Hello All, 

I'm new to this site but with the holidays coming up, I'm needing some extra help here. When I was child growing up in Brooklyn, NY, we got all our special occasion cakes at a local Jewish bakery. My favorite was their chocolate buttercream layer cake. I have tried over the years to duplicate this frosting but I can never quite get it right. It's a pale brown color, like light chocolate milk. Not too sweet but sweet enough to be simply perfect!

Over the years I've tried every chocolate buttercream recipe I could find but they're often too chocolately or fudge-y for my taste. I've doctored them by reducing the amount of chocolate which got it closer but not quite the creamy, light chocolate flavor I'm shooting for. There was an Italian bakery in NY that had a seven layer cake with the same type of icing and I tried using that as my template. Mix a little chocolate in -- taste the icing on the 7 layer... nope too chocolately... try again, put a little instant coffee in it.. nope just not right... and so on. Does anyone out there have a recipe that for a light chocolate buttercream that fits this description: Not too chocolately, not too sweet, but also with no overwhelming coffee taste like a mocha frosting, and creamy, creamy creamy!  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks in advance! 

Are you looking for a meringue based buttercream or an ABC style? Are you using a melted chocolate or a powdered cocoa?  I find if I use real butter, heavy cream, powdered sugar and a small amount of cocoa powder with a little vanilla, it makes a very light chocolate buttercream.  The cocoa powder to me isn't as strong as  a rich dark melted chocolate in flavor.  Welcome to Cake Central.

I grew up on Long Island and have been searching for the same thing...recipe for chocolate buttercream, a good yellow sponge cake, and hard chocolate icing.  The Jewish bakeries always had the most wonderful cakes that we had for special occasions.  I don't think the icing was a ganache exactly..and can never find anything that duplicates that or the buttercream filling.  Can you provide a recipe for any of the three components?  thanks in advance!  

btw  there is a cookbook out now called Inside the Jewish Bakery...recipes from a NY Jewish bakery.  I have not seen the book to review, but it definitely sounded interesting with hopefully recipes that include the choc buttercream too!

ATry Swiss meringue buttercream and add melted (not hot!!! but pourable) dark (60% or more) chocolate. I use a bar of chocolate (100g) per 4 egg whites. It tastes as you describe it, light, creamy, chocolaty but not sweet. I love it

thanks very much!  I am just getting into baking...is the 100g of chocolate per 4 egg whites the entire recipe?    any specifics on the recipe would be greatly appreciated!!  Have you ever done a hard (actually sort of semi-hard not brittle) chocolate icing?  if so would you mind sharing the recipe?

AOkay, take 100g egg whites (about 4) and 200g caster sugar. Place in double boiler and bring to 160'F (to kill salmonella...just in case...). Cool down. Whist to meringue (doesn't need to be very stiff though) and add 200-300g of soft butter (I use 200g).Add the melted but NOT hot anymore chocolate. Done. The smbc mix can be doubled, halfed, trippled.... Just stick to 1:2:2 (eggs:sugar:butter) or (1:2:3) if you want it less sweet and more creamy. Guess you could even add more chocolate, still trying out the right amount as I don't like it too sweet. The "hard" icing you are talking about is ganache I guess?

thanks so much!  I really am not sure it is a ganache...but some kind of variation.  There is also an icing called wikabee (sp?) but I have had it recently and it was not chocolate enough tasting...have you ever made it?

AI would have a look in the recipe section here on cc on elsewhere online for all sorts of chocolate icings and have a feast trying one a day, lol?! No, but seriously, don't know exactly what you are looking for, so probably you can tackle the problem by simply trying to make them at home. You might not find the exact same one, but guess there's nothing wrong with trying different chocolate icing and maybe you'll find a new favorite?

Thank you all so much for the great ideas!!  I never thought of a SMBC!  I've made IMBC and ABC but I could not duplicate the flavor. I will try your suggestions of adding pourable chocolate to the SMBC - actually very brilliant! And I will investigate the recipe book from the NY Jewish bakery. Sounds like I might find a few of my favorites in there! Thank you again and I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season! :)

Something like this?

http://www.leahcookskosher.com/show_recipe.php?id_recipe=112

thanks once again!  One of these days I will find someone who worked at one of the bakeries and can tell me how to do this!  (I hope!)

ASounds like a chocolate whipped cream or whipped ganache would work. Add a little corn syrup and a little extra cream to the ganache before chilling and whipping.