Everyone in my family hates buttercream. I've tried lots of different recipes and they say no matter what, it's still too sweet. I'm making my first tiered and fondant cake in a couple of weeks for my sons first b-day party and I was wondering if I can use pastry pride under the fondant. Ok, now here are some questions for you.

1) Can you place it under fondant?

2) How do you whip it without getting bubbles?

3) How do you get it to stay stabilized?

PLEASE HELP!!!

forget pastry pride...try smbc, its delicous : )

dailey... I just looked at your pics and they are awesome! The doll witch and the pumpkin with the spider are fantastic!!
(sorry to hi-jack the thread! )

yep, smbc. just be sure to add a couple of Tablespoons of flavoring.

Or you can make Whimsical Bakehouse Buttercream.Is almost like SMBC and IMBC but I find a bit easier to make and less sweet!!

EASY fix : in the water you will be adding to the butter or crisco - disolve 1 -2 teaspoons of salt. Make sure it is totally dissolved (use warm water) and then make your buttercream as normal. Takes the too sweet flavor out and you do NOT taste the salt at all.

What is smbc or imbc? Hurry Hurry! I want to try it if it is better than bc.

I agree. I used to use the Italian Meringue (IMBC) but I find the Swiss Meringue to be smoother. I love them both (tastewise) and everyone raves about them. Not too sweet at all. On another note, I am very surprised your family is so open about what they hate that you make I suppose that is what family is for, huh?

I've never made the SMBC but I have done the IMBC and it is fabulous! It is far less sweet than your typical powdered sugar frosting. It is more work but it is worth it. It is very buttery though. My dh thinks it's a bit rich for him so once I mixed my regular PS recipe together with my IMBC recipe and THAT was amazing! It's not too sweet or too rich. You get a lot though with two recipes mixed together like that.

I hate icing too....I would much rather eat a plain cake right out of the oven!!! I used to use the buttercream dream recipe and it was way too sweet for me and my family so I added popcorn salt. not the butter flavored stuff this is just regular salt that is really fine. That worked great so if you prefer to use a crusting buttercream try that.

The last cake I made was for my son's first b-day.I decided to try SMBC OMG it is so good....very light in flavor and not so sweet...it has a flavor and sweetness comparable to homemade whipped cream. I could eat it by the spoonfull straight from the bowl! however it is not a crusting buttercream. it is a little harder to smooth. I wasn't really concerned with making it perfect b/c it was just the four of us. but it does handle well

I am so glad you posted this thread! I posted one similar to it a week or so ago. My son's b-day is at the end of the month and I made a cake with BC a week or so ago and everyone hated mine too. I've tried several different buttercreams but they all said it was way too sweet and they would scrape off the BC and just eat the cake. It's so frustrating! So I am definitely going to try the SMBC or IMBC.

Do they both crust?

So do the IMBC and the SMBC not crust? Is it okay to use for a wedding cake. I've only ever used the shortening and PS recipe. IT's gettinga little old. You can really taste the greasiness of the shortening.

aswartzw said

[quote]Amazing how different we are! I find I get much better looking cakes with SMBC than regular. I get perfect edges with SMBC and always get rounded with regular BC. I just use a hot-knife method with varying trips from the refrigerator. Sometimes I'll even just scrape it off hard with the spatula. [quote]


It wasn't the icings fault I didn't get it smooth it was mine. I was in such a hurry b/c I procrastinated I didn't even get to put a border on it. I felt so bad. I have always went all out for my kids birthday....We didn't even get to have a party for him! we had just moved to another state and didn't know anyone so it was just the four of us. I could tell it was easy to work with and with a little more effort I could have gotten it perfect but it was my first time ever using it and I was in a time crunch!

You can definitely use it for a wedding cake but keep it at RT. It's basically a stick of butter and will soften like a stick of butter too.

Cassi, I completely understand! When I try and do somethign in a hurry, the icing always looks awful!

Also, it pipes beautifully. People also make roses with it but I haven't tried that yet.

Ladies Ladies Ladies I just made this, and I can't get over the taste! WOW! Thank you so much. Now let me try and frost my cake. It sounds too good to be true. I wonder how well it will hold up borders and decorations. It seems very soft. I wonder if I can use crisco instead of butter to keep the icing whiter and firmer?

I do the same thing Minorfan suggested. I dissolve 1/4 tsp of salt into my water before adding it to my crisco/butter. I have always received compliments that my buttercream is not too sweet. When someone requests for the buttercream to be less sweet, I just add more salt. I have never attempted making SMBC or IMBC; I will have to try them out soon!

For some GREAT tips on decorating with IMBC, and also a huge section on smoothing the stuff, please go see this thread!! http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-404613.html

I can't get enough of the stuff. No matter how many crisco, part crisco, all-butter PS buttercream recipes I test out, I always end up making IMBC or SMBC in the end. Or ganache, or a cooked fudge...ANYTHING but a PS icing...I think for my part I just don't like the powdered sugar. I don't like the "artificial" taste of Pastry Pride either, so thank goodness for IMBC!

what recipe(s) did you make that they didnt' like?

These are the recipes I was usinghttp://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2075-Crusting-Buttercream-Icing-VIVA-Method.html
Crusting Buttercream Icing (VIVA Method)

CakeCentral.com http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2047-Crusting-Cream-Cheese-Icing.html
Crusting Cream Cheese Icing

CakeCentral.com http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2123-13-Buttercream-Dream.html
Buttercream Dream CakeCentral.com

you need to edit your post and put spaces in before and after the links so we can click on them.

Oh yes, Buttercream Dream is really sweet. I started using the Whimsical Bake House BC and it's just right. It's soft and whippy, but not very sweet.

What is the Whimsical Bakehouse BC recipe?
Also, if you will take a couple of TBS. of salt and put in in your mini chopper or food processer and pulse for 30 secs to a minute, you will have powdered salt. Store it in an airtight container and take out a little as you need it. Your salt will disolve in your icing immediately. I saw this on the the YA site and it really works!

For the IMBC... I read somewhere that if you have very hot hands, that it would be hard to work with this icing. True? For some reason, my skin is/has always been hot to the touch. Hubby sometimes has to move away from me at night or put a sheet between us because he says it burns him Am I a hot woman or WHAT?! So, would it not work well for me? Any other "hot-blooded" bakers have luck with it?

Try adding strawberry jam (I think you guys call it jelly) to SMBC. It tastes like good quality strawberry ice cream. It's unbelievable. I used it on a plain pound cake and it was undescribably delicious!!! Mmmm, I still can't stop thinking about it, I think that's what I'm gonna frost my daughter's birthday cake with on Wednesday!!!