Y'know everybody does everything differently. So here's my story.

I've never stiffened icing to make a dam and my fillings do not pop out or slouch out anywhere.

I use smbc and it does not at all taste like eating butter straight up. It does, as was mentioned, take tablespoons of flavoring as opposed to the teaspoons of flavoring used in powdered sugar icing formulas. I use the Margaret Braun recipe--she calls it Vanilla Buttercream, page 211 in Cakewalk.

So in her recipe I use one tablespoon of vanilla for three egg whites--one teaspoon per egg white.

And Memphis is plenty hot and humid--but if you package your cakes carefully you sure can use smbc all year 'round. That's mostly all I use for weddings and under fondant.

My smbc musings.

Since you can use this as a filling. How does it freeze? And how does it hold up (as a filling) with fondant?

I use IMBC as fillings all of the time with no problems. I did make SMBC once fr an outdoor party on a day that ended up being over 90 degrees. It looked like it was melting and was shiny, but it stayed on the cake, as did the fondant accents.

I would think the French BC is much richer, is that correct? But then French food tends to be, huh? Anybody have a recipe they would be willing to share?

I want to try substituting the sugar for brown sugar! YUM!!! What kind of cake would that go well with so it isn't overly sweet?

Sorry for all of the questions...I am just getting so excited about trying more!

Brown sugar=heaven. Give it a shot....delish!