Buttercream recipes

Meringue buttercreams can be very stiff, you do it my manipulating temperature, not consistency. I use SMBC 100% of the time.

I am also testing different buttercream recipes. I am trying to find a not too sweet CRUSTING buttercream recipe. I would love suggestions.

FromScratchSF- How do you manipulate the temperature of your SMBC?

Piping stuff like roses is a little tricky because you need your buttercream cold and stiff but still workable. When at work I stand in the walk-in and have a block of ice I lay my bags on as I pipe, but luckily I don't do a lot of roses (not my style). When I was practicing roses at home I had 3 bags going. Bag #1 in my hand, bag #2 in the fridge, bag #3 in the freezer. I pipe a few roses, then put bag #1 in fridge, move bag #2 to freezer, and use bag #3 to pipe another rose (or two or three). I keep the rotation going until I'm done. I can't do roses on a flower nail, I pipe on a stick, and can only get 3 rows of petals (1-3-5). Those last 7 are too heavy and they fall off the stick. If you can use a flower nail then I'm sure your roses will look perfect.

If I'm doing ruffles I only have 2 bags in rotation, one in my hand and one in the fridge. When one bag starts getting too soft I switch to the other bag.

If it's hot I'll have a bowl of ice water I'll plunge my hands into to keep them cool.

I'll also keep my bowl of buttercream in an ice bath to chill the whole thing by a few degrees. You just have to remember to stir it often.

Oh, and work fast.

When your buttercream comes to room temperature it will hold it's shape.

My IMBC, FBC, and SMBC are very stiff. I actually add teaspoons of hot water when I want a more billowy buttercream.

GBC is not as stiff.

I'll leave the SMBC explanation to FromScratch because I don't have as much experience with it.

In IMBC, two things contribute to the stiffness. First, you are turning the whites into a confection by introducing the 245 degree sugar syrup. When you try to free the meringue from the whisk, you get the idea just how strong the concoction actually is.

Next, you are adding butter. You can now manipulate the stiffness/softness by manipulating the temperature. Some choose to smooth cold IMBC with warm knives and bench scrapers. Room temp, maybe 72 degrees makes for easy piping that retains its shape even though it can get warmer.

My advice on IMBC is to look up Warren Brown's tutorial on his Cake Love site and make sure you have a calibrated candy thermometer. This is my recipe of choice and many others. It is balanced and he takes the temp higher, resulting in a more stable buttercream.

There are many recipes out there, some with more and less sugar/butter. You will have to pick the one that you like. Some pointers... cheap butter is just more water, salted butter will make an overwhelming butter taste. In these buttercreams, especially IMBC and SMBC, you have a clean palate. On other words, they provide the medium, but the flavoring takes center stage. What you choose to flavor it with will determine the final taste. The higher the quality of the addition, or more pure, the better the taste. But that last statement is just my opinion. In these buttercreams, the chemicals of artificial additives cannot hide. You have already made an incredible buttercream. Just be aware of how the flavoring will affect the final taste.

I have found that grocery store extracts, even when pure, give off a candy-like sweet taste. Higher quality extracts, liqueurs, purees, fruits, will give you a less sweet, more natural taste.

Sometimes your first try with one of the European buttercreams may not work out. But with help from the many threads on the subject, you will be successful.

I hope this helps. Susan

ncjennings,

Have you ever tried piping flowers directly onto the cake? I do this with roses (but like Jen I don't do them very often) and it works well. Check out this website. They use IMBC exclusively and they cover their cakes with flowers:

http://www.cupcakecafe-nyc.com/