Does Everyone Use Butter In Their Buttercream?
Decorating By The_Sugar_Fairy Updated 31 Mar 2017 , 11:43pm by jchuck
Cheers to all the BUTTER in Buttercream peeps!
I can't stand the flavor (however faint - I am very sensitive about flavor profiles - I can't stand artificial sweeteners, either - no matter how 'sugar-like' they are - I can tell, and I practically get ill) of shortening in *cough* 'butter'-cream... Bleaaachh!I get my unsalted butter and soften it and make the magic happen...which reminds me...let me pull my Dk Choc BC recipe to post - was real busy w/cakes, friends, work and forgot.
Wendl
Post away Wendl, I need a good Dark Choc BC recipe.....
I use nonpasteurized, nonhomogenized heavy cream straight from the farm from a cow that was milked just a few hours earlier. Yeah, I can hear the sighs and moans now. Nonpasteurized! Good heavens! Been drinking it for eons and somehow never died.
Anyhow, the heavy cream straight from the farm is soooooooooo much thicker and richer than anything I have seen in a store. It whips into heavenly cream very fast and into butter almost as quickly. Nothing in the world tastes as wonderful!
mellee this made me think of my family. My first 5 siblings were raised on my Uncle's dairy farm. My dad had just returned from WW2 and there were no jobs so my Uncle offered them housing in return for my dad's labor.
The stories I've heard have made me very jealous that I was not born yet and never had a chance to live there. They always drank the milk straight from the cow and the cream was churned for butter. My dad used to say when they slaughtered a pig in the fall there wasn't one part of that pig they didn't use. The eggs were gathered daily and were NOT refrigerated ever.
I was never raised with margarine in the house, I remember my Mom brought it home once and my dad said "what kind of cow does that stuff come from?" That was the last time she bought it. 
I'm a "butter only" girl for everything. Hey, I also leave a stick of butter out on my counter in my Pampered Chef butter holder all the time so it's easy to spread on our bread. Been doing this for years and years with no ill side effects.
Butter rules 
Ever since taking our first Wilton classes (thanks, tonedna!!!), we experimented with butter & crisco combinations...Peter took samplings to his office at the Mouse and I took samplings to my school...Both groups chose the same: 100% made of three types of butter (one America, 2 international)...
Now I know there's the whole cost containment issue; however, our customers LOVE our product and know that they're getting 100% butter buttercream...
When made, our buttercream has a pale yellow-ish tint to it...We simply added some white colorant and got pure white...
For the person asking about dark chocolate buttercream, we make our buttercream recipe and pour in cooled down melted dark chocolate...YUM!!!! Our chocolate buttercreams (dark, milk, or white) taste like chocolate malts!!!
Oh, the thoughts, the pounds, the pure joy!!! I think I might go make some buttercream!!!
Paul (& Peter)
I use half butter / half high-ratio shortening. However, if someone wants a cake that will be outside in the summertime then I go 100% high ratio shortening so the icing holds up. I really don't like the imitation butter flavor so I don't normally use it. I prefer to use either a Princess Emulsion or Creme Bouquet with a little vanilla.
Me too! can't stand the taste of lard or margarine on my cake. I could definitely taste the difference of real buttercream. One wedding I attended had lard on their icing for the wedding cake. Yeah, the cake looked good, but I couldn't even eat it! YUUUCKKK!
Butter rules!
Anybody ever....make their own butter??
I have by accident...it was great!!!...Just forget that whipping cream a little to long and that is what you end up with!!
This is a great thread..I just used up a batch of all butter BC and it is wonderful. It really is so much better. I needed it to be ivory anyways so the slight color difference was perfectly fine. I have to say...now I am thinking of contacting my neighbor to see if he has cream on the farm...his milk tankers are there daily...I will have to let you all know how it goes if I make it all right from scratch...!
mellee this made me think of my family. My first 5 siblings were raised on my Uncle's dairy farm. My dad had just returned from WW2 and there were no jobs so my Uncle offered them housing in return for my dad's labor.
The stories I've heard have made me very jealous that I was not born yet and never had a chance to live there. They always drank the milk straight from the cow and the cream was churned for butter. My dad used to say when they slaughtered a pig in the fall there wasn't one part of that pig they didn't use. The eggs were gathered daily and were NOT refrigerated ever.
