I Don't Know How People Use Crusting Icing!
Decorating By FromScratchSF Updated 18 Nov 2011 , 11:17pm by FromScratchSF
So I've been on maternity and not baking - it's been a few months. Well, last week hubbie was craving my red velvet cake but asked if I could make the other kind of frosting. I normally make SMBC and can't remember the last time I made crusting - it's been years and I didn't know how to decorate a cake then. Anyway I used a recipe from here. I seriously don't know how you all work with that stuff! Getting it on the cake was a nightmare, it kept rolling off and pulling hunks of cake with it, I thinned it out but then it was kind of oozing out of my layers! I tried to smooth it out and level the top but it just kept pulling off. Even Viva was no love.
I finally gave up, stuck a fork in the top and handed the plate to hubbie. He loved the taste, but man am I glad that cake was not for a paying client because it looked like a 6 year old made it! What a disaster!
So new respect for you crusting decorators (does that sound right?) because it must be a totally different technique then I'm used to working with it.
Jen
Not sure why you would have that problem, never had it do that. lol. It sounds like it was too thick, but you said you thinned it, so not sure.
well, just like how the SMBC is the only thing you have worked with, the crusting bc is the only thing I have worked with. If I tried to make a batch of SMBC it would probably not turn out the first time, and if it did I would not know the first thing about getting it smooth. I only learned with the crusting, just like you only learned with yours. I failed the first time I frosted a cake too, so it makes sense that you would fail at your first attempt with a new product.
Like the first time you try fondant, it's not going to come out looking the same way as your 100th time using it.
I use both and I'm much quicker with SMBC than I am with my ps/butter based butter cream.
With SMBC I can get it smooth in one quick spin with my bench scraper, with the ps based butter cream it takes many spins and a lot of curse words. lol
So new respect for you crusting decorators (does that sound right?) because it must be a totally different technique then I'm used to working with it.
Okay, so I might be getting old, but crusting?! 
Crusty?! 
I think the correct term would be buttercream decorator perhaps? 
jk
The buttercream usually takes practice and it is very finicky. It doesn't like rainy weather either. It doesn't like to crust on rainy days. And if you only made a small batch of it and grabbed a can of the best shortening available at the supermarket, Crisco, that may have been the problem. Crisco has been reformulated to have zero trans fats. So, we can now eat our cake and not have our trans fats too. It plays havoc with buttercream. I have to by the cheap house brand to get anything decent to work with.
My hats off to the fondant girls and you SMBC girls. (Haven't tried SMBC yet, but it's on the bucket list)
I'm almost thinking that cake decorating is a generational thing. When I first started baking/ cake decorating, (way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth,) All we had was buttercream.
Now that fondant is so readily available and the molds can be purchased easily, it seems more of the younger folks are working with fondant and doing great with it.
Ok, I'm kinda new here.....what is SMBC? Im also kinda new to cake decorating...crusting buttercream is all I have tried. I love this site...find out all kinds of tips and tricks!
I found it in recipes....can you use SMBC under fondant? How about piping? Thanks for the help!
This is so funny. Personally, I just can't imagine how you can get a non-crusting icing smooth! I guess that's why there are so many cakers and so many different recipes in the world! To each his(her) own.
This is so funny. Personally, I just can't imagine how you can get a non-crusting icing smooth! I guess that's why there are so many cakers and so many different recipes in the world! To each his(her) own.
As glass, smooth as glass is that SMBC if you do it right. Love it!
Every attempt I've had with crusting buttercream have left me very sad. It doesn't smooth well, it's painfully sweet, and I can always feel/taste the conrnstarch in the icing. So many people are used to it, but I don't give the option! People usually really like SMBC once they try it. It does take some time to get making correctly but it's soooooo worth it! To solve heat issues use fondant over it or make sure the cake will be inside an airconditioned room. Why would you want to make a beautiful cake and have it outside anyways!!
Every attempt I've had with crusting buttercream have left me very sad. It doesn't smooth well, it's painfully sweet, and I can always feel/taste the conrnstarch in the icing. So many people are used to it, but I don't give the option! People usually really like SMBC once they try it. It does take some time to get making correctly but it's soooooo worth it! To solve heat issues use fondant over it or make sure the cake will be inside an airconditioned room. Why would you want to make a beautiful cake and have it outside anyways!!
True, but it's not always my choice - so if it's for an outside event I have to use regular BC. I use it specifically for a cake I don't cover in fondant like a train or car as I am not skilled enough to cover those in fondant (yet).
Why would you want to make a beautiful cake and have it outside anyways!!
Exactly. I'm in an area of 100+ temps for months, and I stick with my SMBC thru the whole summer. Air conditioning, chilling before delivery, and a little information for the customer about how to treat the cake is all you need.
Both types have a place. I offer both at tastings, and I have discovered that people are very sure of the type they prefer. Those who love the IMBC or SMBC dislike the regular buttercream, and vice versa! I can smooth either one, so it doesn't matter to me, although I do charge $1. more per serving for the meringues.
I offer both, I personally prefer the IMBC, but the confectioner's sugar one is what a lot of people are used to so they prefer that.
It sounds like you had it too thick if it was rolling off your cake. When you use that kind of buttercream you have to thin it out slightly for different purposes (piping vs. covering etc)
I don't know what recipe you used, but there are a bunch that have a lot of unnecessary ingredients in it, too. All you need is 2# powdered sugar, 1 C butter, 1 C shortening, 1/4 c milk or cream and the flavoring if you want to add some.
