Hi I am making an Italian Creme Cake for a customer who loves buttercream. I have only eaten this cake once (not my cup of tea) and I know it had cream cheese frosting then. I am just looking for some ideas on flavoring the BC so that it compliments the cake flavor.

I've really only seen it with the cream cheese icing/filling. But most of the recipes also have toasted coconut and toasted nuts thrown in the icing as well. I guess you could do this for the filling if you're using regular BC for the outside.

Yeah that was what I remembered. I have only made 2 Italian Creme Cakes in 6 years. The buttercream recipe I use is pretty versatile so I was trying to figure out how to make the taste similar. I let the customer (she was the one who brought up buttercream) know that it is usually a cream cheese icing which is still pretty sweet but she said the birthday boy loves buttercream. I am thiking about making both batches of icing and figuring it out through a taste test. Either way I hope it tastes just as good. Thanks for the response.

Try this, I call it French buttercream. 1 3/4 cups shortening, 4 Tbsp. butter or margarine, 3 Tbsp butter vanilla flavoring (magic lines) or 1 1/2 Tbsp of each separately in whatever brand and 8 cups powdered sugar, milk or water if needed to get desired consistency. It is a good substitute for cream cheese icing and doesn't overwhelm the cake like cream cheese does.

Thanks I will definitely try that in the future. Unfortunately they picked up the cake yesterday. It was a short notice cake they met with me Tue. and needed a cake to feed 125 by Sat. with a 3D cake truck so it was a rush from the get go. They called to change some things on the cake Fri. and I talked to them about it and they said to do the cream cheese. For me it was all too sweet but I spoke to them yesterday and they said everyone loved it. Do you think the French buttercream would go well with Red Velvet? I have a bride who is coming for a tasting in a month. She really wants Red Velvet but hates the cream cheese frosting.

Sorry I didn't notice the date when I responded. I use the French buttercream on red velvet about 90% of the time. It's a basic flavor on my list and it goes well with most everything plus I don't charge as much for it as cream cheese. And most of the time on it's chosen by brides over traditional cream cheese for apple, spice, and carrot cakes too.

To me sometimes cream cheese icing overpowers a cake and that is all you can taste.

Awesome thanks for that info. I will definitely try it out Thanks so much