What Went Wrong With My Bettercream???

Decorating By mkorbal Updated 10 Nov 2005 , 11:47pm by chaptlps

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mkorbal Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 3:16pm
post #1 of 15

I was decorating with Bettercream for the 1st time this weekend and it looked wonderful when it was white and uncolored. Looked light and fluffy. (It was the pre-whipped kind). Well I need to make grass so I colored it Leaf green (wilton) as I was mixing it, it started to get very hard and crumbly. It was almost impossible to frost the cake, it was actually cracking. And to pipe with it was impossible......it wouldn't budge! Any idea what went wrong? I spoke to another decorator and she's never heard of anything like it, she says she finds the more color she puts in the runnier it gets.......

I'm confused, I love the texture and taste but any terrified to use it again.

Thanks!!!

14 replies
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peg818 Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 4:19pm
post #2 of 15

sounds like you might have beat too much. Try adding alittle more of the liquid to it to see if it brings it back.

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mkorbal Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 5:17pm
post #3 of 15

I was mixing by hand with my spatula. Is it possible to overmix it that way?

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melxcloud Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 5:20pm
post #4 of 15

What is bettercream?

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mkorbal Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 5:44pm
post #5 of 15

It's the light fluffy, not-so-sweet kind of icing. I know it's called lots of different things depending on where you live. I think it's called pastry pride somewhere else. But on the East coast it's bettercream.

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gmcakes Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 5:51pm
post #6 of 15

I used to work with this when I was working at the bakery, and yes, unfortunately, it is possible to overbeat this even by hand. ...BTW, I have not been able to locate this since I have been decorating at home, where do you find it?

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vmw774180 Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 5:54pm
post #7 of 15

GM - Try Sugarcraft.com

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melxcloud Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 6:00pm
post #8 of 15

oh, so its the commercial bakery icing? Kind of the consistency of whipped cream frosting, slightly sweeter than that but doesn't really melt?
Is that what you are talking about?

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bubblezmom Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 6:01pm
post #9 of 15

GFS sells it. I tried the chocolate and it was worthless for frosting (much too soft), but it tasted great. It made a good non-dairy filling.

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gmcakes Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 6:09pm
post #10 of 15

Thanks for the where to get it info!

bubblezmom: Did the buy the chocolate bettercream pre-whipped or did you have to whip it yourself? The chocolate was sometimes a little more "finicky" about how it was whipped, it is possible you didn't beat it quite long enough. You might could have whipped it a little longer, but be careful it can over-thicken very fast!

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mkorbal Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 6:10pm
post #11 of 15

GM, sugarcraft does sell it, but it costs more to ship it than it does for the icing itself. I was able to buy it from my grocery store bakery. They just sold it to me at $3/lb. So is there any way to save it after I over beat it?

I was trying to get a dark green color so I was definately mixing it a very long time. I guess I'll always have this problem when trying to get dark colors?

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gmcakes Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 6:20pm
post #12 of 15

You can try to add a little liquid at a time to get it to the desired consistency. Just remember to carefully stir in your colors without really beating with the spatula. Also, something to keep in mind, I don't know about anyone else but it always seemed to me like the bettercream icing just doesn't take dark colors as well as regular buttercream icing does.

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bubblezmom Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 6:23pm
post #13 of 15

I bought the pre-whipped. It was a novel treat for me as I can't eat much dairy. It'd been a looooong time since I had chocoloate pudding. Yum!

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jscakes Posted 25 Oct 2005 , 6:32pm
post #14 of 15

mkorbal; I had this happen several times also. As gmcakes states, add a little if possible of the liquid Bettercreme and that does help.
I also found that if I added the coloring before whipping works great...that is if you have the liquid first instead of the pre-whipped.

I did have something happen for the very first time this past summer, the blue color I was using totally seperated out of the icing (Rich's Bettercreme) and was running down everywhere out of the icing bag. Took me a bit to figure out where the blue dots were coming from on the cake!

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chaptlps Posted 10 Nov 2005 , 11:47pm
post #15 of 15

Hiya all,
I use the "bettercream" non-dairy whipped icing all the time at work and yes, when you add colors you need to use it almost right away. I don't know why but it does have a tendency to stiffen up especially when you are coloring it red or green or blue.
Even though, sometimes, I like the frilly lacy edged roses it makes, after a while you just have to toss it and mix some more colors.
O, and here's a tip on "dressing" the base frosting on the cake; use a spatula that you have run under hot water to smooth out the bubbles, be sure to clean off your spatula and run it under warm water "every time" you apply it to the cake as it will pick up frosting and pull it if there is any residue left on the spatula. Other than that, your hands don't get near as sore with "whipped" as it does with buttercream.
O and one more idea, I usually don't use the whipped icing for any line work just for the reason you posted.

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