Would anyone be willing to post their cakes decorated with IMBC for inspiration? I am so frustrated with shortening bc, I'm an utter failure (maybe that new crisco is doing me in? I can't seem to make a rose that's not melting to save my life) and I don't like the taste anyway! I can pipe shells with IMBC, but hoping others have achieved more! (There was one CC star that made a mini cake beautifully decorated with IMBC roses on top... but I can't find it?) Thank you!!

I'm right there with you!!!! I want to call Crisco and beg them for the old stuff back!!

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=742323

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=771423


http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=408913

mine arent that fancy cause i just started making it, and am nervous to attempt getting it smooth. however, if you want to see some serious skill with the spatula and imbc, check out antonia74 's photo page. she's really good. (i THINK that is who i am referring to anyhow)

Here are a few of mine as well. I simply love this icing, not gritty powdered sugar, no heavy greasy Crisco, it goes on so smoothly.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=551123
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=68797
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=68796
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=780473

After my "zero trans fat Crisco" started cracking on my Wedding Cake this weekend... I am definitely going to have give the IMBC a try. Off to the recipes!

http://www.cakecentral.com/spotlight.html

this is the link to member spotlight and their photos. i'm glad shirley posted cause i know that she, helen (antonia74) and maryann (moydear77) use meringue icings. they are very talented cake artists. take a look at their photos.

Melysa, lovely! Shirley, whoa, scary good... if I knew how to make gumpaste flowers like that, I wouldn't be worried about anything. Thank you for your posts! Does anyone pipe/decorate with the IMBC itself?

wow, shirley, the second cake that you posted a link to surprised me. how did you get the contoured edges so smooth? usually when i think of smoothing imbc, i imagine smooth sides, but sharp edges. i'm eager to begin using this more often, but am a little hesitant because it seems that it would be hard to smooth without a benchscraper. do you chill it then use a hot knife?

i have always been told that it is easy to pipe with . (read it in many books as well) but havent tried it. now it does get soft at room temperature, BUT it seems to hold its shape when i pipe swirls on my cupcakes with the wilton 1M star tip.

I love the taste of it as well. I hate regular BC and try to steer clear of using it. But IMGC is awesome!!
And Shirley, you just amaze me! I hope that I get as good as you some day!!!

Here are some of mine, all IMBC-iced and piped details. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IMBC and never use any other buttercream filling/exterior for my cakes/all my cupcakes.

If you haven't tried a meringue buttercream yet......I'm begging you here, just try it once!! The taste is creamy and yummy, not super sweet or gritty/grainy, no shortening or icing sugar in it. SOOOOOO good!!

i think it may be an icing that some people have to aquire a taste for. it is nothing like the dense sweet sugary sticky bc most americans are used to eating. it is smooth and creamy, and well,if you eat it cold, can taste like a stick of butter! i recommend that you try it, at room temperature or slightly cooler (after having been chilled, but brought back down close to room temp) but not cold and hardenend. also, if you dont care for it plain (ie...just vanilla- i dont) try flavoring it. coffee, melted chocolate, liquors , fresh fruit puree. yum. to me, it made a world of difference. i dont like it plain, but boy, when it is flavored, i gobble it up!

Oh my God ShirleyW ,how did you get it so smooth?

FYI--- There's a lot of other folks singing ShirleyW's praises on another forum too. Her cakes are awesome!

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-404423.html

Sounds like IMBC is the way to go.

IM REALLY NEW AT THIS AND I WAS WANTING TO KNOW WHAT IMBC IS AND NF..... IF ANY ONE KNOWS CAN YOU HELP ME OUT.... THANKS

I am hoping that as this thread evolves I'll see some tips on smoothing colored IMBC too. I use IMBC almost exclusively (big deal, I've made like 8 cakes LOL!) and learned the hard way that you CAN'T use the hot (even warm, I tried just running it under the room-temperature tap) spatula to smooth IMBC when it's colored. I thought I was doing something wrong until I did a forum search and realized that yep, the heat causes the color to somehow separate out of the icing causing an inconsistently colored final result.

Shirley and Antonia74, I noticed your incredibly smooth and sharp IMBC cakes: oh please how do you get the colored ones so smooth?

Oh my goodness! While I was typing my other reply I guess "antonia74" was replying too.

Antonia74-- You're cakes are awesome! You're pictures are absolutely stunning! Maybe one day I too can make cakes like that!

Thanks so much!

Ceshell.....it's not that the colour "leaks" out when you try to use the old "hot spatula" technique, it's that you are actually melting the butter contained in the icing when you try to do that on meringue buttercream. It's a big no-no! Room temp tools are best for smoothing it.

You know how cold butter is pale yellow, but melted butter is bright yellow? Well, that's what's happening. It happens with natural or tinted meringue buttercreams, it's just more noticeable with the coloured/chocolate ones.

imbc is italian meringue buttercream and nf is no fail sugar cookies

i think you can smooth this by chilling and then touching up with a benchscraper or spatula right?

Melysa, as soon as you chill the icing again, you can't easily do "touch-ups" like the average icing, no. You'll notice that attempting to touching cold/hard IMBC creates condensation and it appears grainy.

IMBC is best applied in one or two coats and not played around with after it's cold. Even warm hands on the icing will cause a change in the colour that can't be removed.

