i have noticed that on this website that no body makes cakes with buttercream anymore. its all fondant. i do all of my cakes with buttercream. wedding, 3D, flat, stacked. everything i do is buttercream. roses, mums, carnations, you name it, i can do it in buttercream. so what happened? its like now we can cop out. it is kinda sad. but i have never used fondant or even messed with it so it might be different and better. where i work we can only afford buttercream because our customers cant afford it either. so i will stick with buttercream.

Trust me when I say, you are not alone. There are LOTS of buttercream only decorators here. Matter of fact, some really great decorators. I am not great, but I try.

Laurabeth, do you have any pictures you can post? I would love to see some pictures of sculpted and carved cakes done in BC. Welcome to CC, by the way.

I am a cake schizo - when I bake for friends, I use fondant because - gasp! - some of them like it or because they want cakes where they want some modeling. But for family I have to make it buttercream. They don't like fondant and they won't peel it off. For them, a cake with fondant is a bad cake.
Even marzipan accents are almost taboo - marzipan mice from one of my cakes went to a friend because she loved it and nobody in the family wanted it. To get the cake, look at it - yes, but not to eat it.
I actually find it interesting to play with buttercream and get a fondant look. You cannot get a giant model from buttercream, but on small scale you can make quite a lot from it.
Stick to buttercream if you have or want to!

I am a BC cake decorator also. Don't like fondant and don't use it. You are not alone. I have never made a fondant cake and refuse them if asked and when I show the clients pictures of my cakes, they are amazed that they are so smooth and didn't realize BC could look so smooth.

The majority of my cakes are buttercream only or buttercream with royal icing decorations.

Attract those rich folk from April Sound, The Woodlands, River Plantation and others....I don't understand the whole concept myself but costlier cakes seem to attract spendier customers.

I used Buttercream. Granted I'm not the best advertisement as my cakes aren't that great but still I use it almost exclusively.
By the way nice to see another Texan that is relatively near me!

LauraBeth is the 3rd CCer from Conroe that I've seen.

I use both butter cream and fondant. It all depends on the look I want for the cake. Using fondant is far from a cop out. It is another skill, and another challenge to learn.

I agree that beautiful BC piping seems to be an art that is not getting the exposure it used to. The "modern" styles today are so different now, you don't see as much of it, esp on TV and in Magazines. I am in awe of all the beautiful piping I see. I do a lot of BC iced cakes, but almost all of my decorating is done in fondant because :

1) that's the style of the day what my peeps want and
2) I SUCK at piping and will never be a strenght of mine

But I so admire those that can, and I sure hope the gorgoeus art form does not die.

I too am pretty much buttercream only- not one person in my family will eat fondant (it's not even Wilton either, it's Satin Ice!) they say they don't like the texture. I have used fondant for friends on occasion, or for decorative pieces, but everyone loves my buttercream so I'll stick with that

Hmmm...nobody make cakes with buttercream???? I guess i'm a nobody. I've only done a few cakes fondant covered, basically because it's expensive to buy around here. I do use fondant accents but i would basically say i work with buttercream.
I can tell you that working with fondant takes skill! I wish i could do half of what those who use it do. They are wicked talented!
I have to say that your post is somewhat offensive. I mean, what kind of response are you expecting to get from a post like this? Calling those you use fondant 'cop outs'. Come'on, why do we have to be so mean spirited. It's great you can do all those things in buttercream, does that make you a better decorator..well i guess that's to each his owns opinion.
I bet most of those who work with fondant, started with buttercream and moved on to more complex mediums.
Let be nice. This is a place to learn buttercream or not. If you are getting nothing out of this website because 'everyone' uses fondant perhaps this is not the forum for you.

i use both.. depends on what is requested.. buttercream , made with butter, hi-ratio shortening.. or crisco.. powder sugar and whipping cream.. i make italian meringue buttercream. swiss meringue buttercream.. french meringue buttercream, ganache.. etc. most people , like you say, not matter the brand, doesn,t like fondant.. i always say.. your cake is only as good as what you got under that fondant. you can use the most expensive fondant on the market.. if your cake and fillings and icing aren,t tasty.. hello?? so keep on using buttercream..however you make it..

