To prepare enough buttercream to frost a two layer 9-in. round cake (or a three layer 8-in. round cake), you'll need one pound (450 g) unsalted butter, four large eggs, 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar, 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) table salt, and 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract.
Start by cracking all four eggs into the metal bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar, salt, and vanilla extract to the bowl.
Whisk until the eggs, sugar, salt, and extract are evenly combined.
Find a pot that the mixing bowl can sit on without touching the bottom of the pan. Pour about 1/2-in. (about 1 cm) water into the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and place the mixing bowl over the water pot to form a double boiler. This will allow us to heat the eggs slowly, minimizing the chances that the egg proteins will tighten up (forming scrambled eggs). Whisk continuously over the steaming water until the eggs reach 160°F as measured by an instant read thermometer.Once the mixture reaches 160°F, take it off the heat and beat on medium-high with the flat beater attachment for five minutes. The egg mixture will turn light yellow and fluffy. The mixture should have cooled by this time. Touch the side of the mixing bowl to check the temperature. If the mixture is too warm, it will melt the butter while you add it and the buttercream might not come together.
Reduce the mixer's speed to low and begin cutting pieces of butter into the mixer, waiting for ten to fifteen seconds before adding the next piece. One pound of butter should be cut into about 16 to 20 pieces (about 2 Tbs. per piece). During this process, the mixture will become lumpy, but don't worry about it, continue to cut pieces of butter into the mix until all the butter has been incorporated.
After all the butter has mixed in, continue to run the mixer until the mixture turns smooth and silky.
The final buttercream should be easy to spread onto the cake and should taste distinctly of sweet butter without any lumps or grittiness.Related Articles
| 4 large (200 g) eggs | whisk | whisk over double boiler until 160°F | beat on medium-high speed 5 min. | beat butter in on low speed | beat until smooth and silky |
| 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar | |||||
| 2 tsp. (10 mL) vanilla extract | |||||
| 1/2 tsp. (3 g) table salt | |||||
| 1 lb. (450 g) unsalted butter | cut into 16 to 20 pieces | ||||
Related Articles
I still don't know the reason why this happened - but it could be a combination of the high altitude (over 6000 ft. above sea level) and fairly warm temperature in the house (a bit above 75°F). I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has trouble with this buttercream - especially since it always comes together perfectly when I'm at home. Even if the buttercream comes together funny (like it did for my in Tahoe), I guarantee the taste will be great.
If you're getting pieces that don't incorporate, it's probably too cold.
Buttercream is a lot like chocolate in that you're completely on its time--trying to rush it before it's ready doesn't really pays off. I've never had buttercream that didn't come back with the right amount of heat and mixing (assuming it was made right in the first place, no broken meringue), even with lots of excess water from fruits and purees, so stay with it!
HTH
and this has eggs so I'm guessing it'll taste worse.
Am I wrong?
*shrug*
and this has eggs so I'm guessing it'll taste worse.
Usually when people buy cakes with a buttercream frosting serve it at a party, all the plates left over have lumps of buttercream pushed to one side because no one wants to eat it. I am always surprised to find that no one leaves buttercream on the plate from one of my cakes and I routinely get compliments about the flavor and consistency of this buttercream. Give it a try, if it doesn't taste good to you, let us know and tell us what you dislike - I've got more buttercream recipes that yeild different flavors and textures. :)
spacial_k sounded so certain that I did a sanity check and looked up several buttercream recipes - this time from culinary school texts - and I stand by the statements I made in this article.
sugar and water (4:1) are brought to soft ball stage
whole eggs are whipped to ribbon stage
sugar mixture is drizzled into the eggs (down the side of the bowl while mixer is running) which cooks the eggs
mixture is kept moving while it cools (we've been using an ice-bath under the 20qt mixer to cool it more quickly)
chunked butter is added
Proceed as above.
Having hated cake frostings my whole life, I can honestly say that I enjoy this frosting. It's not too sweet, nor too buttery.
If you think buttercreams are never made with yolks only, you apparently didn't learn much about buttercreams in culinary school. Just do the teeniest, tiniest little bit of research, and you'll see that French buttercream is made with yolks. Also, as a general piece of advice, its a good idea to check your facts before you accuse someone of getting them wrong - otherwise you make yourself look foolish.
This buttercream recipe cooks the eggs - salmonella risk is greatly reduced.
As Michael says, the eggs in this recipe are pasteurized (bringing the eggs to 160F for 15 seconds reduced the number of microbes to like 0.0001 of that originally present). However, I don't see why you couldn't make an Italian meringue buttercream with powdered egg whites -- I've made just about everything with them, and never had a problem.
