[Sca-cooks] OOP-Buttercream Frosting

[Lisa]

*snip*
> Anyone have any great buttercream recipes?  Any tips on technique or
method
> that might help me out?  At this point, the bride is voting for the more
> standard butter and/or crisco with powdered sugar, vanilla and milk
> frosting.  I don't have a problem with that, but I'm curious about this
> buttercream thing...
*snip*

Helena,

I used to decorate wedding cakes semi professionally, and I strongly
recommend the crisco (don't use the generic vegetable shortenings, they
don't react near as well), vanilla, powdered sugar, and water (instead of
milk) icing.  You can use other flavors instead of vanilla if you prefer a
different flavor, although whatever flavor you use is likely to be just a
hint of the flavor.  This version is much more stable and works well to hold
the shapes of the decorations you add.  By using water instead of milk, you
are limiting the liklihood of spoiling if you make it ahead of time.  Even
with this icing, I don't recommend leaving it in a very hot area or in the
sun, as it will still melt if it gets hot enough.  I had one cake melt
because they had me set it up early and never turned on the air conditioning
until almost time for the reception and it got too hot.

Elizabeta of Rundel