Hi Everyone,

It seems that my buttercream always has a wierd taste to it.  I usually use shortning and PS, so the last time I switched it around and used butter.  That was awful tasting.  Can you suggest what I might be doing wrong.  I use Almond flavor, butter flavor and vanilla, all Wilton products.  How long does PS last?  Do you think this is the reason.  

i would recommend that you get some non-wilton real brown vanilla and make your icing see how you like that -- then add the non-wilton butter flavor and see how that does then add the non-wilton almond and see if it will still fly -- 

and i'm wondering how much of those flavors are you currently adding -- 

I stopped using shortening and use 2 sticks of butter. I have used too much almond flavor before and it turned out nasty tasting and I don't use butter flavor. I mainly use vanilla. I would try using 2 sticks of butter ( I even use cheap sticks), some water, and flavoring and cream that then add my bag of powdered sugar along w/ more water or milk. It usually always tastes good in my opinion.

This is the crusting buttercream I use about 90% of the time.  Try this and see if it tastes "weird" to you, then ask others what they think of the taste.  You may find that your taste buds are more sensitive than the tastebuds of other people.  It is truly amazing how each person can LOVE one buttercream and HATE another. 

I did a taste test with 7 different recipes of buttercream to about 40 different people.  They were to rate the taste from one star (poor) to five stars (best ever!).  The recipe below was a clear winner, but..., some people chose the 1 star as the best ever.   Another example is cream cheese buttercream.  Chocolate cream cheese buttercream is my favorite, but it makes my adult family members gag.  To quote the "King and I", "...is a puzzlement..."

MOCK SHACK CRUSTING BUTTERCREAM

2 cups hi ratio shortening
2 cups unsalted butter....softened to room temp!
1 TBSP vanilla flavoring
1 TBSP almond flavoring
1 TBSP butter flavoring
1/3 cup extra rich dry coffee creamer
1/3 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon popcorn salt
4 pounds pure cane powdered sugar

Place softened butter and shortening into your mixing bowl and beat with the paddle attachment for about 7-8 minutes until it has lightened in color and is nice and creamy in texture. (I use Kitchen-Aid mixer, speed 6.) This recipe nicely fits in 6 quart bowl lift KA.

While that is mixing, measure out 1/3 cup of water. Place this into the microwave and heat till boiling. Combine the boiling water and the 1/3 cup of dry coffee creamer. Stir until it has dissolved completely. Add in the popcorn salt to this hot liquid and stir to dissolve.

Then add liquid flavorings to the shortening/butter mixture, blend well.

Using the lowest setting on your mixer, alternate the powdered sugar and coffee creamer liquid until all is incorporated nicely. Turn the mixer up to speed 6 and beat for 8-9 minutes. The frosting will get nice and fluffy and a wonderful creamy texture.

Yield: 4 quarts (16 cups)
This crusting buttercream is not heat stable due to the butter in it.

You can mix and match up any flavorings that you like. For 4 pounds of icing, add in 4-6 drops Lorann oil flavoring and blend very well.

I'd do everything real if you can or replace a good bit of the shortening with butter.  I absolutely hate the Wilton flavorings and I'd be willing to bet that's the weird taste in your icing.  I can smell and taste the Wilton butter flavoring a mile away.  The local bakery uses the butter flavoring and artificial vanilla flavoring with all shortening and although it's whipped light and fluffy, it still tastes heinous.  I use three tablespoons of vanilla in my buttercream and all butter and I'm still able to get nice deep colors.

I hate the butter flavoring.  I used it in buttercream recently and, yuck, 1/2 tsp ruined the whole batch for me. I ended up making another whole batch w/o it.  Probably just me but I think it's a weird, gross taste.

I stay away from anything that says "artificial flavoring" I prefer recipes with the fewest ingredients as well  I keep my recipes simple. The more it calls for artificial or unnatural products the faster I move on. I also have a very sensitive sense of smell and taste so I can't handle artificial flavors.

I always use half butter and half shortening, and real vanilla extract.  It makes the icing slightly off white, but it tastes so much better.  I only do wedding cakes for friends (though I've done about 14 of them over the years) and always explain that I can make pure white icing, or slightly off white icing that tastes much better.  They've all gone for the latter.

I use all butter (1.5 lb) and with the 20 minutes of creaming I do it gets very white.  Remember you can always add in a bit of violet to counteract the yellow or use the whitening color.  I never do either of those and mine still gets very white.

Same thing happened to me about five years ago...after a day or so my icing would end up tasting soapy- it was awful- or if it was kept in a container it would just smell not good. I stopped using Wilton anything because I just felt it was too artificial. I love using McCormick's real vanilla (Sam's Club) and Watley's Butter Extract (Wal-Mart). I use one tbsp. vanilla and 1 tsp. butter extract, then 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening. I love my icing now. I won't ever go back to Wilton. :-)