Has anyone ever used this? I found some at the health food store in the baking section and I was curious about it. It said it did not use hydrogenated oils - which I think would be awesome b/c that is the ONE thing I hate about icing.... and I loooooovvve icing. If I could make it a little healthier though, I'd love to do that. the only other problem was it's in a tub and not in little sticks, so it may be harder for me to measure - but I just wondered if it worked as well as Crisco. I was also wondering if this was another name for high-ratio shortening. What does high-ratio mean anyway?

I am also wondering if the "no trans-fat" shortening works ok. It is not hi-ratio shortening though. Hi-ratio shortening has emulsifiers that allow it to be more stable at high temperatures and also allow it to be used in recipes that have more sugar, in turn making the end product more moist.

Amber

anyone else ever heard of this?

i used the trans-fat free stuff all the time for my families cakes/icing, etc, works fine. however, for customers, i used hi-ratio which makes the icing ( i used smbc) more stable.

also, i weigh my shortening so its a breeze to measure. 1 cup is 190 grams.

daily, is that swiss meringue buttercream? It calls for shortening??? I made the Italian meringue and didn't really like it - is it similar to that or different? How? I'm not sure which icing to use on the wedding cake I have coming up - I prefer the half butter half crisco recipe....... but I may use the faux fondant recipe......... I'd love ideas!

lol - no matter what you icing is never going to be "healthy."

well it certainly won't be considered "health food" - but it COULD be a little healthier - I just don't really love hydrogenated oil/fats and I'd like to avoid them if possible!

Has the bride requested a certain type of frosting?

I like the look of fondant but the ease and lightness of Pastry Pride....both easy!

dailey, do you use the swiss meringue recipe from here? And it calls for egg whites? Do you ever worry about that? I don't have a problem w/ meringue powder but I do somewhat worry about egg whites.......

IMARTSY......bless you! You are totally on the right path, but from what I have researched there is NO healthy substitute for Crisco or Hi-Ratio type products. I've heard some say they use Coconut oil for their family stuff.....and for eating it's fine, but for stability in decorating GIVE IT UP. Maybe someday. The fact that it is stiff is good for the icing and bad for the people. Bummer.

I fix healthy for my family on a day to day basis, unhealthy on special occasions...and unhealthy for my customers, because this is what they want. LOL Bummer again! The other bad news is white flour and sugar.......................another bummer!!!!!!!!!

Best to you!

LOL Phoov - yep the customers aren't as concerned as I am! I gues that's actually good....... less work & less expense!

My husband would love your little tag line "Ann Coulter rocks" -LOL sometimes I think she's right on and sometimes I think she's crazy but he love her all the time!!!!! I call her his "other woman" (Hey honey your "other woman"/ "the other love of your life" is on TV again!)

LOL on the Ann Coulter thing! Let's just say that she takes risks.........

Ok so am I understanding this correct, I can use the Swiss Meringue recipe from here and it will be ok for decorating? I need to be able to pipe little corn kernels so it needs to be like bc.

Thanks in advance
Melanie

I've been using coconut oil (it's sold in solid form in tubs same as Crisco, only in the healthfood store and some larger grocery stores that have a good cross section of alternate oils) for all my baking for quite some time- cookies, breads, muffins, cakes. All turned out great- my next experiment shall be with a BC recipe. Shall play around with that a bit. I started out the rolled icing (RBC) recipe with coconut oil originally and found it a bit greasy but I was/am also inexperienced and I'm sure there are ways of tweaking to make it nicer (other than greasy to handle, it tasted and acted fine in the rolled department. Actually, the grand piano cake in my photos was the last cake I did that was RBC with coconut oil- and since I havent done regular RBC I dont know what the consistency/sheen is supposed to be like- but ignoring the secondrate quality of my laying rolled onto cakes lol I would say the sheen on the piano made it look like a polished wood.

Anyway I have some experimenting to do with icing- as my intention or desire I should say was racking up a few recipes that I can make for allergy susceptible individuals (or just ones like myself who try and stay away from refined sugar/flour).