I do both.I prefer SMBC. I LOVE the taste! I don't think it's any better or easier to decorate with it, then fondant though. Fondant has to be put on carefully to get that smoothness, it doesn't just happen. But I have seen some BC cakes on her that you would think are fondant, but lo & behold, perfectly smooth BC. I always make my fondant from scratch, but have never eaten any of it until I discovered MMF. I think it taste great & the texture isn't so bad either. And using fondant does take a skill you need to develop, just like good 'ol buttercream.
oK, What did I miss??? What plastic cake collars?...I use to have alot of problems smoothing my b/c...I practed and researched every articile in here...now Ive gotten alot better.
I want to make a purse cake, and a box cake...but Im going to attempt it in b/c using fondant accents I think for the handle, zippers, etc...
well all its late...good night, time to go dream of cake decorating...get inspirations!
OH!!! Does anyone know what "Show Peels" are? I saw a video on You Tube...infact I posted it somewhere in here on hows to: extensive scrolls...and this guy was doing transfers with "show peels"...I couldnt find anything called that on a search. THANKS.
oK, What did I miss??? What plastic cake collars?...I use to have alot of problems smoothing my b/c...
I believe it was reference to a long strip of plastic, that is going around some "split and fill" cakes in the shops. You know, like a boston cream
pie?
I just use water mist and extra large icing scraper to smooth my cakes.
I use both, but prefer fondant because I make my own and it tastes great! AND I have carpal tunnel and piping kills me! I can do a little bit here and there, but like what I can do with fondant. Hats off to BC only I wish I could stay with it!
Hey, chefcindy,
One of my employees at my Salon just had both of her hands operated on for carpal tunnel. She's 73 yrs old, been a hairstylist for 42 yrs and was at the point where she could barely hold a blowdryer and brush her hands were so numb and painful at the same time.
She did great. The Dr. did one hand, she waited 2 weeks and he did the other and 2 weeks after that she was back to work. She said the pain/numbness is gone but her hands don't have full strength yet. The Dr. told her that could take up to 6 months for all of her strength to come back. She's noticing a difference each week though.
I just wanted to let you know because she was so afraid to have the surgery, now she' sorry she waited so long. Ain't that always the way?
Sorry to hi-jack, I just wanted to help out a fellow cc-er with some important info.
Now back to our buttercream discussion.
Happy Sunday!
Deb
I'm mainly a BC gal, too. Folks in my area just love their BC. Fondant seems to chewy, and isn't the best part of any cake the frosting!
I do love to make fondant figures and accents for my cakes, and fondant does give me more opportunity to be creative with those figures.
I think it would be really interesting if some of the televised cake challenges had a BC-only challenge. It would be really neat to see what some of the more skilled decorators can do with it.
Man, I would love to be able to get my BC smooth enough so that I don't have to use fondant. I can't make a perfect batch of BC to save my life. I have tried about 4-5 different recipes, and a ton of techniques to try to get smooth BC and nothing is working. Don't know what I'm doing wrong, but that's the reason I like to use fondant. I wish I didn't have to though!!!
Ashley
I think it would be really interesting if some of the televised cake challenges had a BC-only challenge. It would be really neat to see what some of the more skilled decorators can do with it.
I agree 
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Now THAT would be a challenge! I'd also like to see them bake their own cakes, make their own buttercream and fillings right there, level, torte and fill, crumbcoat and ice. Maybe a 2 day 8hr each challenge?
AND.......everything has to be edible and no rice krispy treats either. 
No one does BC? 
I've been doing cakes for 30 years and just RECENTLY started playing with fondant. I've done maybe 5 cakes with fondant. As mentioned above, I won't say one is harder or easier .... they're just different.
I know I can ice and smooth a cake faster in BC than I can with fondant. I know people have tried to "convert" me by telling me how much EASIER fondant is (then how come I can do BC faster? Oh wait ... if I had worked 30 years with fondant I'd be able to do it faster, too. 
) Experience and lots of practice always makes anything easier.
I have too many customers who come in saying "NO FONDANT!!" Around here, we're not used to chewing our icing, either.
I will say that I get amused at the "young whippersnappers" who reprimand me for being so "old fashioned"; who tell me I need to "get with it" and move up to the "modern age"; who ridicule the older cakes that were "easy to decorate because all you do is just slap some BC piping all over it!" And then these same people whine about how "hard" BC is and they point out that BC piping techniques are taught only in the MASTERS class, etc. (Hey, where's that thread on "Things that make ya go Hmmmmmm"!). It's a nice chuckle for me as they imply I'm old fashioned and not talented, but they can't do what I do.
But when I have to pull my fondant off of the cake for the 3rd time and reroll it because it's too short or I tore it, I'm whining about the same thing .... this stuff is hard to work with and why would ANYONE want to? (but in the end, I'm usually pretty proud of what my cake looks like! )
Keep looking .... there are LOTS of BC cakes on here.
A butter cream only challenge is a great idea! They can allow them to use american butter cream, SMBC or IMBC, or limit them to one of the above! My family won't eat american buttercream since I introduced them to IMBC.
I also pride myself on being a predominantly buttercream decorator! My customer-base prefers it, so that's what I do. I have made a nice name for myself in my area of being the "cake decorator that can make those sculpted cakes with buttercream, not that chewy stuff", and I really take pride and a sense of accomplishment from that! I entered my first cake competition recently and used fondant to cover my dummies for the first time....I admit, it was a blast to use, but I think buttercream is a much more difficult medium to perfect and I LOVE a challenge!
