For all those scared about raw eggs...

[scarlett873]

French Buttercream is amazing...nothing like that nasty stuff they slather onto the cakes in the grocery store bakeries! My other favorite is Chocolate Italian Buttercream...ummmm....YUMMMMMMMMMM! I've tried making it at home, but I have a hard time keeping the sugar syrup from hitting the whisk on my mixer. I get all these little sugar crystals/lumps in it.

For those grossed out by the raw eggs in some buttercreams, just remember that not every bakery uses that kind of recipe!

 

[themarquis]

My recipe is
1 cup of lard (crisco stick)
1 bag of powder sugar
2/3 tbs of water
any flavor extact

blend

I think I'd rather risk the raw eggs!!

 

[jrmasm]

I really don't care what's in it, I'll risk it.

 

[Mady/Sophiemom]

I really don't care what's in it, I'll risk it.

AMEN!!! Nothing better than buttercream icing.


If I haven't died from all the raw cookie dough over my 42 years...

 

[ChristmasElf]

Never eat a cake that has buttercream! We learned how to make buttercream in patisserie-class on Saturday.
The recipe for a batch for the whole class:
- 4 kg of butter
- 28 eggs
- 2.4 kg of sugar

Beat the eggs with the sugar until you can't feel the sugar grains anymore.
In the meanwhile, beat the butter until it's very very soft/ smooth.
Mix both.
Voilà!

There are actually several different kinds of Buttercream.\The one you describe above sounds like Simple Buttercream.

Simple Buttercream

Butter 8 oz
Shortening 4 oz
Confectioners Sugar 1 lb
egg WHITES 1.25 oz
1/2 tsp lemon juice
3/4 tsp vanilla

Cream together butter, shortening and sugar.
Add the egg whites, lemon juice and vanilla at medium speed. Then mix at high speed until light and fluffy.
For a sofetr buttercream add an ounce of water at final stage.

Simple Buttercream can also be used using whole eggs or egg yolks. Using egg yolks will make a richer icing and also emulsify better.

French Buttercream

Sugar 8 oz
Water 2 oz

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Continue to boil until the syrup reaches 240º.

3 0z Egg Yolks- While the syrup is boiling, beat the yolks with a whisk until they are thick and light.

As soon as the syrup reaches 240º, pour it very slowly into the beaten egg yolks while still beating the eggs constantly (to prevent "cooking" the egg) Continue to beat until the mixture is completely cool and the yolks are very thick and light. Whip in the butter 10 oz. a little at a timeAdd the butter just as fast as it can get absorbed by the mixture.
Beat in 3/4 tsp vanilla extract. If icing gets too soft, refrigerate it until firm enough to spread (usually 15 minutes or so)

Swiss Buttercream

Egg Whites 16 oz
Sugar 2 lbs
Butter 2.5 lbs
Vanilla .5 oz (2 tsp)

Put the egg whites and sugar in a stainless steel or glass bowl-dissolve the sugar in the egg whites in a "bath" of warm water in the sink (very warm water in bottom of sink, place bowl in the water, being careful not to get water in the bowl) warm the egg whites until sugar dissolved.
Whip mixture up further in mixer with the whip attachment until light and fluffy, add butter (softened) to the meringue.

 

[ChristmasElf]

There is a big difference between french buttercream and what most bakeries in the US call buttercream. I always hated frosting until I tasted real french buttercream, oh and ganache. The buttercream we have here leaves an unpleasant coating in the mouth.

The reason for the unpleasant taste is that a lot of bakeries use all shortening in the buttercream because it is cheaper. The shortening is what leaves the after taste.

Ganach is easy if anyone here wants to try it! Take 8 oz of heavy cream that you have heated in the microwave until it is hot to the touch. Add the creasm to 16 oz of melting chocolate in a bowl. Stir until the chocolate is melted. Pour ganache over chocolate cake. Yum....


When melting chocolate, be careful to never get water in the chocolate as it will seize up and have to be thrown away.
If melting chocolate in a microwave, heat it slowly and stir it often and you will have perfect results.

 

[themarquis]

I took a cake decorating class once as a preteen, and the people who ran the class made their own icing and brought it in in huge buckets.

I was soooooo excited about being able to illicitly sample some of the delicious-looking icing in those massive tubs, especially when it seemed that the people who ran the class didn't seem to yell at kids if they ate it.

Turns out that there was a reason they weren't trying to put the smackdown on that luscious icing ....

It was a combination of not-so-fresh beef lard, powdered sugar, and food coloring

One taste of the nasty, greasy paste that tasted like cigarette ashes mixed with wallpaper paste and I swore off it for good ...

I always have a suspicion that that stuff slathered on supermarket cakes in the U.S. is pretty much the same vile mixture, maybe with some vanilla flavoring thrown in ... gross! It's disgusting that Americans took a delicious food product -- buttercream icing -- and have turned it into lard paste!

 

[Dr Pepsi]

Used pasturized eggs if you're worried.

The best buttercream recipe is one for a chocolate buttercream.

8 oz dark chocolate
l lb semi-sweet or milk chocolate (depending on desired level of sweetness)
1.5 cups softened butter.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside to cool. When cool, beat the butter until light and fluffy and beat in the chocolate. Eat...er...I mean spread on your cake.

