I am a newbie at this, having taken all of the courses I can and continue when I see more. All of the recipes I have learned for buttercream have powdered sugar.  I am reading RLB's cake bible and her's use granulated sugar that is heated. Is there a comparison in flavor and texture?  I assume it is not as sweet and of course she uses egg yolks or egg whites. I have been using 1/2 butter and 1/2 veg. crisco with powdered sugar ( wilton recipe and Toba Garrett) .  Any advise or insight? I am trying to step it up into higher quality baking, but am new at that too.

Thank you.  

AI don't know about the buttercream recipe in the book that you are trying to use right now. You say that you're trying to move to higher quality ingredients , well using crisco vegetable shortening is greasy and in my opinion GROSS. To make a better buttercream use high ratio shortening, it is made out of different oils and different additives and makes for a better tasting buttercream. You can buy high ratio shortening at a cake specialty shop a restaurant depot or online. It is kind of expensive but well worth it.

www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00024WNTU

HAPPY BAKING :grin:

www.littleladycakes.com/2009/04/high-ratio-shortening.html?m=1

Athe meringue buttercreams are a lot richer and have a more buttery taste. Night and day difference when compared to American butter cream in my opinion. French is my favorite, the one with the yolks, but Italian its very good as well and a little more stable. Has a very smooth creamy texture.

I don't like using shortening at all, and am lucky to live in as climate where I've never found it necessary, but high ratio is definitely going to make a big difference, like kazita said.

AYou should try many different icings so you have a selection to choose from depending on the situation or customer's preferences. Lots of people love the meringue based buttercreams. I don't like the way they are yellowish. And I think the butter is just too rich. The also have stability issues in warmer weather. there are some recipes that add powdered sugar to the meringue icing. That increases stability but makes it sweeter and less fluffy. So,to each his own.. Experiment and see what you like best.

AAh SMBC.......silky-smooth and butter-rich!

AThe recipe I love is unsalted butter and icing sugar beaten well together. Its Fab, plain and simple and can be flavoured or coloured

amky thats the only buttercream recipe i use and just add my own homemade jams to flavout and everyone loves it.

Thank you very much.  I am thinking of making the lemon buttercream, looks like I have to use the Classic bases and put it on either the Golden Luxury Butter cake or the White Chocolate Whisper cake and then make some other type of white buttercream for my decorating.

 

Also, going to try to make the Milk chocolate butter cream , which confuses me. The only ingredients are milk chocolate, bittersweet and butter. Nothing else. This would be for a chocolate cake for a milk chocolate lover, my son.

 

Have you made any of these?  I just made the perfect all American Chocolate Butter cake and the chocolate Domingo cake for trials. I don't think they are going to be chocolatey enough, but the texture of the Butter cake is amazing.

ACan anyone share a good recipe for buttercream that will work with 3 layers/2 tiers? They will be covered in fondant and I'm also hoping not to have to refrigerate--or is this necessary? I need to make the cake, plus 70 cupcakes for a morning event so hoping to do cake and cover a day or 2 in advance.

I use RLBs recipes for all my buttercreams. They taste the best and go hand-in-hand with my all natural philosophy. My advice is to try the classic or neoclassic buttercream recipe first and then move onto one of the meringues. The flavor can be as sweet as you wish by changing the amount of vanilla, chocolate or other flavoring that you add. Best of all, it melts on the tongue, for a terrific mouth feel and taste.

 

The milk chocolate buttercream is divine and so is the white chocolate cream cheese. Really, all of her recipes are amazing. Feel free to IM me if you have questions. She also has a really active website where she answers questions and others with experience with her recipes do, as well. 

 

jen

A

Just Fab isn't it. I love adding orange essence to make an orange buttercream frosting over chocolate cake

Hi Amyky, Im in Ireland so dont know if you have lemon curd and orange or lime curd were you are,but adding some of this for flavouring gives a beautiful tangy flavour which is to die for. I have never advertised for work and get my orders all through word of mouth and everyone always compliments me highly because of the taste of my buttercream,so i work on the principle if this is whats getting me more orders why try to change it.i make my own strawberry,raspberry,mixed fruit,blackcurrant and blueberry jam.

I just made her lemon buttercream last night for the 1st time.  It is made using the classic buttercream and then adding lemon juice and lemon extract as stated in her book.  It was too fluffy and bland for me, but I was excited about it.  So by the end of fixing it up to very flavorful, I added the juice of 3 large lemons, another 1/4-1/2 tsp of lemon extract and about 1/4-1/2 c. of powdered sugar for sweetness and to counter balance the extra liquid.  It is terrific and a keeper now. Now I just have to find a better cake recipe to put it on.  I wasn't happy with the White Chocolate Whisper Cake in her book that would have gone under it.

Swiss Meringue buttercream is heated sugar and egg whites which are whipped and then butter and flavorings are added. To me there is no comparison to simple buttercream with fat and powdered sugar. SMBC is like a silky cloud. It can be flavored in pretty much any way you like. Fruit puree, chocolate, even caramel. To me butter will always create a better tasting product than any type of shortening (the more natural, the better). 

 

I agree with the other posters, though! Try some different buttercream recipes. Rose LB's are a great place to begin.