Whenever I felt like a great piece of cake I would get one of Safeway pre-cut sliced white cake with white buttercream. This buttercream is like none other! Today I went to Safeway to talk to the bakery about their incredible white buttercream. Well seems my husband is friends with all the ladies there so I got one of the ladies to tell me about the process. Apparently it comes in this big block and they add 10lbs of butter and water. OK.....well that's the process, now what the heck is that block?

Has anyone had this buttercream? If you taste it, to me it doesn't taste like powdered sugar is used. It has a very slight grainy sugar texture to it. It's very light and fluffy too. It's so good I want to work there to know what that block of ingredients are.

They do sell it by the pound for $3.99 but a pound isn't much....that's for sure! Any thoughts.....ideas..... If you haven't tried this buttercream and have a Safeway near you, go buy a pre-cut slice taste it and tell me what you think.

Anxious to hear everyone's thoughts.

The box it comes in should have the ingredients. or you could just ask whats in it for nutrition facts they would have to tell you. Ans since your husbands knows them they would probably tell you.

I would guess the blocks are probably high-ratio shortening.

I think it would have to be more than hi-ratio if all they add to it is butter and water....unless it isn't sweet frosting.

The slightly grainy texture would have to be powdered sugar.....?

More than likely, it's an icing base similar to these (at bottom)
http://www.hcbrill.com/_sana_/handlers/getfile.ashx/9ddc65ad-161e-4e1d-9942-c48c60952ed5/hcbrill-buttercreme-icings.pdf

for an idea of the contents...

http://recipes.safeway.com/recipe/11058/print-friendly.aspx?Size=FourBySix

Probably similar to Dawn Food Products But-R-Creme base; a shortening and powdered sugar block--just add water (butter optional).

The bakery I used to work at used a buttercream base. It was a solid block of high-ratio shortening and sugar that is mixed together with a commercial, super dooper mixer. You put X amount in the mixer, add x amount of water and mix on a speed for so many minutes. Scrape, add more water and beat on a different speed for x amount of minutes. It's easy and the end result is smooth, creamy and not grainy.

I always thought the base would be fun to play with in other recipes, like the OP mentioned adding some butter to it for the flavor. There are several kinds out there and the process to mix it is a little different with each one.

Tami

I too love Safeway's buttercream! I have tried other grocery store bakery's cakes and find myself back at Safeway because of their frosting!

Take a look at this..sounds like what you are talking about. http://www.gourmetimports.com/bakingandpastry/bakingandpastry-details-1417.asp

Is this possibly a dry milk/sugar mixture to make it creamy?

i used to work for safeway as a cake decorator and i made the buttercream frosting every day and the block is what you put in first i know it sounds gross butt its lard its what gives it its texture and taste there is no powder sugar whatsoever but they do have recipes to make on line if you go to google!!

A

I can guarantee you it is not lard mixed with water. I'll bet you my house, car, and kids, and client list, and my life, it is not lard and water. It is an icing base.

Lard is animal fat, that is all. It tastes like pure crap, too. The only use I know of for lard is in gravies, and pie crust. It is grainy and gets separated and turns to liquid quite easily. It would slide off a cake, because it would never set. Really unstable.

AIt's not lard. It might have been white fat but that's shortening, not lard. Trust me, I've eaten enough Safeway frosting to know it doesn't taste of meat, and no amount of sugar and butter could cover that up.

ATo the OP, a lot of people prefer to not use powdered sugar precisely because it does produce that grainy texture you're talking about. Seems weird that it feels like eating regular granulated sugar, but its something that powdered sugar does when mixed with fats in a certain way.

excuse me your right i guess i call it lard but its like crisco to me thats lard!!! 

ALard is fat from meat, shortening is solidified oil from vegetables. That's a huge difference, and saying someone uses lard when they really use shortening really isn't ok.

holy crap you really need to chill calm down

ALard and shortening are not the same thing. True shortening is a vegetable (and vegetarian) product, and lard is a form of rendered animal fat.

AWe tested some dairy-free and soy-free BC recipes using lard and they worked out pretty well, not as nice as margarine/shortening-based BC or butter-based BC, but better than palm oil-based BC (our normal dairy-free/soy-free BC recipe). The improvement over the palm oil recipe was not worth using the lard recipe though, since we would still need to use the palm oil recipe for soy-free vegans.and vegetarians.

I never met a sweet I didn't like, so I am sure I would like Safeway buttercream. But, I am confused. There are dozens of threads on this site touting the virtues of custom cakes with quality ingredients over "mass-produced, chemical, unknown age, unknown content, icky" grocery store cakes and educating customers about the difference. Now, you want to reproduce a grocery store cake? 
 

A

Everyone has a different palate, some people prefer the taste of grocery store cakes and frosting (or don't notice a significant difference vs. a high quality custom cake). Grocery store frosting is usually just shortening, butter, milk, vanilla, and sugar.

Not everyone thinks that all grocery store cakes are icky. I certainly don't. Market and demand varies- where I live, people for the most part could care less what's in a cake or icing. They care about how it tastes and how it looks. There are some local stores here I'd give my right arm to know how they make their icing.
 

This makes me wish I lived near a Safeway!  I too don't usually mind a grocery store cake, but I eat so little of it it doesnt matter to me.

On a side note...I cracked up at the use of your smiley!!

I don't disagree at all. I was just surprised to see this thread on the site after the "Don't buy a Walmart wedding cake," rant thread.