I have my first batch of IMBC (CC recipe) in the mixer as we speak. The mixture looks slightly curdled and the directions say to keep mixing and it will come together. It's been mixing now for about 10 minutes and it's not coming together...it looks gritty. What can I do?????
It finally came together and it is beautiful!!! PROBLEM-I started icing my cake and the IMBC is not "sticking" to the cake. The cake is defintely cooled (baked yesterday) but the icing is kind of sliding around on the cake. Any ideas????
Nevermind...the IMBC was nasty!!! Great consistency but couldn't get it to "stick" to the cake. Tasted too much like butter!!! I scraped it off and threw it in the trash.
Oh man, I wish you had not thrown it away!
The key to IMBC is the mixing..... you have to mix it for about 45-50 minutes or longer to get a nice, soft, fluffy, sweet but not so sweet icing. I only use it now, and if I get antsy or am in a hurry, I stop it and start icing- it looks and tastes like butter... but if i let it mix longer, something almost magical happens!
The other problem could have been the sugar syrup being flung around the sides of your bowl and not incorperated in correctly?
i use Sylvia Wienstocks recipe off of here... cut it in half if you try it, it makes a huge amount!
I know you already threw it away so further discussion is somewhat silly, but I'm curious, did you use vanilla? I have the recipe where you use 1-3 tsp (or is it tbsp) and I always use two (of whichever the amount is, sorry I am too lazy to look it up LOL). I have tasted the IMBC before the vanilla is added and it indeed tastes like sugary butter - I thought it was awful. Once the vanilla is in, oh my goodness it was like magic, the frosting was dreamy. I'm a chocoholic and usually won't eat vanilla ANYTHING because I consider it a waste of calories (haha!), yet I LOVE this frosting on anything, and have been known to wolf down numerous vanilla cupcakes w/vanilla IMBC in a row. Meanwhile if I'm served cake w/p. sugar vanilla bc frosting, I usually take a polite bite and throw the rest away.
As for sweetness, I must add that I DO shortchange the sugar syrup just a bit. I make the amt. called for but then after I dump it into the egg whites I usually DON'T scrape it out of the measuring cup - so I let just a little of the sugar syrup go to waste, just to keep it from being too sweet. I too have discovered that the longer you mix it the better the consistency. I've never gone 45 min but the first few times I made it I went just a few minutes (until it looked silky) but the last time I did it I just let it keep going and wow, I couldn't believe it worked out so much better.
As for sticking to the cake, I'd love to hear more people post on that. I have had a nasty problem with that, not just with IMBC but with all of the frostings I've made. Is that what happens when the cake is too cold before frosting?? The last cake I made I had to frost with my HANDS (gloved, in case that makes you cringe), applying it in clumps like clay, because I couldn't get the freakin' ganache to stick to the cake the normal way!
IMBC is Italian Meringue Buttercream. It's very delicious! I have made this for some customers and I have clients now calling me and wanting my cakes because they taste good, they don't care what it looks like, they just love the taste! I personally love IMBC myself.
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