Thanks Antonia74. I'm still confused as to proper technique: do you still crumbcoat and then chill the cake before applying your icing layer, and at that point do you chill it again before smoothing, or do you just smooth it immediately after icing? When I chilled it I noticed that the room-temp bench scraper just wanted to make the icing all ragged and scraggly (well, yes, because I was "scraping" butter). Then, Shirley, I think I pretty much tried what you are suggesting but it did cause the color to separate - several cakes in my gallery show this effect.

I'd take a lumpy IMBC over a shortening based frosting ANY day of the week, but I'd sure love to figure out how to get it right!

Oh thanks again you answered me while I was typing . I did learn that, my first cake I smoothed w/my hands, same thing happened although it was supposed to be the color of the ocean so I figured heck, that complemented the design. I was more frustrated on my last cake where I really wanted the color to be even.

It sounds like the answer is: MORE PRACTICE. Guess that means more cake. Drat

Edited to add: Sheesh in rereading this it seems like I kind of hijacked this thread for which I do apologize, since the original poster was looking for decorating ideas. My initial thought was: smoothing the icing IS part of the decorating process so it's important information, but I'm a little concerned that I'm diverting attention away from the OP's request for inspiration and examples of IMBC piping and decorations. Very sorry!! I hope at least my inquiry results in some help for others too.

I always use IMBC (well, I never use a shortening-based icing, but will use like a cream cheese frosting when my cakes call for it), and I love it and am getting much better at smoothing it. Here is my latest IMBC cake, and I used the upsidedown smoothing technique (you can do a search for it and there is a tutorial for using this technique). For me, it really worked well, although time consuming. But it was worth it. I also use a hot bench scraper to smooth out the sides (as it says to do in the tutorial) and I didn't get any discoloration from doing so. Once you try IMBC, you will probably never go back to regular BC--it tastes so wonderful and it is really easy to make once you get a hang of it, and it is easy to work with.

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_662493.html

Antonia74, I just spent the last 45 minutes on your website. YOU are the baker/artist I want to be like. I have always baked with IMBC but felt my designs were too simple... you have taught me otherwise. Do you make IMBC roses? Is that possible? Do you do scroll work freehand? (unrelated question, what do you use to ice your cookies?) Sorry if I'm falling all over myself... just excited to kiss my failed efforts with shortening bc goodbye. Cheryl

That makes sense Shirley, I think we're both on the same page.

When I'm picturing someone using that "hot spatula/knife" technique, I'm thinking they are meaning the old "can of hot water/wipe it off" thing...which may be way more damaging to IMBC than your slightly warmed tool technique, that's for certain!

Here's my 3 biggest tips that I use every time for getting IMBC really smooth:

1) use it when it's freshly made, that's when the consistency is perfect. After the last bit of butter & flavouring are added in the recipe, whisk it on top speed for 3 minutes then turn the mixer off and walk away for 30 minutes. Come back, switch the whisk for the paddle attachment and give it 2 more minutes on medium speed to get rid of the air bubbles and make it super smooth. It should be the consistency of soft whipped cream or soft-serve ice cream. If you have leftover cold buttercream that you want to re-use, let it come to room temperature naturally on your counter until it is soft...and whip it again to the same soft consistency. If it's a bit cold when you start to mix it again, you'll notice that it seems to split and look curdled (like cottage cheese). DON'T PANIC and don't throw it out and don't add anything like icing sugar! The butter in the icing is just too cold and it needs a good mix to return to the right temperature. Just keep the mixer running and walk away for 5 minutes. When you return, it will be smooth and uniform once again, ready to use.

2) ice really cold firm cakes, semi-frozen if need be...but not 100% frozen solid. Torte, fill & thinly crumbcoat your cake and put it in the freezer for an hour. Take it out and immediately plaster it roughly with about twice as much buttercream as you'll really need. Huge tip here....SMOOTHING CAKES IS ALL ABOUT THE REMOVAL OF EXCESS ICING AND NOT AT ALL ABOUT BUILDING IT UP AND PATCHING!! I wish someone had explained this to me when I first started in the biz. It would have saved me years of frustration at trying to get my cakes perfectly smooth. Take your plastering knife (see point #3 for this & photo attached) and run it around the cake, digging in about 1/4 inch (5 millimeters) to get off the excess icing in one or two spins of the cake turntable. Now, take your offset palette knife and draw the icing in on top of the cake from the edges, about 4-5 times all the way around. The last step is to take your straight palette knife and draw it right across the top only once or twice to remove any lines. Done! Back in the fridge.

3) Toss those cheap white pastry scrapers, they truly aren't the best. Go to the hardware store and in the plastering section you'll see cheap, stiff plastic plastering tools with handles for a buck or two (see photo attached here.) Get a few widths, like 3", 6", etc. These are awesome!! They give you super sharp sides because they don't bend at all and they are the height of your cakes, so no lines appearing as you try to ice a 5" cake with a 3" smoother by going around twice on the top or bottom. These tools do it in one stroke! Fantastic.

This is the chocolate scraper I use. But I have also used a bench scraper. On the icing spatula, when I buy one I hold the handle in one hand and flex the blade with the other hand. I like a really flexible blade, it is just easier for me to work with.

ok now i feel like an idiot (again) i did a search for imbc here and the search result came up 0. would some one be a dear and pm me the recipe?

Wow, Helen and Shirley, I can't thank you enough for replying. I have been so frustrated lately (with shortening bc) and am looking forward to returning to Italian Meringue Butter Cream. My favorite flavoring is Grand Marnier and a few drops of Loran orange oil... ooh, la la! Fresh flowers for now, and maybe I can take some gumpaste classes...