My favorite local bakery uses a bright white buttercream on their cakes/cupcakes, but the owner is a serious "no shortening" kind of lady who is all about all natural ingredients so I know she isn't pulling any shenanigans to get her buttercream so snow white... She is also a "not sharing secrets" type of lady either, which I totally understand.

Now, I love my buttercream recipe (butter, powdered sugar, clear vanilla, and buttermilk) however, it is always off white due to the butter being used. I can't stand shortening in buttercream and was wondering if anyone has any tips on how I might be able to avoid shortening and still get a white buttercream??

Thanks in advance!

Jolene

You can use a "whitener" in your buttercream. Wilton makes one called White White. I used it once but didn't like it--seemed like putting Desitin (the diaper ointment) in the bowl. Bleck. Since then I've just had to be satisfied with ivory icing because I use a butter/shortening recipe.

Frankly, I suspect that your neighborhood baker really is using shortening. Could that be one of the reasons she isn't sharing???

But I'm interested to see if others chime in with trade secrets on how to get that elusive white frosting while using butter.

I use the buttercream recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, and it says that if you just keep whipping, the buttercream will become more white. Something like 5-10 minutes, and it will also make the buttercream lighter.

It does work, in my opinion at least. Not the bright white of a piece of paper, but definitely not cream.

HTH

ETA: There is no shortening in this recipe, only unsalted butter, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla.

I've tried the "slightest bit of violet color to offset the yellow trick" and I think that worked wonderfully. I use half butter/half shortening since it is sooo hot here and I like the violet color trick.

I've used the Wilton Whitener and it's great! It gets the bright white color I need and I haven't found it alters the flavor in anyway.

By the way, I'm interested in trying the buttercream recipe with buttermilk! I use the same recipe except normally use regular milk.

Wilton's white is a liquid so I don't see where the reference to a baby ointment comes in. You can also use Americolor White gel color. I've used both with success and no strange taste.

If she's into the natural stuff, she probably does what I do. I buy all-natural organic butter from a holistic store. It's white. There's no dyes or colour added to make it yellow. Natural butter does have a slightly yellow colour in the summertime, but is white the rest of the year - Regular butter has beta-carotene added to add the yellow colour. Hope this helps!