That's simply not true. Pate a bombe, which is whipped egg yolks and soft ball sugar, is a traditional base as well as the various meringues.
(I hate to do the whip out and compare thing, but in this case I feel I should back my statement up: I apprenticed growing up in the kitchen of a classic French/Danish restaurant, have a degree in pastry from the French Culinary Institute, and have worked as a pastry chef (chef, not cook).)
I think that's because whipped Crisco + caster sugar does not in any way equal buttercream, even though that what most supermarket and standard-issue bakeries use.
-kayenne
It made a really light, delicate icing, but without the worry about salmonella. Has anyone heard of something similar? I've wanted to make it again but haven't found a similar recipe.
I am getting married this summer and have to pick out 4 cake samples (I get to choose the cake, fillings, and icings for each) to try out at my cake tasting appointment. The bakery offers (among 9 different icing choices) both "Classic Buttercream" and "Danish Buttercream." I've already decided to try the Rolled Fondant and the Marizapan (my top 2 choices), but I am now trying to decide if it is worthwhile trying both the buttercream options.
My familiy uses this kind of filling. However, I don't have the family recipe on hand. We use vanilla pudding powder.
2 cups milk
2 packages vanilla pudding powder (one package calling for 2 cups milk, so you get a thick custard)
- cook until thick, let cool completely
1 cup butter
5-6 oz sugar
- beat the butter and the sugar, then add the custard SLOWLY, until everything combines. The custard must be cold.
Note: I did not try this recipe myself. You can add cocoa or vanilla flavor (if not using vanilla pudding). You'll need to adjust the amounts if using preserves or nuts, I suppose. Corn starch can also be used (see package for amounts).
This spreads very well, and is not as "heavy" as only butter+sugar frosting.
1. Spacial K -- chill out. No one like a know-it-all, and no one especially likes an angry know-it-all.
2. In regards to the earlier post about buttercream being made with confectioners' sugar and butter, yes, I've seen that in a lot of places, too, but I get the impression that this is more like the quick version, sort of a pseudo-buttercream. Try the recipe with the eggs -- it's FABULOUS! It's more time-consuming to prepare, but it is a thousand-fold (or 1E03 for you engineers ;-D ) better than the version using confectioners' sugar. The confectioners' sugar version does have a couple of advantages, though, so don't completely forget about it. It takes less time to make, and as it sits, it dries out a bit, making the frosting kind of hard, which is nice for decorating. I like it for decorating cookies. Buttercream made with eggs is a little more heat sensitive and gets a bit droopy when it sits out.
Thanks for the great blog!!!
INGREDIENTS:
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
PREPARATION:
In a saucepan add a small amount of the milk to flour then stir to make a smooth paste. Add remaining milk. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens. Cool.
Cream butter using medium speed of electric mixer.
Gradually add sugar and salt; beat well. Add cooled milk mixture. Beat until light and fluffy; add vanilla. Frosts a two layer cake.
You should be able to refrigerate it for at least a week. Just make sure you provide enough time for it to return to room temperature.
Thanks for a really cool site! I'm adding it to my bookmarks.
K.
--for the record, I never went to culinary school, but instead learned it all from my mom/granparents/great-grandparents who owned bakeries. And our buttercream was always made with egg yolks.
I remember also reading somewhere that to get rid of some of the "cornstarch" taste in that type of frosting to stir it over some simmering water (using double boiler) for a couple of minutes--now you can just microwave it a bit to do the same thing, then let cool and rewhip.
Would microwaving the above raw egg frosting (after making it, of course), kill off the salmonella, and then you could just rewhip it?
Depends on how long you microwave it. Trouble is, you might end up cooking the eggs and liquid would probably end up weeping out of it while it cooked and whipping it up would end up making it into small chunky soup. If you gently heat it and hold it at 160°F for a couple minutes, that will kill off any bacteria. Just do that to the eggs in a double boiler right before you use it in the recipe.
I like the way you posted your recipe method above--it is a lot less fussy than the Ann Warren recipe method (of Cupcake Cafe--she was featured on one of the earlier Martha Stewart Living shows some years back), where you first make the syrup, then blend it into the whole eggs, wait for it to cool, then pour that mixture into the butter you're whipping....
Let's hear it for one-bowl frosting!
:D
I, too, graduated from a "culinary" school, but in my case, it was a "baking/pastry" school. There is a difference.
