I was just about to make a BC recipe (decorator) for my roses. But I read in the fine print underneath that it is only good left out for 3 days??

I planned on air drying the roses and keeping them covered to avoid dust, but figured I could make these one week in advance of when I need them. Now I'm questioning same?????



the recipe calls for shortening/butter/powd sug/van/meringue powd/ - Am I missing something???

They should be fine. I've had my buttercream covered cakes out for up to a week. I use straight butter. I've never heard of only keeping it out for only three days.

I agree with Calhouns, but if you're that concerened use all Crisco in your buttercream for the roses and you should be fine. If your recipe uses milk instead of water, that could be the reason there is the warning. You could just substitute water for the milk and it would be fine also.

~Chelle

I'd use all shortening, but if you do decide to use butterit lasts a lot longer than 3 days out of the refrigerator.

American buttercreams are shelf stable because they use very large amounts of powdered sugar and fat with small amounts of liquid. The powdered sugar, which is hygroscopic, controls the water activity in the small amount of liquid (be it water, milk, cream or 1/2 & 1/2).

Water activity & microbial growth:
(Prolonging Bakery Product Life.)

http://tinyurl.com/ya8po4z

WJ Scott in 1953 first established that it was water activity, not water content that correlated with bacterial growth:

http://tinyurl.com/bmsato

Formulating for increased shelf life:
(Decreasing water activity results in hostile environment for bacteria.)

http://tinyurl.com/csu2b9

HTH

Again, thank you and my apologies for repeating my forum post, but my email was not bringing in notices due to virus; therefore, when I RE-posted, I hadn't checked my first thread.....

All of this information was very helpful and I am truly grateful for this site and its members!