I was never raised with margarine in the house, I remember my Mom brought it home once and my dad said "what kind of cow does that stuff come from?" That was the last time she bought it.
I'm a "butter only" girl for everything. Hey, I also leave a stick of butter out on my counter in my Pampered Chef butter holder all the time so it's easy to spread on our bread. Been doing this for years and years with no ill side effects.
Butter rules
That's where I came from. I used to work in dairy farm and had fresh milk and cream every day, it's soo delicious. When I came to US, I never got used to "milk" in stores so I just don't drink milk anymore. For centuries, people didn't have fridge and chemicals to make milk last and yet, they survived. I make buttercream using butter, SMBC is my favorite.
YoooWooo Wendy....
I'm waiting ever so patiently for that wonderful sounding recipe... Please
I add americolor white to my icing and never have a problem getting pure white... I use 2/3 butter and 1/3 hi ratio...
All butter here for everything except for decorating cake boards.
I grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and also drank unpasteurized milk for years and I'm still kicking.
When I bake for family, it's a challenge. I'm deathly allergic to legumes and all soy additives, my daughter can't have wheat, and my one granddaughter's system goes nuts with shortening based icings. Unless I make our cakes from scratch, I don't eat them. Luckily my daughter isn't a big sweet eater, but once in a while I'll bake one for her with rice flour.
I remember when I was a kid, my grandmother had a bad heart attack and the doctor told her no more butter for her; she had to have "oleo". You couldn't buy it in Wisconsin at that time, so once a month, we'd load up the coolers and drive to Michigan.
It was sold in these big tubs complete with a packet of yellow coloring to stir in so it looked like butter. NASTY!! To this day I can't stand the stuff. Luckily most of it is soy based so I have a good excuse not to eat it.
Dkelly, thanks for that great story! I still do make my own butter from time to time. It's really not that much work. When I do, I make a big batch and freeze a bunch in little wax papers "tubes" I squeeze up. It's so good! Every time I switch back to store butter, I say "ewwwww"!
However, I still do render my own lard. So different from that godawful stuff in the stores! Most people don't know I use it constantly when I cook. They just always say, "How come your food tastes so good, and when I make the same thing at home it doesn't taste like this?" Hehehehe.
Sorry to hijack the thread, gals!
I came from a country where the only milk available was fresh from the cows. I remember going to the farm and waiting while the farmer milked his cows to get the milk.
The part I hated most was probably the smell of fresh milk and to this day, I will never drink a glass of milk (all psychological). We even made our own butter - but it tasted nothing like butter. We actually added scallions to it and it tasted better.
As to buttercream frosting, most times I will use 1/2 crisco, 1/2 butter and it does not change the color much if you really beat the butter first.
i live in miami. mostly 80 degrees. would love to use butter. any ideas which recipes on this site i could use? i use all crisco now, with a mix of flavors to make it nice, but it still coats the mouth
I think my tag line says it all really. I only want to add that I think Crisco is the work of the devil! It really grosses me out. In my house it is only used for fondant work.
Here is my recipe:
1 cup crisco
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1 teaspoon clear vanilla flavoring
1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring
1 tablespoon meringue powder
4 cups powder sugar
2 tablespoons water
In large bowl, cream shortening with flavors. Add meringue powder, add sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom often. Add water and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
Makes about 3 cups hope this helps you out.
sweettoothmom1-my recipe holds up well for me in the summer heat and humidity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLcCbN2I4xI&feature=channel_page
Check your consistency once the sugar is all in, you might not need to add any more liquid
I found this recipe after getting sick of the yucky butter tasting recipes I've tried. I know it calls for some crisco but I just use land o lakes butter. It has a very delicious and light flavor. I use less milk when I need stiff icing. I also like to add a tablespoon or two of lemon juice to cut out some of the sweetness. It also holds up well for decorating.
http://therepressedpastrychef.blogspot.com/2008/05/buttercream-icing.html
or just type: the repressed pastry chef buttercream icing
Sweettoothmom1---
Orlando area here! We use 100% butter in our buttercream...It's okay to have out in room that's around 75 degrees or cooler...We haven't had the opportunity to do an outdoor wedding or party so we're not really sure what we would do....yet!
Paul (& Peter)
I use 2 parts butter 1 part high ratio with real vanilla.
I prefer IMBC myself though, as well as my DH (but he's a first generation American and was raised on European food and pastries).