I like both crusting buttercream and IMBC. For red velvet, I think white chocolate buttercream (with powder sugar) is best . Yum! Sometimes the cake does roll up on you with crusting buttercream. Red velvet is such a soft cake that it can be a little harder to work with. When a cake tries to roll up on me, I use my globbing method...very technical, I know. You just glob lots on for the first coat. Don't try to smooth at all. Get a glob and put it on - get another glob and put it on the next section of cake, etc.... After you have globbed the whole cake, then you can run your spatula around taking lots of icing off and smoothing it out. So, maybe give that a try next time the husband asks for it.
I like the testure of SMBC, but it tastes like a stick of butter.
That's my husband's reaction to SMBC....but he loves super sweet powdered sugar icings, because that's what he was raised on. I love SMBC, but I don't like really sweet desserts. Taste is definitely subjective, that's for sure.
I do get more orders for powdered sugar butter cream than I do for SMBC. I use all butter though, even in my powdered sugar butter cream except when it's really hot than I use 1/3 hi-ratio shortening.
You used unsalted butter right? And plenty of high quality pure vanilla extract?
I'm not sure what recipe you used but you can add a bit more sugar. I use 1/4 cup of sugar per egg white.
LOL- I say the same thing about SMBC and IMBc. Crusting is just so much easier for me. But they certainly use different methods to put them on. It does sound like your icing was too thick if it pulled off the cake. Then, I think you got it too thin. If it was close to SMBC texture, then it was way too thin to crust right and would fall off. I think in the end, it's what you are used to doing. When I used SMBC, I swore there was no way it was gonna stick on the cake!
I like both crusting buttercream and IMBC. For red velvet, I think white chocolate buttercream (with powder sugar) is best . Yum! Sometimes the cake does roll up on you with crusting buttercream. Red velvet is such a soft cake that it can be a little harder to work with. When a cake tries to roll up on me, I use my globbing method...very technical, I know. You just glob lots on for the first coat. Don't try to smooth at all. Get a glob and put it on - get another glob and put it on the next section of cake, etc.... After you have globbed the whole cake, then you can run your spatula around taking lots of icing off and smoothing it out. So, maybe give that a try next time the husband asks for it.
LOL, that's what I do--happy to know there is a "technical" term for that. I have to do that for all of my softer cakes for crumb coat: I slather that thing in icing and then just get rid of excess. That way, the cake does not pull. Once it crusts, the final coat is no problem : )
CC really needs to fix updating the OP with replies! I had no idea this got any posts!
Thanks all for having a chuckle with me I'm sure part of my problem was my shortening - I use Specrtum Organic for my shortening needs so there is a good chance that it does not work for icing. But still, I felt like I had never iced a cake before - all clumsy with big globs of icing falling off my spatula onto the counter The change in medium really threw me!
If I want to make this again, which recipe do you all suggest that uses no shortening or artificial creamers? 1# ps + 1 # butter + a little milk?
Jen
I like the testure of SMBC, but it tastes like a stick of butter. FromScratch SF, I followed your tutorial (love your blog by the way!) and I still thought it was way too buttery. My DH loves it. Should I try less butter in it?
Thanks! no, you need the full pound otherwise it won't be firm enough. Give it a few tries to give your mouth a chance to adjust to the different flavor/texture. Try it with flavorings. Try it on different cake flavors. Some people don't like it at first but then love it. Or maybe you just won't like it ever because you just don't like it.
I'm sure part of my problem was my shortening - I use Specrtum Organic for my shortening needs so there is a good chance that it does not work for icing. But still, I felt like I had never iced a cake before - all clumsy with big globs of icing falling off my spatula onto the counter
The change in medium really threw me!If I want to make this again, which recipe do you all suggest that uses no shortening or artificial creamers? 1# ps + 1 # butter + a little milk?
Spectrum is a lot softer than regular shortening, so that was probably your problem.
If you take the shortening totally out of the icing it's going to be really soft and hard to smooth out. If you want to try a batch do the 1# confectioner's sugar + 1 cup butter, then add the liquid tiny bit by bit until you get the consistency you want.
I've made all-shortening confectioner's sugar icing before, which is what most grocery stores etc use. Without the butter in it it was REALLY easy to spread out. Not that it tasted good, but whatever. A lot of the recipes that you find for the crusting buttercreams don't have any butter in them at all. In my experience it's the shortening that makes it easy to smooth out.
Edited to add: Which is probably why people use all-shortening icing 
I can see using it if you have dietary restrictions, but for anything other than that butter is better.
Fill the cake with whatever you wish but coat in ganache...all problems solved!!
SMBC is on my list of things to try and someone mentioned it tastes like a stick of butter. Ummmmm. That's not a bad thing in this house! LOL!
Ha! I know, like I said DH LOVES it I did make a batch with 2 1//2 sticks of butter instead of 4 sticks. It was FANTASTIC!!! I could've eaten the whole bowl. But I would've been very very sick. 
I don't think all shortening makes it easier to work with....My buttercream recipe is a 1/2 pound butter to 1 1/2 pound shortening ratio. Since I started subbing some of the shortening for butter, I find it a bit softer and much easier to smooth.
My experience is different, then, I remember smoothing it out and thinking that it's no wonder the nasty icing you get at the grocery store is all shortening if it's that easy to smooth out!
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%