Now, I plan to enter more competitions and will continue to use fondant for my dummies, but it's nice to tell folks "yes, it's done in fondant, but I can give you nearly the same look in buttercream!" They LOVE that!
No problem, KlyKat, we're all thinking the same thoughts....
I love fondant....but Georgia is a b/c lover. I had live in different places, but south loves b/c. I make my own fondant and i can give my fondant any flavor. Even though i have no problem giving my b/c the smoothness of fondant, when we talk about possible cake catastrophe, fondant is easier to redo and i really don't l now why, but i am less stressful with fondant cakes.
For a cake challenge, OMG, that will be impossible. TV studios are sooooo hot, i have seen many challenges involving chocolate, in which the competitors have to deal with chocolate not hardening. Buttercream needs to set too, SMBC, it's risky and IMBC too, but if they do it, i will not miss it. B/C is delicate for a 80 degree TV studio. But if they come with a B/C recipe, that can crust in that temperature, with all the hot lights, i want it. When i was in culinary school, they have a competition and the main price was a full paid scholarship (uffs, everyone wanted to win, 52 competitors in total), that was very stressful, they place us in a conference center, but where too many people there and i can hardly feel the a/c. Candy was stickying, we were back and forward where fridges were, chocolate sweeting....i did not got 1st price but a honorable 2nd price...8k scholarship. It was an amazing experience, walk away with my 1st job offer and half of my student loan paid.
almost all of my cakes are buttercream. I make most of my flowers out of gumpaste, candy clay and royal icing. I never seemed to master buttercream roses they looked like cabbages so I just learned gumpaste instead.
It is a rare fondant cake around here but I am learning as a few brides insist.
I'm mostly a buttercream decorator but I have recently been playing with fondant. Both take skill, different skill but skill nonetheless! I personally prefer buttercream for taste but I know people who beg for fondant! To each his own and whoever is paying gets to say what the cake will be!
I am solely a Buttercream decorater.I don't like working with large amounts of fondant say...covering a cake! I do use fondant for small accents pieces that I can cut out etc..Here in this city and it is the 3rd largest in Canada...Butterceram is still alive and well.Fondant is really only for wedding cakes.Almost everyone you talk to doesn't like the taste so they peel it off.Places like the UK and Australia still use fondant all the time.
I, too, only do buttercream -- I don't do it WELL, mind you 
, but I do it!!! My dream is to become a fantastic piper, making intricate, delicate designs.
I honestly have no desire to use fondant or to make carved cakes, although I appreciate looking at both.
Several friends have agreed to let me get practice on them in April by doing their birthday cakes. I'm so excited -- hopefully, I'll see some improvement!
Even though I always cover my specialty cakes in fondant, I don't think anybody uses it for the taste. But doesn't everyone cover their cake in buttercream first, anyway?
I don't get the cop out remark? It takes a lot of practice and skill do make a cake look pretty no matter what you use.
So I have a question for all you ladies....... I am going to be starting wilton course 2 tomorrow. My plans were to do all 4 courses, but the last is the fondant course, do any of you think it's worth it to take the course?? I will never have my own business, and I just wanted to learn to do decorating because I love baking and didn't want it to look like a 5 year old decorated my cakes.
I just got into cake decorating in the past 6-7 months or so and started with fondant and for me, it's easier than buttercream, maybe because it's more about molding, less about steady hand? Anyway, my husband detests fondant so I've been branching out, practicing with buttercream and I've got to say, for me, it's somehow more rewarding to work with buttercream.
So I have a question for all you ladies....... I am going to be starting wilton course 2 tomorrow. My plans were to do all 4 courses, but the last is the fondant course, do any of you think it's worth it to take the course?? I will never have my own business, and I just wanted to learn to do decorating because I love baking and didn't want it to look like a 5 year old decorated my cakes.
Yes, take the course. Add'l training and education is never a waste of time. If you choose never to work in fondant, at least you make the choice as an informed decision of having actually worked with the fondant.
I use primarily BC too. Most of my clientèle can't afford/won't pay for fondant. I do like to use fondant accents for bows, polka dots, squares, whatnot, but only 3 of my posted pics are covered in fondant/modeling choc.
Don't fret, there are a lot of BC lovers around here!
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.
Well, shoot sugarshack! It wouldn't be fair if you did everything perfect! 
I am curious to see what you think. Is the cake and the ribbon fondant or buttercream?
I have a vote on that daffodil cake, but I've spent hours looing at CC and agonizing over cakes...is that BC? Is it fondant? So, I will let Newbie guess, and we'll see.
Man, I would love to be able to get my BC smooth enough so that I don't have to use fondant. I can't make a perfect batch of BC to save my life. I have tried about 4-5 different recipes, and a ton of techniques to try to get smooth BC and nothing is working. Don't know what I'm doing wrong, but that's the reason I like to use fondant. I wish I didn't have to though!!!
Ashley hit the nail on the head for me...I would use BC if I could get it to look like Sugarshack's every time. However, some things you just need fondant for. It would be nice to use it only when necessary, as an accent, not for the whole cake.
And where o' where is BCJean while we're discussing her favorite topic???
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