I don't have margarine in my house, nor will I allow it. What other people have in their houses is fine. I just prefer butter.
I use half butter half shortening and then after it is mixed together i then take violet colouring and put in a teeeny tiny bit (just a little tip of a toothpick) in and it whitens the icing to a much whiter looking icing.
This reminded me.....my dad used to paint houses, and they would add just a dab of indigo blue to the white paint and presto....bright white. 
I still haven't found a recipe that is good that is made out of all butter - I've tried a couple and they always seem to cost more, take more time, and then taste like a stick of butter in my mouth. They also force you to have to figure out a way to warm it up to use it again (if you've put it in the fridge). I use the buttercream dream recipe from here. True, you still have to sit it out for awhile to "warm it up" - but not nearly the amount of time I've waited with an SMBC or an IMBC.
Maybe I've just got bad recipes - but it just tastes like major butter overload to me. Maybe some people are used to that - but most of my customers LOVE the buttercream dream recipe. (half butter half shortening)
I remember growing up and we spent the summers upstate, ny. We would buy milk, eggs, and butter from a local farm and I was in heaven. I couldn't wait till morning time when the cream would be on top of the bottle of milk and that would be all mine, straight from the bottle.....so I kinda pasteurized it fro everyone else. lol
I'll have to try the tiny bit of lavender color in the white icing. It makes sense to me because when I was a kid, back in the 50's my mother used to put "bluing" in the laundry to get the whites very white. ( Bluing was sold as a liquid in a bottle and intended for laundry use. )
I use half Land o Lakes butter and half Crisco in my icing recipe. The butter gives it just enough of a buttery taste but the Crisco makes it stand up well for decorating.
I'm with all of you who feel that BUTTERcream should be made with real butter. If you do not use butter, you are being less than honest with your customers by calling it buttercream.
I used to work in a hotel where we did a lot of weddings, and all of the cakes were made by another vendor, who made real buttercream. On one occasion, a bride insisted on Criscocream; I cut and plated the cake and tasted some of the scraps, and it was terrible. The residue left behind after dipping my knife in hot water told you everything you need to know about the quality, it was disturbing.
Don't even get me started on immitation butter flavoring and immitation vanilla flavoring...
Hi everyone! Thanks for all the responses! New question now: what is the difference between regular shortening and high-ratio shortening?
will someone post seriouscakes recipe? thanks!
I'm with all of you who feel that BUTTERcream should be made with real butter. If you do not use butter, you are being less than honest with your customers by calling it buttercream.
...
I am going to respectfully disagree and hope I don't start a war, but ....
my recipe... and all standard icing recipes down here in the New Orleans area where I live are called "buttercream" , and very few have butter in them, including the major bakeries.
I know the authentic "term" buttercream implies butter. But some of the nomaenclature can be cultural and local. When you say Buttercream down here where I live, everybody knows and expects that it will be a shortening based decorator icing. This is where I disagree that we are misdleading people. They know exaclty what they are getting when we use that term.
We have different dialects all over the country and use different words for the same thing: ie you may say pop, I say soda. That is not the best example but you get the idea.
Buttercream may not be "technically" and "officially" the proper name for our kind of icing all over the country, but it is the common name for what we all use, purchase, consume and expect down here in our area. There is no deception involved. And I advertise my icing as buttercream proudly, and without shame. Because where I live, it is buttercream.
Where it started and how it got its roots I have no idea. Be it our hot humid climate, or who knows what.... but this is what is reginally done and accepted down here. And to be quite honest, I am a little frustrated with the negative connotations that are often implied towards those of us that use an all shortening icing. Everyone has different tastes, and I respect that. I don't like meringue buttercreams cuz they taste like pure butter to me, but I would never ever say a bad or word about that kind of icing or those that use it. It's just personal preference.
Many of us use all shortening icing because that is what our customers love and ask for, and we are not second class decorators nor dishonest because we use that type of icing. Our cakes are just as beautiful and delicious as any other type. Just different.
When I say buttercream, and my customers get all shortening, they were in fact not mislead nor dissapointed. they got exaclty what they wanted and expected.
Anyway, I needed to get the off my chest and I hope I did not offend. But I felt the need to speak up for us shortening buttercream gals, whose icings are just as good and delicious as any other kind, just different. And also that our icing is not incorrectly named. Not where I live anyway.
Thank you.
Happy caking to all!
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