AOk here it goes... I am looking for some advice, I have always wanted to decorate cakes, an I mean always! So I would play with cake boxes and canned frosting (yuck) I went to all the Wilton classes and you tube everything cake related I can think of! So I jumped in head first with cake from scratch and a decent buttercream recipe. My homemade cakes are so heavy and dense, definitely not one someone would want to buy. I thought I found the perfect buttercream recipe but just had a piece of my box cake and its soo sweet :( my decorating skills are ok(still decorating cakes every chance I get) and I have made some mmf that turned out pretty good. I don't want things to be ok I want wonderful! I am now a stay at home mom and would really love if this worked out for me. Any recipe, classes that helped or suggestions period would be wonderful!
I've been doing it for 30 years and I'm still 'practising'! You should consult baking books, Google, favourite aunts and beg steal or borrow as many different types of cake recipes as you can. No matter where you bake (I'm in London) this will be what most cake makers do. When I first took cake decorating classes I couldn't even cook! I had to get up to speed pdq.
As far as buttercream, have you ever tried Swiss Meringue Buttercream. It is not as sweet as American Buttercream. If you want to try it, here is a tutorial http://fromscratchsf.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/tutorial-swiss-meringue-buttercream/. This is how I make mine and it's perfect every time. Make sure to use unsalted butter. It does take more flavoring than the American Buttercream. As far as recipes for cakes, there are tons on recipes that you can find on this site for you to try. I find that scratch cakes are denser than boxed cakes but everyone who has tasted my cakes love them.
Once you get that Swiss Meringue ButterCream recipe going, do yourself a real treat and learn from
Cup a Dee Cakes blog How to smooth your icing.
http://cupadeecakes.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-do-i-get-my-cakes-smooth.html
cupadeecakes is a great decorator and cake artist here on CC. Her tutorial on smoothing the icing really rocked my SMBC decorating world, and allowed me to make a buttercream wedding cake (without fondant per my bride friends request) that looked acceptable.
cheers,
mb
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