What is going on with my BC icing??? ... Help - Page 3

Yeah but there were NO bubbles when I was done beating. Very smooth. Its like something is actually creating bubbles in there...????

Butter was room temp.... I did beat the shortenings together before adding milk...and everything looked perfect when I was done...iced the cake well...it wasn't til an hour later it had formed a whipped/bubbly like texture.

Does the frosting ON the cake get bubbles after it's been on a while or just what's left sitting in the bowl? Sounds crazy, but MAYBE the frosting is having some sort of chemical reaction with the bowl??? What type of bowl do you mix in?

Just a regular kitchenaid bowl.

No like if I ice a buttercream cake it doesn't get bubbly but under fondant I guess sometimes it gets a little bit that way but you can't tell unless for some reason you have to pull the fondant off.

Its just weird. It was nice and creamy, but after an hour or so it ended up looking like I used a whisk on it. Whatever. Its been doing this forever...I'm just fed up with it and wanna know how NOT to do this.

My noncrusting recipe has high shortening and evaporated milk content and low sugar content.... but my crusting recipe has the same kind of ingredients as everyone else's on here, although I may use a tad more milk than most of the recipes call for.

Next time you make a crusting BC, try putting it into a different bowl after it's mixed. (Maybe a glass bowl.) If it still develops bubbles, I have no clue why!!!

Oh...Does this happen to you with ANY crusting recipe, or just Sharon's method? (No offense Sharon....just trying to pinpoint things.)

Not sure, and I wasn't using Sharon's exact one because mine is similar...its all butter, shortening, milk, vanilla, and pwdr sugar... I do not measure the milk though...just throw some in...from making it so often....

The only thing I can guess is too much milk? Dunno.

Well, the thing with Sharon's buttercream is, it's more about the method than the ingredients. (And Sharon, please correct me if I'm wrong about that!!)

I read that you watched her tutorial without sound, but I would suggest watching it again with sound as she explains what to listen for (a sucking or kissing sound)....I can't explain it well, but she does on the tutorial.

Yeah I thought it was the method....not the ingredients...

I guess as long as it gets onto the cake smooth its okay...unless this is one of the factors in all those fondant blowouts on the forum lately...

Anyway tomorrow I have to make another big batch. I'll take pictures of it after I make it, and then of the leftovers.

i agree that is more abut the technique than the ingredients, but with that being said, I have found i DO get air after sitting to some degree ( not horrible) with shortenings other than sweetex.

Kitagirl, please write down evrything you used, the amounts, and the process and we can try to figure it out.

and I am all for any process that works! We each find what works for us!

I did use Sweetex....

Do you make your icing more to the soft side (more liquid) or the stiff side?

i make mine on stiff side, BUT if you go too stiff you will have air trouble.

It can't possibly be worse than I have haha.

BTW just took my cake out of the fridge to cover with fondant and lo and behold...air bubbles had formed.

Why me....*sigh*

You'd think after 10 years I'd be able to make a batch of buttercream?!

Okay....

Made a big batch of buttercream in my 6qt today.

2 pounds of salted butter (2 boxes/4 cups), 4 cups of Sweetex....blended those. My main problem is my Sweetex is stored near an a/c vent and is a bit too cold and I've been having problems with occasionally finding tiny bits of unblended sweetex in my icing. But that is a side note.

Anyway blended that awhile then added a bunch of pure vanilla, and a cup and a half of 2% milk.

Let that blend awhile...then gradually added 4 bags (8 lbs) of powdered sugar.

I let blend until it looked smooth on top, with just a few smooth ripples. Took photos but won't load them yet....

As a test, I carefully dipped some into a bowl and set aside to see if it would have bubbles in it. The rest I used to ice a large sheet cake.

After over two hours, NO bubbles in the test bowl!! Huh??? A few bubbles in my iced cake and some bubbles in the icing that is left.

SO my only conclusion is that any kind of disturbing of the icing will allow it to form bubbles...whereas the "test bowl" was simply dipped out and left to set aside (covered)....but the icing that is actively being used to ice a cake, esp in the process of scraping off the spatula and reusing AND exposed to air and beginning the crusting process eventually, rather than covered, will form air bubbles. I notice when I throw all my leftover icing in a bowl, the consistency does get absolutely full of air bubbles.

Also I will say I have NOT made icing this exact way before...yesterday I did throw in leftover icing, this time I made the entire (huge) bowl fresh. I also think I could probably stand to reduce the milk a tiny bit although the consistency was nice and soft but still okay for making roses and borders.

You know what, I wish KitchenAid would come up with some beaters that were smaller for the larger bowls...for instance, I know have plenty of leftover icing to ice a second cake with today, but it is not enough to cover the beater. If KitchenAid made a beater with a longer shank and then a smaller paddle part, then I could just mix up a half a bowl of icing. Oh well I guess KitchenAid isn't there to invent new icing tools for bakers. haha.

Weird...but hey at least I'm getting a smooth icing to start out with anyway....that's better than I was doing as of last week with this recipe.

I don't think freezing the icing is bad....