Do not use chips. Use bar chocolate. The better the chocolate, the better the buttercream.

 

[ChristmasElf]

I took a cake decorating class once as a preteen, and the people who ran the class made their own icing and brought it in in huge buckets.

I was soooooo excited about being able to illicitly sample some of the delicious-looking icing in those massive tubs, especially when it seemed that the people who ran the class didn't seem to yell at kids if they ate it.

Turns out that there was a reason they weren't trying to put the smackdown on that luscious icing ....

It was a combination of not-so-fresh beef lard, powdered sugar, and food coloring

One taste of the nasty, greasy paste that tasted like cigarette ashes mixed with wallpaper paste and I swore off it for good ...

I always have a suspicion that that stuff slathered on supermarket cakes in the U.S. is pretty much the same vile mixture, maybe with some vanilla flavoring thrown in ... gross! It's disgusting that Americans took a delicious food product -- buttercream icing -- and have turned it into lard paste!

Sorry, we do not make Buttercream icing here in the US as you have described. Decent bakeries will use butter combined with a very small amount of vegetable shortening (not LARD) sugar and either egg whites, yolks or whole eggs and sugar. Oh and a touch of vanilla. No cigarette ashes and no wallpaper paste either.

 

[tikilyn]

Lard and Crisco are 2 different things. Crisco is a solid vegetable shortening that is also available in liuid form.

Lard is an animal by product and generally not very good for you but does give great boost in taste to products.

Oh sorry but I was raised calling it lard (white, greasy, and you use it to fry and they both look the same). I'll go and edit it so no one gets freaked out. Oh by the way I use crisco sticks and no butter. Why because butter is a light yellow and when making pure white icing the butter discolors it. I was taught this in a wilton class.

 

[sha_lyn]

Sorry, we do not make Buttercream icing here in the US as you have described. Decent bakeries will use butter combined with a very small amount of vegetable shortening (not LARD) sugar and either egg whites, yolks or whole eggs and sugar

Most bakeries in the US do not use any egg product in their buttercream.

 

[ChristmasElf]

Oh sorry but I was raised calling it lard (white, greasy, and you use it to fry and they both look the same). I'll go and edit it so no one gets freaked out. Oh by the way I use crisco sticks and no butter. Why because butter is a light yellow and when making pure white icing the butter discolors it. I was taught this in a wilton class.

Unfortunately that's true about the color of butter. If you want a pure white icing you are stuck using the Crisco. Luckily nowadays, people are getting more into colors for their wedding cakes and such and not stuck with the all white on white ideas so much.

 

[ChristmasElf]

Most bakeries in the US do not use any egg product in their buttercream.

Not true. Unless you are talking about a supermarket bakery. If you are talking about a fine bakery, they will have icings that have been made using an egg product of some kind.

Supermarket bakeries are not as likely to use the eggs as much as they are more of a production style bakery, meaning that stores like PUBLIX's here in Florida have a huge bakery in the Lakeland area that supplies the cakes for their stores. The individual birthday type cakes that are done up in the individual stores use a Buttercream icing that is made without eggs.

 

[MosMom]

You can get butter that isn't a bright yellow. I find Land O Lakes butter is more of an off-white.

 

[scarlett873]

Wilton also sells a product that helps to whiten the icing. I haven't personally used it to see if it helps resolve the issue of the off-white vs white issue yet. I've used it to lighten other colors though! I made a pink once that was too bright so I added a squeeze of the white stuff and it helped to soften the pink. I'll have to try it out the next time I make icing to see!

 

[TinkerbellMama]

My buttercream frosting is vegan, no cooking required, and I learned it from a pastry chef...

And it's absolutely delicious! In fact, I'm baking and decorating a cake today, just because...and I can't wait!

 

[sha_lyn]

My pastry chef friend would be surprised to hear that all but grocery store bakeries uses eggs in their butter cream too.

 

[SandraVB79]

I would never have thought this thread would get so long!

I'm pretty sure the high sugar content keeps the other ingredients from spoiling. If your frosting has a high sugar content, it preserves the other ingredients. Similar to salt preserving items.

The tecaher told us we could keep the buttercream in the fridge for 5 weeks or so.

I am amazed to see that in some of the recipes for buttercream, no butter is mentioned as an ingredient. IMO, it's not really a "butter"cream then...

 

[Honu]

You can get butter that isn't a bright yellow. I find Land O Lakes butter is more of an off-white.

Butter without food coloring is available. I get fresh butter from a local dairy and nothing is added to it. You'd really have to sit the frosting it makes next to a crisco frosted cake to notice it isn't stark white.

I recently purchased Irish Butter and was shocked at the amount of food color in it.

 

[themarquis]

Sorry, we do not make Buttercream icing here in the US as you have described. Decent bakeries will use butter combined with a very small amount of vegetable shortening (not LARD) sugar and either egg whites, yolks or whole eggs and sugar. Oh and a touch of vanilla. No cigarette ashes and no wallpaper paste either.

Hmmm.... well, in the cake decorating class I took, they definitely used lard!

I'm sure you're right that bakeries use better stuff...

But one does have to wonder about supermarket cakes ... I think their frostings are pretty much a combination of low quality shortenings and sugar.