Icing That Will Stay Up To Mississippi's Heat And Humidity?

Decorating By itsnikki Updated 26 Jun 2010 , 4:43am by mbark

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itsnikki Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 12:16am
post #1 of 13

Kay... I'm going to make my FIRST nicely decorated cake for my daughter's 3rd birthday party next month. Well... it's going to be outside. And I live in MS, which means... it will be hot, humid, and likely in the 90's.

SO. I'm wondering what should I use to ice the cake? Or should I just do fondant? We don't have an a/c in the kitchen... so how will that work out? (I mean, I can always go to my mil's do decorate it...)

icon_smile.gif Just wondering. Any help at all would be appreciated! icon_smile.gif

It's going to be a plain, circle shaped cake... some kind of border, and I'm making a 3D tiara and scepter *sp?*... I saw the instructions for that on here and it looked cute.

12 replies
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Loucinda Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 12:23am
post #2 of 13

I use sugarshack's recipe. She is from Louisiana and her icing holds up like a dream in the heat and humidity.

indydebi's recipe is also one that will hold - it uses dreamwhip, and works great too.

Either one will be fine for you to use.

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KathysCC Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 12:34am
post #3 of 13

I'm in Mississippi and today it was 96. I'm not sure any icing will hold up in the kind of heat we are having now. For my niece's outdoor birthday a couple of weeks ago, I asked if we could keep the cake inside. We sang happy birthday inside and served the cake inside. Good luck on finding an icing! icon_biggrin.gif

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itsnikki Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 12:45am
post #4 of 13

I will look into those! icon_smile.gif

And yeah... it's ALREADY hot. Meh. (And I live in this OLD trailer with window units instead of central a/c. Oh joy. We're moving soon, maybe to a place with central? *lol*)

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KathysCC Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 12:53am
post #5 of 13

You poor thing. Don't feel bad, my central unit can't keep up either. It worked fine until the storm removed all the trees from our yard. Now with full sun hitting my house, the central air can't keep up. I have to do my baking at night or the house is unbearable.

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Loucinda Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 1:36am
post #6 of 13

I live in Ohio, last year I made a 6" cake iced and filled with sugarshack's icing. I set it outside on my front porch in 95 degree heat, with 90% humidity. Full sun for several hours. It held fine, I left it out there all day, it never moved.

I didn't cut the cake to see how the inside of it held, but the outside was just fine. I have used it ever since, never one problem with outside weddings or anything. I never worry about it not holding. It is a dream to work with.

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mamawrobin Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 1:48am
post #7 of 13

I made a three tiered birthday cake a couple of weeks ago for an outdoor birthday party. Our temperature that day was 100 degrees with 98% humidity. The heat index was something like 106. The cake was delivered at 2:00 pm and wasn't cut until 4:30 pm. It held up fine without melting, sagging or drooping. I used Indydebi's buttercream and I also used milk (half&half) in my icing. It was covered with Michele Foster's white chocolate fondant as well. I don't use perishable fillings so the cake was never refrigerated. Taking a "room temperature" cake into the outside heat and humidity is far less "damaging" than taking a cold cake into that environment.

Anyway, just wanted to do a "shout-out" for how well Indydebi's recipe held up for me under extreme heat and humidity.

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itsnikki Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 2:37am
post #8 of 13

Kathy... oh no! That just stinks! We have trees, I just think it doesn't shade us enough... the poor a/c's run almost constantly with little effect. Except in our bedroom which is dark. *lol*

I will def. use indydebi's recipe.

Do I need to use fondant? I mean... I don't know. *lol* I have made buttercream before. A long time ago.. but I've never tried fondant. *lol*

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tonedna Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 2:51am
post #9 of 13

Any buttercream based on pure high ratio will be the strongest buttercream for humidity.
Edna icon_smile.gif

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SunshineSally Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 3:17am
post #10 of 13

I live in Alabama and the heat and humidity is already awful here. Use Indydebi's recipe, it will hold up!

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mamawrobin Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 4:19am
post #11 of 13

Someone posted a "high humidity" buttercream recipe by Wilton the other day and "powdered whipped topping" was one of the ingredients just like Indydebi's recipe. Hmm...so I'm guessing it's the Dream Whip AND the fact that it's an all shortening based buttercream that makes it suitable for such conditions.

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mamawrobin Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 4:25am
post #12 of 13
Quote:
Originally Posted by itsnikki




I will def. use indydebi's recipe.

Do I need to use fondant? I mean... I don't know. *lol* I have made buttercream before. A long time ago.. but I've never tried fondant. *lol*




No..you don't "need" to use fondant. I just usually do because we actually like it. icon_lol.gif Indydebi's bc is very "user friendly" and it crusts and smooths beautifully.

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mbark Posted 26 Jun 2010 , 4:43am
post #13 of 13

lol @ Loucinda, what a great experiment!
I've said it before & I'll keep saying it, these types of posts make me so glad to live in Southern CA. It gets hot here, but no humidity.

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