I made my daughter's 4th birthday party cake Friday. The grass decorations were smooth and creamy going on. I served the cake on Saturday and the grass decorations changed. They were crunchy. You could see pieces break off and fall as the cake was cut.
I used 2 boxes of sifted powdered sugar, 1 cup of real butter, 1 cup of Crisco shortening, 2 teaspoons of flavoring, and 4 tablespoons of milk for the icing.
That's normal with crusted buttercream. Remember, crusting buttercream will dry and become somewhat firm on the surface. Since the grass is made of very thin strands of crusting buttercream, they are nothing but surface, so they will firm up and become brittle when cut. That said, it should not be as crunchy as royal icing.
Using a non-crusting buttercream, or making it smoother by adding corn syrup or piping gel should keep the icing soft.
What makes b'cream dry and crunchy is how much fat vs sugar there is. You reicpe needed some more fat (butter &/or shortening) so it would be creamier. No need to add corn syrup or piping gel just use more 'fat'. Here is a great recipe for icing that you have the optition of changing the fat vs sugar amounts for different results: https://www.cakecentral.com/recipe/22469/2-icing
I made a buttercream icing batch using half butter and a buttercream batch using all shortening. I decorated 1 cupcake with the half butter and decorated 1 cupcake with the all shortening recipe. I used the grass tip to perform the decorations. I left the cupcakes out exposed to air and both became crunchy. I think it was due to the crusting of the buttercream. I decorated a 3rd and 4th cupcake and placed them in airtight containers. The icing remained smooth on both cupcakes after 2 days.
I don't think my issue is with my icing. I think it is due to the fact I placed my cake in a cardboard box the night before the birthday party and transported it the next day. I think the exposure to air caused the icing to crust over and make the grass decorations crunchy.
Do you using the piping gel only on grass decorations to prevent the crusting or do you store your cakes differently to keep grass decorations smooth and moist. I am very slow decorator so I always decorate my cakes the night before. I would be way to stressed out if I tried to decorate everything the day of a party. Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated. One more question, how much piping gel would you use?
Use non-crusting buttercream for everything you want to stay creamy. It is really up to you. As for how much? I never really thought about how much. I add just a little and go from there, and go by looking at it. You don't want it so creamy it is like store bought icing, that is slimy and holds no shape at all.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%