Martha Stewart Says All Buttercream Has To Be Refridgerated
Decorating By BakeLoveMom Updated 28 Jan 2009 , 4:49pm by prterrell
My hubby bought me Martha Stewart's Wedding Cake book, yesterday I read it cover to cover(I was bored) and she said that any cake covered in buttercream had to be refridgerated...I was under the impression that it could be at room temp. once on a cake. I know sometimes it depends on the recipe, but for example, in the past I have used the Viva buttercream listed on this website, I have never once put it in the fridge...however all the buttercreams I have used in the past use powdered sugar and no fresh egg whites...almost all of MS recipe's call for liquid egg whites and regular sugar....do you think this makes a difference? I would love to test out some of her recipe's but I don't have a fridge large enough to keep a whole cake in there...what if I subbed meringe powder for the egg whites? Sorry I am so long winded. Thanks everyone.
Sarah
The dear MS has been know/proven to be wrong before.
It depends on what recipe you are using but for the most part any shortening or 1/2 shortening, 1/2 butter recipe can be left at room temp for days.
Most likely you can sub meringue but not knowing the exact recipe I am not sure. You would need to add water to it.
this always confuses me....what do you do if your cake is covered in fondant, or with fondant decorations-you can't put those in the fridge! And I don't like the Crisco BC's. How do you guys handle that?
None of her buttercream recipes call for shortning, they are all only butter based...I also found it odd that she always listed regular sugar and not powdered except in her cream cheese recipe. Okay, this is an example, this is a list of ingredients in her recipe
Wt. Choc. Buttercream
2.5 C. sugar
10 Lg. egg whites
2 lbs. unsalted butter
2 Tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 lb. best quality choc.
I am not a huge fan of hers from a personal stand point either, but I wanted to give some of these recipes a shot and I don't want to get anyone sick either. Thanks for helping.
Sarah
I personally can't stand her....why does she always think she is right?? As someone posted earlier.....I personally don't have room for a cake in my fridge. Of course Millionaire Martha probably has commercial size refrigerators so she can put her precious cakes on their.
Whew!!
The regular sugar instead of PS isn't weird, because it is dissolved in the egg whites over a double broiler to make meringue. (You use regular sugar instead for meringues.) It is actually very yummy and light!
She's not meaning you have to take the cake right out of the fridge and eat it right away or risk getting sick, she's talking about long-term storage. 
The buttercreams that Martha specializes in are IMBC and SMBC, genuine buttercreams that contain unsalted butter and are made by whipping egg whites and sugar syrup. These aren't the shortening/icing sugar types that crust and are essentially safe to store at room temp.
Cakes that are iced in buttercream should be stored in the fridge, yes...as well as any leftover buttercream. BUT, before you eat the cake, it has to come out of the fridge and come back up to room temperature for at least a few hours. This isn't about safety, it's about eating cold icing! 
I always refrigerate fondant cakes actually, for ease of transport.
Anyway...people keep butter out at room temp for a few days...the sugar in bc acts as a preservative...so it would make sense to keep a bc cake out safely for at least several days! Not sure why she would say that. Oh well!
My buttercream which is just 3/5 butter to 5/5 sugar and then with vanilla or maple syrup, lemon, strawberry jam, or cocoa added lasts at room temp for over a week especially when covered with fondant. I certainly dont have room for a cake in my fridge and i dont expect customers to have either so i avoid ganache, cream cheese or anything like Martha Stewarts swiss meregune BC which would need refridgerated, to me if you add melted chocolate to BC then i can avoid the need for ganache or anything that uses fresh cream but still have a rich chocolately loveliness!
Kita-it was prob CYA-to avoid any possible lawsuit. 
Just in case someone got sick "Well Martha said you could leave it out, and we all got sick" So now, she has her bases covered. Sounds like her.
I personally can't stand her....why does she always think she is right?? As someone posted earlier.....I personally don't have room for a cake in my fridge. Of course Millionaire Martha probably has commercial size refrigerators so she can put her precious cakes on their.
Whew!!
She probably drives around in a refrigerated van as well. And I agree, sometimes she is WRONG.
But in general she is talking about the eggwhite-butter type buttercreams, not the american buttercream. I dont think MS would allow american buttercream on any of her creations!
yea right martha still does wedding cakes. i bet she has designers on her staff that so the majority of the work and she just maybe adds a few touches and takes he credit. i cant see a woman whose behind a multimillion dollar empire spending hours and hours on these cakes. hey if really does make them then thats great
I also found it odd that she always listed regular sugar and not powdered except in her cream cheese recipe. Okay, this is an example, this is a list of ingredients in her recipe
Wt. Choc. Buttercream
2.5 C. sugar
10 Lg. egg whites
2 lbs. unsalted butter
2 Tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 lb. best quality choc.
Yes, to someone who would assume this is a standard BC recipe, it would be very odd to use regular sugar. But, you left out the instructions which indicate that this is a cooked BC recipe...which like summernoelle said, is light yummy and delicious, and very elegant looking too.
Sorry, I am not a super experienced decorator, I have only been doing cakes since last Feb. I was just wondering if anyone had used her recipes or any ones similar to it since I wasn't familiar with that type. I didn't include the rest of the recipe because, as I had said before, I was providing the list of ingredients...anyway, I was just curious because I have only made bc's with at least some shortening and they all always had powdered sugar. Most of my cakes sit out for a while, I bring them to work and then they go home with the customer (I work 12's), then who knows how long they sit out, sometimes the party isn't until the next day, so I was concerned to use one of her recipe's on something I am not sure will get eaten right away. Okay, well thanks anyway everyone.
Sarah
Here's an overview to the different types of icings/frostings:
(Covers American b/c's, meringue b/c's and more.)
http://tinyurl.com/yh44gu
For an extensive thread on frosting/icing options:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-616470-.html
HTH
I use meringue powder instead of actual egg whites when making IMBC for serveral reasons: 1) I don't want to waste all those egg yolks, 2) it's easier to store a container of meringue powder than a ton of eggs, and 3) I've always had better luck getting the recipe to work correctly using the meringue powder.
If you want to use actual egg whites, remember that old eggs work best for making meringues and that the whites need to be room temp before you get started.
What I do is start out with Wilton's 7-minute frosting recipe and once it's done I slowly add room temp unsalted butter (1 pound) and 1 cup of shortening (because I'm in Georgia and it just doesn't hold up so good without the shortening, but if you want to leave out the shortening, use a total of one pound and one cup of unsalted butter) and then I add extract at the end. I've also found that if I set the bowl with the frosting inside and ice bath while I'm whipping it and whipping in the butter, I don't have a problem with the icing curdling!
Finally, you can totally store a cake iced in any kind of buttercream out on the counter as long as your house isn't super hot (say over 75 deg F). Of course, it will last longer the cooler your house temp is (so it will last longer in the winter in my house when the temp is between 60 and 65 F than in the summer when it is around 75 F). Eggs and butter traditionally were not stored in the fridge. Plus, you've cooked them and added sugar (which as others have said is a preservative). A BC iced cake will be fine out for about a week in the winter and 3-4 days in the summer (just don't keep it right next to your stove or in direct sunlight).
Hope that helps!
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