Buttercream Frosting

[analogkid]

I am making a birthday cake and I can't stand canned frosting. I would like to make my own buttercream frosting.

I have seen several variations from web searches, but I don't know which is better -- some with eggs, some without, some with powdered sugar, some with confectioners sugar. Some with vanilla.

Does anyone have a good recipe for this? Also, if you prefer an ingredient like egg or a particular type of sugar, please tell me why it works better.

Much appreciated

[Mangilao30]

Powdered sugar and confectioners sugar is the same thing. I don't make buttercream typically but when I have, no eggs.

[cakerookie]

Go to Wilton.com they have some buttercream recipes there or go to Cakecentral.com you can find plenty of them there.

[analogkid]

Yep... Lots there.

Thanks

And thanks to Mangilao... good to hear from you again

[analogkid]

First of all, thanks for all the helpful advise. What a great resource this site is.

I was able to make a birthday cake that turned out pretty good, but I was not able to do it with a cake recipe from scratch.

Zukerig posted a recipe for me to try. I made the cake and it came out too sweet; not like a birthday cake at all. It was more like a heavy sponge cake saturated with sugar. I am sure I must have done something wrong... no offense Zukerig. Well I didn't have time to try it over again so I went ahead and picked up a white pre-mixed box cake. I know -- Blasphemy! But it was the best thing I could think of to get a cake done with the time I had.

I was able to find a buttercream frosting and a raspberry filling, both on Wilton.com. They both worked out great.

Even though the cake was pre-mixed, it turned out fine and the frosting with the raspberry filling in between the layers made this a very nice birthday cake.

I left the frosting white and piped a simple wave boarder on the top edge. I decorated the cake with fresh raspberries sparsely placed on top, and very lightly sprinkled pink sugar crystals. I then added a very small amount of red icing paste to the remaining frosting, making it light pink, and wrote "Happy Birthday Emily" (Emily is our new daughter).

It was a success.

[Dan123]

Hi, I am making a ladybird cake and I don't have anything that will stick the head to the body. Do you think buttercream will do it? Please help!

[chrissi_e]

Originally Posted by Dan123

Hi, I am making a ladybird cake and I don't have anything that will stick the head to the body. Do you think buttercream will do it? Please help!

Im not sure what you mean by a ladybird cake, but I would consider trying royal icing to stick things together over buttercream. Royal icing dries much faster and harder than the buttercream will. Royal icing is literally used as mortar for building gingerbread houses. It doesnt taste very good, plus it can contain uncooked eggs, so just use it to stick the head on and use the buttercream to do the rest of the icing.

Good Luck!

[tralfaz]

I did try buttercream with the raw egg yolk once. It was surprisingly good. The yolk adds a silky texture that you can't get otherwise and a great subtle eggy flavor. I haven't done it since because it was a little fussy, and the whole raw egg thing too.