Hi everyone,


I just joined and this is my first time here. I am in real need of help I am a beginner of cake making with using buttercream and fondant I am making some Christmas themed cupcakes and I was making the buttercream and tried to pipe my designs however there was a problem when I piped, I piped using the star nozzle onto the cupcake and it just went wrong the buttercream just went sloppy like the shape of the star just went away like wetsand does when it goes back to it's normal state. I hope that I am getting my point across clearly, what am I doing wrong? Am I meant to be letting it firm in the fridge first before piping? Maybe I have too warm hands I always see the chefs on the T.V doing it straight from being made.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Hi I am not sure on how you make your buttercream but the first thing that comes to mind is that it is just not firm enough in the first place so it wont hold any pattern from the nozzle.

I only pipe with royal icing but I do often make very firm buttercream to go into the centre of my cakes. It is firm enough to stand a large wooden spoon in without it toppling.

hope this helps

Amanda xx

Hello,

That would be my guess, as well, to much liquid in your butter cream.

AWas it a meringue buttercream or the confectioner's sugar variety? It sounds too soft, whichever it was.

Please post your recipe so we can see if the recipe is wrong or if something else is happening.  What has already been suggested is probably right - you just have it too thin.  Consistency is very important for designs to turn out right.  As has been  suggested it may be you just need to adjust the recipe, it might be you need a new recipe or it could be you have HOT hands so we can suggest something to help that..... but without kn owing the recipe used we can't help further.

Definitely a consistency problem. I add the liquid at the very end when making my buttercream, that way I can put in just enough to make it how I'd like. I make buttercream with powdered sugar but will sometimes add some meringue powder, just to help stabilize it. Good luck :)

AIm a beginner in baking and today i made buttercream for the first time i used the wilton recipe and my buttercream came out horrible it got lots of air bubbles and my icing was crackn and it felt smooth yet looked bumpy itd hard to explain.. My rose pedals came out horrible when i piped it was cracking and evrything went wrong.. I used vegtable shortening and butter and realized the shortening i bought has 0 trans fat.. I cant find one that has trans fat so what can i do? Please let me know someone! Im desperate i cant sleep at night! :(

Relax and take a deep breath.  It is only cake, not worth losing sleep over your first attempt. This is only your first time so be patient with yourself.  A big part of your problem may be the consistency of your icing.  Part of working with buttercream is getting the consistency correct, you may need to add a little more or less liquid than the recipe calls for, or a little more or less powdered sugar than the recipe calls for.  You want it to be soft enough that you can spread it and push it out of an icing bag with out having to force it, but not so soft that it droops.    Take some of your leftover icing and add a bit of water or milk to it and try again, even on the bottom of a cake pan.  Just play around with it a little bit. I believe that the Wilton recipe is a crusting one.  That means that if you let it sit for 10 minutes or so it will get a bit of a crust on it, you can touch it and you won't have icing on your finger.  That is good in that you can use some specific techniques to smooth it.  But if you try to go back and work with it a lot after it has crusted it could be a problem.  And making roses are notoriously difficult and take practice.  If you haven't already, there are some great youtube videos that can help, even watching them and how they handle the icing can give you a better feel for how stiff your icing can be, and specific techniques to make roses.  My favorites are by tonedna1 and seriouscakes.  Give yourself a break, it was your first time.  It will be better next time.

AThanx denetteb! Im actually good with decorating making roses was not a problem and i actually followed seriouscakes for that lol i get nervous too fast and the cupcakes were for my mom and it was last minute, i ended up just making regular cupcakes with store made frosting... For my next attempt im going to use ur advice.. But do u have a good recipe i can use? And how much should i or should i not mix for air bubbles not to occur? [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3005596/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

AThat is how my rose came out due to the frosting it wouldnt hold [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3005598/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

This is the one I use, just as written except lately I don't always let it beat as long at the end.  http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=135663&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=  Is the rose with canned icing?  It seems stiffer than what I would expect from a can.  If they are cracking you might want to use a little softer icing.  Another thing is to check your tip, sometimes you have to take a knife and open it up just a tad if it got squished.  One thing you might do next time is gradually, as you work your way out, tilt your icing tip a little more each row or two so that they gradually lay flatter, not all standing straight up.  It is quite nice though, I bet your mom was thrilled with them.

ANo that was actually the icing i made i tried it on 1 cupcake to see how it comes out

I think it is very nice for your first rose.  Check your tip to see if it is pinched too much and add a bit of milk or water, mix it in and try another one.  Either can cause the cracking at the end of the petals.

AThe weird thing is it was relli soft it was hard to make the middle of the rose but it jst had too much air bubbles in it thats y it was coming out like that and i dnt kno what i should do so that next time i dont get air bubbles

Some times  you can take a spatula and kind of slap it around in the bowl and get rid of some of the air.  Did you use the whisk or whip when mixing?  How long did you mix it?  It is a little hard for me to make out some of your posts with the lack of punctuation and caps, if you added that it would be easier for me to read and give suggestions.  A lot of us are not good at text speak.

AOh my gosh oops! Im so sorry i didn't realize i was doing that! I used one of those mixing machines not the kitchen aid. I was doing some research and read that you should always mix on medium and not to low or high and i kept mixing thinking mixing would make it better but it gave me alot of wholes and pockets. So next week or hopefully this weekend when i get my kitchen aid im going to use ur advice and the link u sent and try again. :)

AHoles*

What do you mean by a mixing machine but not your kitchen aide? 

AI dont have the kitchen aid i just have the electric hand mixer

Ok, I understand now.  The hand mixer will work, it just requires you to stand there and hold it.  Not really sure what you can do about the air bubbles, other than slapping it around with a spatula after to try to get rid of some.  Try to not let it bother you, it really is hardly noticed when you aren't 12 inches from the cake.  Smooth it out and step back a few feet and see.  Using the viva on a crusted icing can eliminate the look of them too. 

AThank you soo much for your advice denetteb :)