I just don't understand!! I make my own butter cream icing, and it is delicious, but it is always tinted a little yellow from the butter. And I sift my icing sugar but it still has some lumps. How do bakers get it so white and smooth!?

bakers get their butter cream so white because they dont use real butter, they use a white fat that has a greasy texture and no taste at all.....but there is also a white food color that you can also use to make it white....as for the little lumps it could be that some of the icing is jumping out of the sieve while you are sifting it or you could have a small hole ( i know it sounds weird in a sieve) in it....maybe a finer grade sieve could help.....

Some use shortening and/or clear vanilla. If you whip the butter long it gets lighter too. It's been years since I've used real butter, but when I did if I needed really white icing I'd use powdered titantium dioxide (american buttercream), wilton's icing white (in swiss meringue) or americolor's white gel color (in swiss meringue). 

There are two basic methods used to get really smooth buttercream, both of which involves essentially making enough buttercream to fill the bowl.  Search for Sharon Zambito buttercream and Marsha Winbeckler buttercream videos. 

white food coloring is the only way I k now to make real BUTTERcream white

Here is a thread on the "violet trick"  http://cakecentral.com/t/167871/tried-the-violet-trick-and-it-works

Hope this helps.

Jeanne

I agree with everyone, to have white butter cream you can use half butter and half shortening, or take out the butter, clear vanilla and or white color.  I've heard that the better quality of butter you buy the lighter it gets.  and whip, whip, whip.

for the lumps.  I've heard that the quality of sugar makes a difference.  

You basically have two choices: you can make BC that tastes really good, with real butter and real vanilla, or you can make BC that's hospital-white, with white artificial shortening and colorless artificial vanilla (and probably some white pigment as well).

I prefer to go for the taste.

 Shortening is just as fake as butter, it is processed just like butter. Do you milk a cow and get butter? Butter is processed from milk. It has to be turned into butter. Likewise, shortening comes from plants (soy beans, cotton, palm trees), it is turned into shortening. Why all the shortening bashing?  Either way butter or shortening, you can make both tasty if you know what you are doing. Yes, I was one that only used butter until I couldn't. I understand, you can't use shortening and get a butter flavor (wouldn't even try), but it has a place in the world.  I love organic palm oil. A nice blank canvas for loads of flavor. I would just love for people to be more open-minded. That is all.

AButter - fake ! Am I missing something ?

Milk is churned to make butter, I often make it by over whipping heavy cream, just a pinch of sea salt & it's beautiful & natural

I grew up on a farm, I know how to make butter. Did it all the time.  No butter is not fake, and neither is shortening. I was just making an analogy. 

Give me butter anyday.  I do use 50/50, I whip it a really long time and where it might not be bright white, it is white.  I do not add white food coloring, clear vanilla seems fake to me so I add almond flavor.  Nobody is compaining to me.

ny20005 gonna have to try your method for butter.  Does it stay white or does it turn yellowish?

AI always use real butter for my buttercream unless i am making a dummy layer for a cake. If I want it lighter I increase the amount of meringue I add to the buttercream. I always use italian buttercream for stability and it holds volume better than other meringues.

On another subject, the color of butter is affected by the cow's diet and among other factors. So color can indicate quality, but only in terms of the health Nd diet of the cow. I have had very high quality butter quite pale, but some are extremely yellow. Easiest answer, it depends on the butter itself. Taste and see for yourself. :-)

I heard someone mention that sugar types affect the color. My opinion is that this is true. If you boil both cane or beet sugar i to a thick syrup, it will always be yellowish is color. It looks white when in normal form becase of the fractures and air within the crystals (i.e. light defraction). The affect on buttercream however is minute. First, the sugar is dissolved thoroughly, and there is substantial air incorporated into a buttercream as well. These two things mitigate most potential to alter a buttercreams color. As an extreme example, try using brown sugar in a buttercream. I quite like the different depth and complexity that gives, but there is a definite cream/beige color to the buttercream.

Basically, any color that can be introduced i to a buttercream will affect it some way, somehow, somewhere.

I've used butter and shortening, just butter, just shortening, and honestly I can't tell a taste difference.  The taste does not come as much from a the fat so much as the sugar and extract.  So I don't see a point in arguing or snobbing people because they use shortening instead of butter. 

AIt's a nice pale yellow but I suppose it depends on the cream you use

Thanks

Apparently this has already been answered, but I just couldn't let the subject pass by without an additional comment. Yes, butter is natural and not processed---unless you consider agitation a process. I could use my fresh, whole milk--(chilled) to get butter, but it is a whole lot easier to let the cream rise and beat the cream. I always found it amazing that within that heavy cream there lurked a solid, just waiting to get out! (Sort of like my skinny mind held inside this body that loves to eat!  )

'Nuff said. Back to the thread...

Oh, edited to add: Yes, diet does affect the butter's color. My butter is more yellow when the cow's feed is green grass. Like the yolks of free range chickens are a deeper yellow when eating greens.

Jan

AI normally beat the buttercream in my KW for about 10 mins, its light fluffy and looks like double cream, i have a 4 tier wedding cake for next sat 22nd and i stick to the same method as always.

Has anyone ever made SMBC with just shortening (either regular or high ratio) instead of butter?  Just curious.  

Using violet in buttercream makes it a kind-of dirty grey, not pure white.

AI use "super white" to make it white. Its a powder I get from the supply shop...hope it helps x

Yes, I've done it with palm oil instead of butter for chocolate, it was really good. If you are a chocolate lover it turns out really rich and so chocolately. It doesn't work so well for just vanilla it was very bland ( I had to add oreos to that experiment and made cookies and cream, which was okay). But it is just fine with fruit ( strawberries/raspberries) and citrus flavors (orange and lemon). 

the only reason i do not use shortening or decorators cream base is because of the film it leaves in your mouth i hate that waxy greasy coating......i do not get that with real butter.....i also dont get that gritty horrid sickly sweet sugary hit with the old fashioned butter cream that i make....not too sweet at all...it is a boiled milk and flour one that has been around for many many years...i will not change back to regular buttercream again..i made it with a big hit of cocoa the other day and my husband asked if i made chocolate mousse for the cupcakes... i laughed and said it was the icing...he said give me a bowl of it forget the cake

lol

How can anyone NOT tell the difference between butter buttercream and shortening buttercream? Really?