I realize that some of you may be making or buying icing in bulk. Do you make or buy your own. If you make, how much do you make at one time? If you buy, from where?
OPTION A: If I want to buy from a grocery store, the least expensive I can find around here is $1.99 a pound. If I got a 4.5 pound bucket filled ,it would be $8.95 and that's about 9 cups of icing.
OPTION B If I buy it the Wilton stuff in the 4.5 pound bucket and use the 50 percent coupon, it's $6.50.
OPTION C: If I make it myself using the Wilton standard buttercream recipe, it's slightly less expensive than option B above. However, for me this route is a pain because I'm still using a hand mixer - no big mixer in my house.
How do you guys get your buttercream?
Julie, I'm pretty new here, but I don't think you can decorate (pipe flowers and borders) with store bought icing. You could simply frost a cake wtih it, but I don't think decorating would work. Others will correct me if I'm wrong, but that is my understanding.
My first suggestion...buy a stand mixer...worth the money you will spend on it...you will get your money back...a great investment...
I make my own buttercream...I spent 2 years "tweaking" it till I got it where I want...and I am the only person that actually knows the full recipe...People LOVE my icing...
PLEASE do not use that wilton stuff...my god that is soo sweet and horrible...I think you could wallpaper with that stuff! LOL
I really feel that icing can make or break a cake, and if you don't have fondant, and filling, etc...all you have to judge the cake is the cake itself and the icing...take a bit make some different recipes on here...it may become a signature thing for you...I know mine is for me...
Julie, I'm pretty new here, but I don't think you can decorate (pipe flowers and borders) with store bought icing. You could simply frost a cake wtih it, but I don't think decorating would work. Others will correct me if I'm wrong, but that is my understanding.
I don't mean the Betty Crocker stuff in the can in the baking aisle. When I said "buying it from the grocery store" I mean buying the bakery department's icing that they use to ice their cakes. This may be icing they make from scratch or it could be a huge block that comes in (from a company like H.C. Brill) which they would mix with water in their huge Hobart type mixers.
By the way, you definitely can decorate with canned icing - make roses, pipe borders, even write with it. You just need to soften or stiffen up the icing to your liking. Not the best option but it can be done.
Oh, I didn't mean that you CAN'T decorate with it...but I just wouldn't want to....it is usually so thick and so sweet it makes your teeth hurt (sorry I am a cake and icing snob...LOL)....I never even thought about buying icing...
FYI....Wilton fondant is horrible too...tough to work with, and horrible to eat...
I get supplies from OasisSupply dot com I know they have buckets of pre-made icing...maybe you could consider buying it from someone and trying it and see if you like the taste and working with it...
i make my own. fondant as well. and i dont have a stand mixer either. i have a hand beater that was about $10! lol. it does the job for me. ( but ill still upgrade if i ever get the money for it. =))
you just gotta give the hand mixer little breaks sometimes. as mine was the cheapest i could fine, its not the best quality, so sometimes if im making something big and thick, the mixer will get really hot, like burn my hands hot, so i trun it off for a while, and use an old fashioned whisk while it cools! haha
Oh, I didn't mean that you CAN'T decorate with it...but I just wouldn't want to....it is usually so thick and so sweet it makes your teeth hurt(sorry I am a cake and icing snob...LOL)....I never even thought about buying icing...
FYI....Wilton fondant is horrible too...tough to work with, and horrible to eat...
I get supplies from OasisSupply dot com I know they have buckets of pre-made icing...maybe you could consider buying it from someone and trying it and see if you like the taste and working with it...
apetricek,
I'm confused. Are you responding to my response to KayMc? She stated that she didn't think you could decorate with the stuff bought from the grocery store (I think she was talking about the Betty Crocker stuff). I clarified to her that I when I said "grocery store" I meant the icing you can buy from the bakery department - the stuff they use to decorate their cakes. As an aside I mentioned that if you don't mind the taste you can decorate with Betty Crocker if you really want to - in response to her thinking that you cannot do this.
Julie
Some people here have bought big 5 gallon buckets of icing from the Sam's bakery dept.
I've tried it and don't care for the vanilla...too thin, so I gotta add powdered sugar to stiffen it and my own flavor blend (almond/butter/vanilla) to make it taste right. It's just too much trouble. Might as well make my own, which I do...about 10 gallons every few months or so, which I store it in the freezer in half-gallon buckets.
However, I LOVE the Sam's chocolate icing. I haven't made homemade chocolate icing in a couple of years.
ETA: great minds, all4cake 
I make my own. Couldn't do without a stand mixer.
I have a commercial KA, but I buy 30lb buckets of buttercream from my Sams. I AM NOT going to piss myself off by having to make it. 
It's like $33 for the bucket of white. They also sell colored and white BC in smaller buckets like 5lb, 8lb, 12lb, etc. My Sams sells the Bettrcream too in the bucket, but I've never purchased it. I do add flavoring to my purchased icing.
I have also purchased icing from my grocery store's bakery and it was $1.99 a lb. and they were stingy with it anyway.
HTH
They also sell colored and white BC in smaller buckets like 5lb, 8lb, 12lb, etc.
What store do you buy it from? I work at a sam's and we only carry the white and chocolate frosting in the 5 gallon buckets. It's only the colored frosting that comes in an 8# bucket. I think it's 8#. Haven't really looked at it though.
I would save up the money and buy yourself a stand mixer. Such a worthwhile investment. Once you get one of those then making frosting isn't a big deal at all. In fact it's one of those things where you can just turn it on and let it run while you go do something else. While you're at it, get a beater blade attachment to go along with it. Cuts your mixing time in half!
Even with a stand mixer though, if I did more cakes, I would consider buying a bucket of Sam's black frosting every now and then. Black is such a pain to make, I think I would rather buy it.
I get it from Sam's in SC, but the small 5lbs look "homemade" like they did that themselves as opposed to the others are nice sealed factory type buckets. So, maybe they dipped it out themselves, idk!
o....my Sam's doesn't sell chocolate at all. She said never have people ask for it....
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