never compain about homemade! I had an issue where I ran out of time and couldn't whip up my own and actually used the store bought and....ugh!!! No complaints, but its way too sweet for me!!
I have a real problem with the icing melting while I working with it. I know its because my palm temperature runs high due to my natural reaction to birth control! I found information somewhere to keep a bowl of ice water and a towel next to the work area and when the buttercream starts to melt, dunk the hands in the ice water, dry off and start decorating again. I have done this with great success!!
If Smart Balance is a tub margarine that is fairly soft and spreadable right out of the container, that may well be more your problem with it getting too soft. You can buy a white baker's margarine if you prefer to use margarine and this may well hold up better for you.
Another trick is to have cold pop cans that you can hold to quickly cool your hands, haha or a cold can of beer that might not help with your decorating, haha!
I find too, that the Wilton Featherweight bags are better than the disposables if you have a tendency to have warm hands, I have the same problem!
Sometimes addding more icing sugar makes the icing more managable if your hands are hot, I use about 5 cups to 1 cup mixed fats as opposed to 4.
Hugs Squirrelly
llj68,
I think the risk of salmonella in eggs is less than 1%, so that is likely why most of us never have had this problem, still better to be safe when you are selling to the public. But I don't worry about what I keep at home either.
Interestingly, eggs that are 3-4 days old at least are the best when you want the greatest volume from the eggwhites. So that is something to keep in mind.
Well, as far as I am concerned, the Finnish people make some of the greatest pastries and cakes and desserts that you could ever want to try. I am not a fan of prunes, but my Finnish friends made these wonderful pastries with prune fillings that I wish I had the recipes for. I had two wonderful friends in a Northern Ontario town that actually followed me to another Northern Ontario town. They were wonderful bakers and I will always remember the year my father died close to Christmas time and they both showed up with all sorts of Christmas baking for me. That was the most thoughtful and delicious gift I ever received!
That little Finnish bakery made the most wonderful breads and cakes! Finnish rye bread is about the best thing going!
Hugs Squirrelly
Yes, llj68, if you wouldn't mind sharing your recipe, I'd also like to try it.
My husband is of Finnish descent from the U.P. He doesn't care for the sweet icing either!
That's where my family is from. Copper Harbor, Hancock/Houghton area, to be exact!!!!
Lisa
DH's is from Marquette area. We just returned last week from a vacation up there. It sure is beautiful!
DH's is from Marquette area. We just returned last week from a vacation up there. It sure is beautiful!
I'm so jealous!! I haven't been to the UP since 2002--before I got pg with my last baby (she's 2 now). It's so hard to get away now with 2 kids.
My mom is up there and was heading towards Marquette yesterday or today.
Lisa
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