Please please help if you can!

I am looking for a buttercream icing to use to make a wedding cake. I have always used the traditional all Crisco/Wilton class icing for the kids bday cakes and cakes of that nature. I am not a fan of the sweet grittiness, all the little air holes, and "lift your spatula" lines that the icing leaves, it takes too much time smoothing it out to look presentable.

Do you have a buttercream recipe that crusts well, has minimal air bubbles, and does not need to stay in the refrigerator (the wedding is outside)? I have tried an all butter recipe before, but it turned out an ivory color, not a pretty white color.

Can you help? I'd certainly appreciate it!

If you do want to use a part-butter recipe, Wilton Icing Lightener works quite well at bringing the color from ivory back to white.

I haven't yet found the perfect buttercream for me. Shortening-based recipes seem to smooth the best, but I much prefer the flavor of all-butter recipes. (Let's not start the butter vs. Crisco debate again, though! )

Italian Meringue and Swiss Meringue buttercreams are wonderful to work with and have a lighter taste than powdered sugar buttercream, but they are soft and can't be in the heat for very long.

I've seen many people mention that they love the Whimsical Bakehouse House Buttercream recipe, and that it has a less-sweet taste than standard powdered sugar buttercream, but I didn't care for it. You might take a look at the recipe, though, and see if it looks like something you'd like. I'm not sure how it smooths...

Good luck in your search!

I've just recently started using Rich's Bettercreme quite a bit--it doesn't require refrigeration. However, it doesn't crust either--still may be something you want to experiment with in the future--there's been a few discussions about it if you do a search for Bettercreme or Pastry Pride (the same thing, but I think you can only get one or the other depending on where you live).

I know this isn't answering your question, I just thought I'd throw it out there as another option.

Thank you both for your input! I guess we are all on the hunt for that perfect buttercream

I usethe basic WIlton 1/2 butter and 1/2 Crisco, but use ONLY ALMOND flavoring instead of the vanilla and fake butter tasting stuff....... I don't think it is TO "almondy", and it seems to cut the "sweet" taste a little.......

lotsoftots hun,
bettercreme is good but should be refrigerated though as it gets all crumbly and dries out and cracks if left in room temp.

I use the Wilton's without any butter. It crusts very well and is more heat tolerant than then one with butter. I have done several outdoor wedding receptions with it.

2 cups Crisco
2 tsp. butter flavoring
2 tsp. clear Mexican vanilla
4 Tblsp. milk (or substitute with water if real hot outdoors)
8 cups of powdered sugar (more or less depending on the consistency)needed)

Air bubbles are caused from mixing your icing too high/fast and too long. Mix it on the lowest speed that you have. And try to mix it just a minute or two after everything is mixed in good.

Gritty? What type of powder sugar are you using?

Have you heard of smoothing your cake with a Viva paper towel?

Here is an How to Article on how to use the Viva Paper Towels (Faux Fondant Finish). Also a few past posts about how to use the paper towels.

http://www.cakecentral.com/article10-How-To-Create-Faux-Fondant-The-Paper-Towel-Method----Viva.html

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-14577-paper.html+towel+smoothing

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-11470-paper.html+towel+smoothing

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-6824-paper.html+towel+smoothing

Thanks for all the help, guys!

Texas Sugar,

Is there more than 1 type of powdered sugar? I use Imperial 10x powdered sugar. I guess the grittiness comes from my own personal taste of loving IMBC better than Wilton, it is so much smoother to me. I will have to try mixing it for a shorter amount of time, I am just paranoid that there will be a clump of Crisco that will not get mixed in very well.

Thanks again!

I usually cream my crisco and butter till it's the consistency of whipped cream, then I add my other ingredients flavoring first and then sugar, and then the liquid intermitenly with the sugar til i get the consistency i want and I usually mix it on low when I am adding the sugar and liquid (less bubbles in frosting and less sugar on counter) LOL

When you do 1/2 butter and 1/2 crisco, how do you keep the color of the frosting nice and white? When I tried it, the frosting turned a pale yellow because of the butter.

Wilton has an icing whitener that works quite well.

Personally, I don't worry about the off-white color unless I'm making a cake that must be pure white.

I guess it also depends on your geographical area too. Some places only sell butter that has been colored with annatto (natural yellow color) and some places like here where I live the butter is very very pale and not really yellow at all. More like a very very pale ivory.

hiya june,
have you tried going to sam's club they might have it whether it's already whipped in the 5 gallon bucket or in the blue cans that you have to whip yourself. I also think that SYSCO sells it too.

I know here in Kentucky I go to Gordon Food Service{GFS} and get my Rich's bettercream.You don't have to be a member or anything to shop there.I think I pay $4 for a carton, enough to cover and decorate maybe one 8 inch cake{torted and filled with some to spare}Also I noticed that they sell it on the Sugarcraft website.

I get it at Gordon's Food Service (GFS). I have also had it sit out (NOT by my choice, my husband brings in sheet cakes to work and those guys don't know how to put things in refrigerators, apparently) for four days--no cracking or drying out. I think it depends how stiff you whip it initially. I buy it in a quart container (not a bucket of the stuff in the blue cans, this is different, it's in like a quart sized milk carton, but it's right next to those products). Good luck!

when I don't need a crusting buttercream, I use Tami's Perfect Buttercream , which I think I got off of Baking 911. For a crusting buttercream, I use Crusting Buttercream (Faux Fondant II) which is in the recipe section here. I think the addition of flour helps to cut the sweetness. Next time I make Tami's Perfect Buttercream, I'm going to add flour to that, too...just to see what happens.