hey everyone
im new to cc. im still in high school and have recently really gotten into making cakes. i love baking!

im trying out buttercream for the first time this week. any tips? im absolutely SCARED of messing this up! please help!!

Tell us what kind of buttercream are you making? Is it one of the recipes on here?

This is an issue I have to this day, and I doubt I'll ever get over it. I have to set myself a time limit when I'm base-icing. I have a tendency to try to fix every little bump or line and after a while the cake starts looking worse than it did before! So once I start smoothing the bc, I give myself a max of five minutes. After that, regardless if it's perfect or not, I walk away. If I see a crumb or any other imperfection, guess where the flowers are gonna go???? lol.

I've started to tell myself that's why people put borders and flowers and other decorations on bc cakes. To hide the imperfections!

Oh, and here's another tip to save time and money and still get a bunch of practice. Buy a bucket of icing from Sam's or Costco. Maybe walmart sells theirs too. That stuff lasts forever and it's great if you're just practicing decorating techniques. I know Sam's sells white or chocolate in a 5 gallon bucket, but the colors come in a smaller bucket. If memory serves me correctly a bucket of colored frosting is about $16. And if it's just practice who cares what color it is right?

thanks guys

ive been looking around for a good recipe. i've seen a few but i'm not really sure where to start!! any suggestions? ive been looking around and this one seems like its got a lot of good reviews from what ive seen on the forums.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-6992-0-Indydebis-Crisco-Based-Buttercream-Icing.html

as does this one.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-6992-0-Indydebis-Crisco-Based-Buttercream-Icing.html

Well, I might be a LITTLE biased, but that first recipe is pretty good!

I have tried several of the buttercream recipes on this site and all are fine. The last one I tried is called "Jibbies White Velvet Buttercream". It was definitely the smoothest, however, it was the first time I used hi-ratio shortening so I don't know if the difference was the shortening or the recipe. Just remember, if you mess up or you don't like your result, just keep trying. It takes lots of practice. Good luck.

Alcyia, don't be afraid of it! It's just cake and icing! If you make it and don't like it, or it doesn't work well you're not out much in the way of ingredients. Try as many recipes as you can within your means. The fact is, even if a cake isn't so pretty it probably still tastes good. Your friends and family won't mind your experiments!

I see so many people post here that they're afraid to try something, and I just don't get that. It's just sugar!! Be adventurous. If it's a disaster, eat it before anyone sees it!!!

thanks guys!!

about how much time should i give myself to frost the cake? i usually bake my cake in the mornings, let it cool until the evening and then level and frost it. but i dont know how buttercream works?

Hi there. Not sure what the size of the cake is you're frosting, but if you're new at it, allow plenty of time....say 30-40 minutes or so. I'm the kind of "froster" who puts on lots, takes off some, then sees that I took off too much so I put on more, etc, etc, until it's even and smooth.

Also, there are several methods to frosting with buttercream as you will find in the Cakecentral tutorial section. I like and use a few of them depending on how the frosting of the cake is going. You can use a large metal spatula and dip it in hot water to warm it up, wipe off the water and smooth it across your icing to get a smooth look. You can also let your icing crust after a few minutes (it won't stick to your finger when you test it) and then use a Viva paper towel to lay on it and gently smooth it with your hand. Those are a couple of methods that I like. With practice, you'll find which one you prefer. Just cover up the imperfections with a border or a design or flower! Most of all, have fun!!

And consider investing in the SugarShack (Sharon's) DVDs. Plenty of AMAZING reviews on here about them. I ordered mine last week and can't WAIT to get them!

Indydebi's recipe is my favorite BC to use. Taste good, crust well, and smooths beautifully.

well everyone i made a cake
it was horrible ugly :] but it was amazingly delicious
basic yellow cake with a chocolate pudding filling and buttercream icing
amazing!!

Congrats!!! What recipe did you end up going with and did you like it?

i used indydebi's and i loved it!
so did the rest of the family. i still have a lot left over, so i think im going to make cupcakes or something later on this week