Went to a graduation party. I made one of the cakes. People were going nuts over they cake. They wanted to know how I made the grad cap. I explained out of sugar dough, I said some people cover their whole cakes with it, They were fanilar with fondant. One of my friends turned to me and said that stuff is awful. I decided right then and there I was not going to feel bad about using buttercream to ice my cakes. I did well this time. Used Sharon Z. with a few tweeks, Was great. It was the fasted I had ever butt ercrean a cake before. Used my agbay for the first time. Loved it. And the smoothing went well. Everyone loved my fondant cap. So here is my plug for buttercream frosted cake. I love doing it. The WASC cake recipe was so good. Used French Vanilla cakes. Fondant accents are fun too. . Sharon Zambito videos taught me alot.

There is bad buttercream and bad fondant.

There is also excellent fondant and excellent buttercream.

One good product compared to one bad alternative product isn't really a comparison.

The consensus in my studies is that people like any fine product.

The recipe you are referring to is based on shortening, something that I will never put in a buttercream. Again, all preference.

You can't make everyone happy all of the time. Someone always had to complain about something. It's a sad fact of the human existence.

I do what works for me, looks good, & tastes good--to me & to my taster (my DH).
If someone doesn't like it for an aesthetic reason or a pre-formed prejudice (i.e. "all fondant is bad", "all shortening based buttercream is bad", "all mix based cakes are bad")--and they haven't even TASTED what I've made--I couldn't give a rat's patoot about their opinion.

Taste it--and THEN tell me what you think.........and leave your pre-formed opinions at the curb.

I recently made a Noah's ark cake with a flat fondant "cartoon" of the ark. The mom loved it and reported back that "some people didn't like the fondant". Like I cared.............DON'T EAT IT! There was plenty of buttercream and the bits of fondant would have been easy to ignore on the plate, but of course, they had to find SOMETHING to complain about.


She also said that several people remarked that they "didn't like cake frosting", but that they LOVED mine and it was the BEST icing they'd ever had. THOSE comments mattered. They'd put their prejudices aside and TRIED the frosting and were pleasantly surprised to find that they liked it.

If anyone EVER figures out how to please everyone, the rest of us will be out sitting on the curb.

Rae

Really? We're going to "debate" this? Your "plug" for "butter"cream? While you're at it, why don't you start a thread so we can debate "scratch vs mix" or maybe you'd like one where we can debate the "butter" in your buttercream.

This stuff gets old. Do what works for you, enjoy it, validate yourself if you must but please save the debates for issues that actually matter. You "felt bad" about your buttercream and now you would like a pat on the back or a ribbon? Or maybe you still need some validation from anonymous posters about your buttercream?

I do not appreciate your rudeness. I think you misundersood my statement. I thought this was the place we share with other decorators our joy of cake decorating and discuss our interests. I will have to be careful from now on. I will only ask something if I need help. Kind of hurts.

Thanks for sharing your info. Unfortunately the ads on this site prevent me from reading/understand your whole post
In the over 35 yrs that I offered cakes to the public probably 90% of them were b'cream.
As was stated there are good and bad in *everything* - including b'cream and fondant recipes. Sometimes all it takes to improve a recipe is more or different flavorings. Sometimes one just needs to scrap that recipe and start over. What works best for one might not work out perfect for others. Find what works for you and your customers and be happy.

Thanks. I did not express my thoughts very well. Maybe I will try to post what I meant another time.

The best fondant I have used as far as taste and workability is Satin Ice (which also comes in buttercream flavor). I have had people tell me they hate some fondant they've had, but the one I used wasn't that bad. It can't be all that bad, Buddy the "Cake Boss" uses it as well as many others big names in the cake world.

People love the way fondant looks but many don't care for the taste or texture. What makes fondant stick to cakes....BUTTERCREAM YAY!!!! haha I just make sure I put an adequate amount of buttercream as a filling between the layers. That way if someone doesn't care to eat the fondant they can simply peel it away from their slice and there is plenty of buttercream still there under the fondant and between the layers.

Compromise is good!

Usually the people who are so quick in making a very negative statement like "that stuff is awful" are people who cannot even decorate a pancake with syrup. IMHO, it is all based on ignorance or very limited knowledge of the subject. People like that probably buy their cakes at Costco or Walmart, which is the lowest of all quality, just like themselves. I would just ignore them since they do not know any better. Really, what's there not to ignore ?

There is no shame in buttercream. Whether it is made solely with butter or not. I'm not a fondant lover but if that is what the customer wants then whatever they want to pay for is cool with me. In my personal experience of 23 years 99.9% of my customers prefer buttercreams and I don't think it's because they are ignorant or uncakely.

Like with everything else cake, some are intent on reinventing the wheel. Let's torte it, fill it, ice it, ganache it and then fondant the whole damn thing. I couldn't choke that down if I was getting paid, but I also don't eat cake. Really can't it just be cake?

For those I offend....well I guess you are offended.

I should also mention that I use buttercream mostly, with fondant accents. Like scp1127 said, there are good fondants and good buttercreams, and there are also bad fondants and bad buttercreams. I have had my share of both. The best thing is to do what works for you and your clients/loved ones and that's that! But there is nothing wrong with trying something new.

I use fondant, but I don't eat the stuff - *gag*. My ds loves fondant - strange child. I prefer to cover my cakes in modeling chocolate, but sometimes it just doesn't work out so I use a 50/50 mix.

I also use shortening bc. I personally don't like the taste of butter and all butter bc doesn't work well with the heat here.

No point to be made here, just saying . . . .

First--BlakesCakes that cake is wonderful and the waves are amazing. I have saved it for inspiration in the future. Thanks for sharing the photo.

Second--I'm 2+ years into the delightful hobby of cake decorating and continue to learn that different techniques and different decorating "goals" require different materials. I typically use buttercream recipes that have both butter and high ratio shortening because of the heat, but no one seems to notice if I make a recipe with shortening and no butter. It's a wonderful thing to have all these materials/recipes in our "arsenal" of cake decorating tools: fondant, buttercream, chocolate plastic, ganache, royal icing, Pastry Pride, etc

(p.s. I never get complaints because nobody complains about free cake!)

Thanks!

Rae

You can make modelling buttercream. I use the Richard Snyder flower icing with shortening, sugar and corn syrup-- but you add additional sugar to stiffen it enough to model. Or you make a standard recipe for "rolled buttercream" found using Google...

It works really well for layered images--it will air-dry if you put it onto absorbent paper, or you just build your cartoon layers up and freeze the whole thing to transfer it to the cake. It does not work very well for the kind of figure modelling that normally uses marzipan.