Making a 3 tiered half-naked cake and am trying to figure out the best frosting to use. Will be sitting out at room temp for 5 hours.

I'm planning on doing a variation of a strawberry shortcake for 2 tiers, and a chocolate with chocolate pudding for the middle tier.

I'm looking for a lighter frosting that will complement both and can sit out. I usually do swiss meringue or flour buttercream, but feel like they are too rich for these cakes. Also looking at whipped cream buttercream, but have never tasted or worked with it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I would love to do a stabilized whipped cream, but having never worked with it, I'm hesitant because I don't know how well it would sit out.

Whipped cream should not sit out for that long. 

Thanks, that's what I figured as well. I do have the option of the kitchen fridge, but it would have to sit in there in separate boxes and put together right before serving, which I don't really want to do. 

Swiss Meringue buttercream is fine to be left at room temperature for ages.  The eggs have been pasteurised in the cooking process and butter is naturally a shelf stable product (we've only stuck in the fridge in the last 30 years or so, but kept in the pantry for the previous 4000 years)

If you think SMBC is too rich, make it with less butter - it will still hold up well.

Ganache is super rich, but can also be left out at room temp for weeks.

and chocolate pudding cannot be left out for hours -- and strawberry shortcake is made with whipped cream that likewise cannot be left out as has already been mentioned up thread --

and which parts of the cake are half naked and by that do you mean no icing?

there's rich's bettercreme which comes in a liquid that you whip up and it is shelf stable so that might be an option for you -- 

whipped cream and strawberries is/was a standard filling for me and I used swissmbc -- it's not overly rich-- but wedding cake typically is/should be a rich dessert so that the serving quiets the sugar buzz and infuses and enthuses the celebration -- shortbread cookies are not overly rich -- wedding cake usually is more flamboyant -- doncha think

I have changed the pudding to a raspberry gnache after further research.  It's not a strawberry shortcake exaclty, but a more stable verison using a vanilla cake and strawberry preserves. 

The half naked cake I'm referring to is more of a crum coated cake instead of completely naked. People throw around half dressed and semi naked as terms used for it as well.   

Also, I didn't mention it, but it is for a 75th birthday party that will feature other desserts, which is why I was hoping to make it lighter. 

gotcha gotcha gotcha -- but for me and my way of thinking I would not take my stuff down a notch to accommodate other desserts --

and if you're scraping half or more of the icing off anyway -- i mean that's your answer no?use the Swiss or white balsamic infused american buttercream made with butter and cream -- it mimics cream cheese icing but no fridge issues -- it's tangier -- sub the vinegar for some of the liquid 

I just made a seven layer almond cake and ombre smbc'd it with some fondant decorations. It's not really that warm in the UK (but really just about as hot as we get..at 24-25°) and I tried not having it in the fridge because of the fondant... Bad move. The smbc was sloppy within minutes (stabilised with shortening). So I put it in the fridge overnight and in the morning placed it in my coolest room with a fan on it (we don't generally do air conditioning here as the weather rarely warrants it). Again, it was sloppy within minutes. We don't get high temperatures often (good for bakers, bad for tourists) but it would be great if I could find something more stable than smbc or ganache. (The fondant pieces got totally wet from the fridge too-just as I anticipated). 

Luckily, I'm having a cake break this summer (working on some outdoor projects which need attention) so the weather should have cooled down by my next cake. However... a heat proof buttercream recipe might be a good thing to work on when I miss my kitchen....

@gfbaby - check your SMBC recipe.... I live in Australia with 30C (100F) plus days as a regular and never ever had a sloppy SMBC.  I use Sweetapolita's recipe and use fridge temperature chilled butter and have never experienced sloppy icing.  I even put it under fondant in the heat & humidity of summer on the coast!  Ensure your bowl is wiped with vinegar too before whipping the egg whites/sugar mixture, as this may be your downfall.

@k8memphis - yummmm I had never thought of white balsamic for the faux cream cheese.  I've been adding salt (for the tang) + LorAnn Cheesecake oil.  I think the white balsamic will do a much better job than the salt, and it wont require pre-dissolving.  Yay!  Thanks for the tip !!!!!!

@Kaite09 - sounds delicious!!!

I am surprised that you think neither Ganache or SMBC is stable at 25 degrees celcius.

I use both, and Ganache in particular is as stable as you can get. Perhaps your recipes aren't right?

My ganche is usually white chocolate at a 3.5 : 1 or 3 : 1 ratio of white chocolate to sour cream by weight and my SMBC is 1 metric cup caster sugar, 4 large egg white, 360gm butter, soft, at room temperature.

I second always cleaning all your pots/ bowls and utensils with vinegar before heating and whipping the whites. Also you need need need to make sure you whip your whites stiff as can be before adding the butter or you do end up with a really soft SMBC.

thank you, magic mouthfuls, I was trying to think of something tangier than buttermilk to tone down american buttercream when I thought of that -- hope you like it as much as I do -

fwiw a lot of people pooh pooh american buttercream but made wth butter, buttermilk and cream it is irresistible especially with a dark choco cake -- made with cream, butter and white balsamic it is phenomenal with any flavor cake 

Thanks guys! I know this sounds mega smug...but I always do the vinegar wipe; I use 3:1 for white ganache and my smbc recipe is 6 lge whites (whipped to turning the bowl upside down stage) 300g gran sugar (+240g icing sugar which is supposed to stabilise it) 450g butter and 170g shortening. I added a slug of alcohol (Disaronno) in the one what went sloppy but I doubt that was it... I have to admit- slight miscalculation on the temperature front; apparently we are having a heatwave. I've no idea what the actual temperature was! 

I shall have a look at some different smbc recipes- this one tastes good and I just stuck with it for quite a while now but I'm always game to try something new! I'll look up sweetapolittas recipe- thanks. I LOVE cream cheese icing...but never get asked for it-it doesn't seem very popular here. Reckon I should just be more adventurous and take the risk...

Why do I only ever get asked for boring flavours... chocolate lemon vanilla almond....Oh yeah. That'd be cos I live in boring old ENGLAND (worse still in backward Devon) where culinary imagination never got past Brussels sprouts. I'm gonna knock up some cake tasters and see if I can start a gf trend here... 

White Balsamic Vinegar American Buttercream --

a fellow baker on the journey of cake asked me for my recipe so here 'tis

hey and check out all those capital letters -- hahahahaha

I'm going to try this tomorrow K8, what kind of cream are you talking about though?

I use (liquid) whipping cream -- just regular old moo cow cream -

half and half would work -- regular milk would work but use maybe a third of a cup -- evaporated milk would work --

I hope you like it

Great, thanks.

I've been doing some more research... might try changing my brand of unsalted butter? Tho it has the usual 80% butterfat content... Also, I use Trex as my shortening (will try leaving this out too..) which is supposed to stabilise the smbc but seems to be very slack at room temperature. Wish I could get hold of some Crisco so I could compare.. I'm beginning to appreciate why big bakeries often use pre made bc... Might feel like cheating but cuts out all the space for error. 

Hey K8, does your vinegar BC crust?

yes -- wait now I'm thinking -- I've actually eaten it too quick to tell but that's my go to recipe w/o the vinegar so it should -- then one time I put lace on top --

yeah I'm sure it will crust but it never lasted long enough or got used as filling  --

reminded me of cream cheese mints from long ago and far away -- 

yes it crusts 

I agree! the cake is the star!