Used Warren Brown's recipe on Sylvia Weinstock's Classic yellow cake. I made her cake in a 9x13 pan, cut it in half and stacked it to test it all out. Unfortunately it's only 3" tall... will need 4". Anyway. I love SW's cake (I also add 1/4C milk and 1/2t ginger). I think I need to get used to the frosting though. I do like it.... I like how creamy it is, and not sickeningly sweet it is.... just that it sometimes tastes like sweetened butter. But sometimes like really thick whipped cream. I hope others like it. And I definitely need to get used to frosting with it. It does go on like whipped butter! Much easier at first than abc. Just not sure if I will be able to get it as smooth as abc. But this was my first try.

Oh, and I used powdered egg whites for the frosting too - worked great!

I'd love to hear more comments from you! Is there a better one to use for a wedding cake?

You can add extra sugar if you want. I add 1/4 C extra to the meringue as it's whipping and another 1/4 C to the syrup. I also add almost three tablespoons of vanilla. It doesn't taste like butter after that!

I don't use a hot scraper to smooth it. I put on twice as much as I need, then go around it with a scraper. You can then pop it in the fridge and let it get good and hard, then go over it again with a metal scraper and kind of shave it off to get it good and sharp and very smooth.

Thanks AnnieCahill, I'll try the extra sugar. I still don't think it will be anywhere near the abc sugaryness. I'm afraid the bride might not really like it as is. A bit toooo different. But otherwise the texture and mildness are way better.

I still have to get over the non-crusting thing. I envision driving to the reception, and putting my hand out to steady it on a turn and ruining it. Guess I'll have to dress warm and leave the heat off in the car. Should be freezer temperature outside by then.

The biggest difference between ABC and MBC's is with ABC, you manipulate consistency to get the results you want. With MBCs you manipulate temperature.

It takes some practice, but MBCs look more smooth and in my opinion much more sophisticated then ABC. If you look at photos on Martha Stewart weddings, almost all buttercream cakes are SMBC because that's Martha's favorite. Ron Ben Isreal uses nothing but variations of her SMBC, and most most high-end cake artists use one form of MBCs or another. I specialize in modern buttercream cakes so all my pics are SMBC (with a few fondant-covered, and the only way you can get the same sharp corners under fondant that we get using MBCs is if you use ganache.). I have photos here but more on my website.

If you didn't add any flavoring to your IMBC you are missing out. It's a wonderful platform for real fruit, chocolate, VBP, spirits, etc. and can take much more real flavorings then ABC. Butter is a flavor enhancer, so it only tastes better the more flavor you add to it and will still hold up, where ABC would be a runny mess!

Add vanilla bean paste. It's heaven.

I have some left over that I will play with. I did mix some strawberry pie filling with it for the filling - and it does seem different in that it doesn't seem to "water it down" or thin it out too much like abc.

If chocolate is added would you need to add more sugar? I imagine it would taste more bitter since the mbc doesn't have the sweetness...

Also, now that I know what imbc tastes and feels like, is smbc really about the same?

And I have to ask - is Warren Brown's recipe just a basic recipe? For as popular as mbc's are, I don't see that many recpes for them. Are they all pretty much the same? I'm wondering if just adding sugar like AnnieCahill said would make the difference, or if it's something else that another recipe might bring in. I just saw a recipe in the Whimsical Cakehouse book that I may compare.

Thank you - this is all helping. Little by little I will "get it" all.

I had used frozen strawberries w/abc before and they were great - but I was concerned about using them for the wedding because I'm not sure how the timing of all the baking is going to work out. The show cake will be chocolate/peanut butter and the strawberry filling cake will be one of the flat cakes in the back that gets cut up. I figured I could do those more ahead of time since they wouldn't take too much storage space once done (not like the tier).... maybe if I just totally emptied our fridge and did the tier show cake a couple days before and then just did the strawberry filling cake the day before..... I wish I had all of your experience!!! Trying to figure out all of these details is driving me crazy!

Pick up a copy of the Cake Bible. It has all kinds of purees and cake and filling recipes. I definitely wouldn't add the canned pie fillings.

Yes, Warren Brown's IMBC is a base. To that, you can add curds, fruit purees, liqueurs, and all kinds of extracts. I personally add more sugar because I like it sweeter. But the flavor comes from whatever extracts or other flavorings you add. To me, IMBC is easier because I am lazy. I don't feel like standing over a stove and whisking. I like that you just put the syrup on to boil and then stream it into the meringue. But they are essentially the same product when they are complete.

FromScratch is right about the temperature. If the icing is too thin or soft you can pop it in the fridge for a few minutes to firm it up. For lots of piping, I would keep a bowl with ice nearby so you can trade off if your icing starts to melt in your hand while you're piping.

Also, make sure that your cakes are at room temperature before you serve them. This icing gets ROCK hard and it will be gross if you serve a cold cake. You should definitely refrigerate the strawberry filled cake and then pull it out about an hour before serving.

I actually have the Cake Bible. I guess I need to go look through it again!

So do you all have great self control - or are you all a mega-plus size? If you don't mind me asking. I can't even imagine how many test cakes I will need to make for all of this. I know I can give some away, and my family will eat some, but if it's there, I must keep tasting. I mean, it's part of the learning, right?! "Oh, it's been a day - I need to see how it tastes after being in the fridge" "Hmmm.... maybe it wasn't so buttery... I'd better try it again". "I'd better check the consistency after it's been out of the fridge for just a half-hour to check...." Maybe this isn't the best thing for me to be doing.

Yes, I am mega plus size LOL. But it's not a function of the cake baking. I do sample a little bit, but it's actually quite nauseating for me to smell that cake and icing smell in the house all the time. So I don't eat a lot of that stuff. But I do loves me some ice cream.

The Cake Bible it os. I use The Mouselline BC from there. I haven.t been able to find powdered egg whites though. What brand are the? Thanks

LOL I'm pudgy but only because I just had a baby and a rough pregnancy. I do taste a lot but I don't "eat" a lot of my goods. I've even taken bites and spit stuff out so I don't have to waist the calories on it. You have to have moderation, having stuff like this around all the time is so bad health-wise, diabetes and fat runs in my family, so I'm super paranoid and very determined to be as healthy as I can.

But honestly? MBC are SO much better health-wise then ABC. If you think about it, shortening is 100% fat and I think 2 lbs of powdered sugar to 1 lb of fat is the standard recipe.

MBC is generally 7 ounces (less then 1/2 lb) to 1 lb of butter for a comparable volume of icing, the additional volume comes from egg whites which are all protein and low calories.

Raw calculations:

A typical batch of ABC made with 2lbs powdered sugar and 1 lb of crisco or butter has about 6,800 calories in it.

A typical batch of MBC in the same volume made with 7oz sugar, 5 egg whites, 1 lb of butter has about 3,952.

Interesting, huh?

LOL!!!

Fearlessbaker, we found the powdered eggwhites at our larger grocery store. Deb-el is the brand. I really was surprised at how easy they whipped up!

I suppose after a while there would be no huge thrill in eating it. I make soap for a living and after 13 years I don't have the same excitement of using every scent like I once did. At least I'm hoping it will be the same. I had a little guy in my 40's and my rear and hips have never been the same. Don't need them to get any larger.

Thanks for the tip on the whites. I guess it is not the same as meringue powder? As to the eating part, I try to do what I call "being aware"and visulaize what the food is doing to my party as I ingest it. It stops me sometime...and sometime I rationalize. Do the best we can.