Buttercream adventures

I used Sharon's Zambito's buttercream recipe which is a crusting version. It crusted very nicely! I used Crisco even though her recipe calls for high ratio shortening – which is supposedly better tasting and mixes better with the powdered sugar. You can only get online and have yet to do that. I am also in a dilemma about trying to make it a bit healthier
As of now my experiences with buttercream have been:

• True crusting recipe but added meringue powder and cornstarch. This crusted very easily but was too crunchy the next day.  It was a recipe from Sewsweet...it was great to work with but will perhaps lower the cornstarch amount next time.

• Tried to make it again on October 24 – a very humid day. Needless to say, a terrible buttercream day! It was very spongy and full of holes. It even make a sucking sound when it was in the mixer! I found out one needs to add a bit of liquid, but not too much
• Buttercream by a Chef – two sticks butter and sifted powdered sugar. This tasted great but still too soft.
• Sharon Z buttercream, but this time used 6 oz of Crisco, 12 oz Spectrum Organic Shortening, 2 lbs. of powdered sugar, and 5 tbs of powdered coffee creamer. This had nice feel, but once again did not crust... Too much liquid? Was it the organic shortnening? Was it just a very humid day?

My trouble right now is finding a buttercream recipe that will work well and trying to find flavors for fillings. Even though I've done a ton of research, it is very hard to know exactly what to do.
I ended up making another swiss buttercream that was delectable but it was very soft. Knowing that the wedding will take place in Texas in September, I think that buttercream might literally slide off the cake before we get it to the reception site!!!  But this type of buttercream might make a very good filler.

In limbo right now...

                    

Cake pans

So here I am now, November, and not really sure what to do. I bought Magic Line wedding cake pans. They make me feel like a real cake baker! I actually have them on display in my kitchen to remind me that I need to bake, bake, bake, and bake more. It also makes a good photo partner for my dog…

I just don't want to bake too many cakes because I know I will be the only one eating it! But I know this is the only way I can become a true cake baker.

First next steps

So I really started going to YouTube and ended up picking up a few DVD's – two by Sharon Zambito. Back to Basics Baking for Cake Decorating and Perfecting the Art of Buttercream.

 

You can buy these here - http://www.sugaredproductions.com/home

These had very good baking advice and the tips made me feel like, okay I can maybe just do this. My next two cakes I made where pretty decent – they actually looked pretty good! I also tried to use the crusting buttercream icing to create a smooth cake like a fondant but better tasting. I also did a better job of leveling and torting, but still not perfection.  I’m finding out how consistent one has to be and it truly isn't my forte.

Where to begin...

Oh, yes. I remember it was about 5 years ago when my oldest daughter was getting married. My middle daughter and I thought we had a great and wonderful idea – bake the wedding cake! Needless to say, that idea was nixed pretty quickly. There was no way we were going to create the ‘pièce de résistance’ for her wedding!

Well just a couple of months ago, my middle daughter became engaged, and in a year’s time she will be going down the aisle. Guess what great idea I came up with again – I would like to bake and decorate the wedding cake! Ha! Well, to my surprise she said yes... OMG how exciting for me! I can't wait to start but, where do I begin??? Oh well, I have a year to perfect my skills…

Well, the first thing I did was take a Wilton decorating course. Now that was fun!  Didn't matter what the cake tasted like at this point. I just had great time learning to pipe icing, work with sugar gum paste making flowers and other items like butterflies. It was my idea of a good time!

The first attempt for making a cake finally arrived. I had my old, used, bent up cake pans – two 8" by 2", used a box cake mix, and the results? Meh! I thought after all the YouTube research I did and taking classes this would be a no brainer!

Gosh, totally wrong.

The leveling and torteing of the cake really gave me a lot of trouble. First off, the leveler I bought couldn't cut through my cake. Apparently the outer crust was over baked, so the wire couldn't penetrate it! Second, it was had such a high dome shape it looked exactly like the Coneheads from Saturday Night Live.

It really needed to be leveled. Ugh...had to do it by hand, and because I’m not the most patient person, I just gave it a good turn on the turntable and whisked my bread knife through it. Well... instead of being domed, it was now flat and lopsided. Oh well, they say frosting can hide anything...