Almost exclusively buttercream here, too!

thanks for the posts. i didnt mean by cop out in a way that was bad. i meant that we found an easy way out. like buttercream was there before fondant. make sense? well i think that for a grocery store, we do awesome cakes with buttercream. you can smooth it out with water and i have noticed that the best smoother is a piece of a plastic cake collar. i am working on getting pictures to put on just have to buy the memory card for my phone to transfer pics.

<---------------------Nobody

Well I can see here she is coming from, a LOT of the cakes not just here but everywhere are fondant. and the ones that get the most attention are also fondant so if you haven't looked around extensively you might miss the buttercream ones. The trend nowadays definitely is fondant. I don't think one style is superior to the other they are just different styles.
Personally one of the reasons I don't do fondant very much is I dislike having to make a batch of buttercream and fondant when I do one. As opposed to just buttercream when I make a buttercream cake. also my family always makes fun fondant and call it play dough. " oh you made a play dough cake again?"

i didnt mean to offend anyone. like i said i have never worked with fondant. so i have no idea how it is so please do enlighten me

I like buttercream best, as well. I've done a few things with fondant, but it's just not as predictable (for me) as buttercream. I guess I just need more practice, but it's frustrating for me and I don't love it... so why worry about it? I don't have a business, so I can play with the medium I love best... buttercream. Go with your heart.

Maybe all the fondant cake pic's you think you're seeing are actually just really smooth butter cream.

I work mainly in butter cream although lately I have been getting more requests for mmf after the tastings. It actually tastes pretty good.

I wouldn't necessarily say that one is harder to master then the other. It's just 2 different techniques and basically like anything else the more you do it the better you get.

I started decorating long before fondant was even heard of so butter cream is still my first love.........and as I've said before, I don't care how good the fondant may taste I do NOT want to have to chew my frosting, that's just wrong IMHO.

I love doing BC!. I've been doing a few "play dough" cakes lately just for practice. But I will never give up on BC.

Sandy

[quote="dkelly"]Maybe all the fondant cake pic's you think you're seeing are actually just really smooth butter cream.


dkelly...you took the words right outta my mouth!! I would love to do fondant but everyone knows I can get it perfectly smooth and they wont pay the extra for it!!
All my accents are fondant.

Although fondant cakes look amazing to me, plain and simple buttercream tastes better. I have seen amazing buttercream creations on this site specially with all this talent around here. I am interested in trying fondant cakes and to make it inexpensive you make your own mmf, it tastes better to me and is really easy to make

I do BC and love it, I will be the first to say that I can't pipe as good as I would love to. My eyes aren't as good as they use to be and my hands shake also. I have never cover a cake with fondant, but I do make some of my decorations from fondant.

People here (where I live) just don't care for the feel of fondant in their mouth, so it's BC icing here. I have seen many of beautiful BC cakes on this site, by some wonderful decorators. Some with breathtaking piping, that wish I could do.

I also as some of the other posters have said, wonder if some of the photo's you are looking at, are iced in BC...but so smooth it looks like fondant.

BC IMHO will never be a dying art, but maybe some of the piping of years gone by may be.

Sorry, if my post is missing words, I can't see what I am writing because of the add, on half of my space were you type

God Bless,
Sharon

I also do all BC taste better although I do a few fondat accents here and there.

Most ALL of my cakes are butter cream...number 1 request from everyone that I bake for. I have used mmf and rolled better cream decorations on a few of my cakes...I LOVE working with butter cream.

I LOVE CC...
Robin

PSSsssttt!!! Im Texas here, south end now, was up in Splendora, magnolia and Tomball.

I only work in Buttercream, Im just learning still though..but I like to see cakes in fondant and wonder if I can do them...and better yet...do them in b/c...fondant and I fought in class...so now Im just learning to talk to it "alittle" though..for mold figures.

Everyone in here inspires me, I get to where I dont want to do a cake cause I think Im not good...and then I will get that push, and there I go.

I have tried covering cakes in fondant. It definitely takes practice and it is expensive. Most of my cakes are iced in buttercream with fondant accents.

Hi ,,, where can I get one of those plastic cake collars {laurabeth 595 } is talking about I do use Buttercream but not opposed to fondant ,,I make my own out of marshmallow .. But ya I have major trouble getting my Buttercream smooth so I'd liketo get one of those ???