Hi guys

I wonder if any of you wonderful people can ease the headache buttercream is currently giving me.
The position as it stands is that I don't like a standard take butter and add icing sugar cream, too sweet and too fatty for me.
So I've been experimenting so far the only one we all agree on is Indydebi's BUT I have no wish for a crusting buttercream, so does anyone know if it is possible to make a non-crusting cream that has the same/similar flavour profile to Indy's

The other thing is I get gritty buttercream if I use the paddle, but if I use the whisk I am obviously incorporating a lot of air should I worry about this or is it not an issue unless I want a perfectly smooth finish.

As you can tell I didn't start out with buttercream

Yours aye

Pusskin

I use an even ration of (salted) butter and crisco. The salted butter cuts the sweetness. If you have grit--you have a bad batch of powdered sugar. There are some butter cream recipes here that do not crust. Your crusting occurs due to your sugar/fat ration. Look at the recipes and test a few "non crusting" ones out. Good luck!

You can look up a recipes like the Whimsical Bakehouse recipe, but it has a ton of shortening in it. It's less sweet though, and non crusting.

Also for a non crusting you'll probably want to look into the IMBC or SMBC type of icing.

Crusting has to do with the sugar to fat ratio. When you said Indy's recipe was too sweet and fatty, I'm not sure you are going to find what you want using powder sugar. With recipes that call for it, the more powder sugar the more it crusts, the more fat the less it crusts. So to get a less crusting buttercream like that you'd have to add alot more fat to it.

I can see I didn't explain myself very well. I LIKE Indy's buttercream it is not too sweet and without that horrid fatty mouthfeel I get from a simple buttercream.
What I would really like is a something which tastes like Indy's recipe but doesn't crust.
Although I like SMBC 2 of my kids don't and I can't see the point of making it just for them to scrape it off.

Okay I read that wrong.

Really though, the only way to make her icing crust less is to add more fat to it.

Wow I think Indy's is really sweet. Not that it's a bad thing, but to me it tastes like 100% sugar. I use it frequently though and people love it.

Are you using Dream Whip or a UK equivalent (I think maybe Bird's Dream) in your recipe? I think that is what gives her icing such a unique taste.

I also use the whipped cream buttercream in the recipes section:

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/2019/whipped-cream-buttercream-frosting

This is kind of a hybrid between an American buttercream and a meringue buttercream. For the fat, you can either use all butter, all shortening (Trex), or a combination of the two. It does not crust. You could add the dream whip in the beginning with the dry ingredients...just a thought.

annie

I'll have to try that one it looks as if it might work for me.
I am not a buttercream person I quess just prefer fondant and have been known to use jam rather than buttercream to crumb coat a cake.


Yours aye
Puss