Regards,
MB
Anyway, buying an entire cake just to satisfy a random craving is ridiculous (and dangerous!), so I was hoping to learn how to make my own, but I want it to taste like the real thing. Even if I wanted to buy an entire cake, it's hard to find a decent one anymore. In my area, there are so many grocery-store bakeries that there are few independent bakeries around, and most of the grocery stores get it wrong, opting for that fluffier icing version that can only be described as tasting like a mixture of Cool Whip and Pledge.
To me, confectioners' sugar has a funny taste to it, and I think that's the problem with the recipes I've tried in the past, though I'm not 100% certain that's been the whole problem. Anyway, I wanted to know if, based on my description of what I'm trying to make, anyone can confirm that recipe is what I'm looking for.
Thank you!
Recipe:
Step One: Mix 1 cup milk with 4 Tablespoons of flour (COOK & STIR UNTIL THICK, COOL).
Step Two: Beat 16 Tablespoons of butter (unsalted) with 1 teaspoon of vanilla for four minutes.
Step Three: Slowly beat in 1 cup sugar (regular or superfine granulated) on high speed four minutes until fluffy.
Step Four: Add cooked and cooled flour mixture and beat four minutes more.
We usually used this on cakes eaten the same day, but you would probably want to refrigerate it if not (all that butter). It gets hard like a buttercream when refrigerated, so allow cake to come to room temperature before serving.
[/u]
It is a great recipe and glad to see it hear with pictures. I also like Cook’s Illustrated “Rich Coffee Buttercream Frosting”, a variation that accompanies this recipe, very tasty.
With a recipe as simple as buttercream, it seems like there would be many sources with almost the exact same recipe. Michael's had a good history of crediting his sources when he uses an existing recipe, so maybe he forgot on this one or didn't realize that the recipe he uses is the same as the Cook's Illustrated one. Maybe he'll update his write up with a reference to Cook's after reading these comments. Ahem, Michael?
Can anyone help? I need this buttercream TONIGHT. Thanks!
Uhm, not to be rude, but have you read Michael's description of how to make buttercream or are you using a random recipe? At no point does the recipe call for heating a sugar mixture to soft ball stage (which is around 235F) and then adding egg yolks to it. Michael clearly states that you start with the egg yolks, sugar, and whatnot and heat that mixture until 160.
Not having the thermometer anymore, can you sugest an approximation of when 160? (Emeril Lagasse has a buttercream that uses sugar and corn syrup heated till disolved). I would like to follow Michael's and your suggestions.
Thanks.
The 160°F is used to make sure any salmonella that may be present in the eggs is killed effectively. The current number that is quoted for salmonella infections is 1 in 10,000 eggs consumed (and most of these cases are in restaurants), so if you're certain of the safety of your eggs - then go ahead and simply heat until everything is smooth and the sugar dissolved into the egg.
It tastes wonderful, but it just doesn't hold...both times it starts to seperate. I live at 7000 feet and I know that has effects on the baked goods, but I wasn't sure if it would effect the buttercream or if I just need to keep practicing to get it right.
Any suggestions would be great!
Oh...and yes I've beaten it until my kitchenaid motor almost died...
-amber
Regular beater is fine.
1. Does this recipe make buttercream stable enough to make icing roses?
2. How long can it be refrigerated?
3. Do the eggs need to be room temperature?
About the eggs: room temp (or slightly warmer) eggs will blend together more easily.
It is firm enough to pipe rosettes and things like whipped cream, but if you want something harder, you might try fondant or marzipan.
I really like this recipe: sweetness is just right for me and I have been able to halve and quarter it (here in Japan cakes tend to be smaller, but the standard frosting is whipped or chantilly cream,) as well as flavor it easily. I much prefer the satiny smoothness to the slightly grainy and very sweet uncooked kind with confectioners sugar-- The one difficult thing is not to get distracted while cooking the eggs on the double boiler, my biggest problem when doing stirred custard, pastry cream, and genoise. ;)
Happy baking and a big "Mahalo" to Michael Chu for this versitile recipe.
Aloha,
AnMochi
http://www.baking911.com/cakes/101.htm
Click on "recipes" and then, "cakes-fillings, frostings, & glazes." Hope you find something you like.
Aloha,
AnMochi
Have you tried substituting some shortening for part of the butter? You might notice the difference in taste but it is said to be more stable.
Perhaps you should consider fondant instead of buttercream. You didn't mention the temperature of your room, but over seven hours in a warm room, and there may be food poisoning concerns if it is very warm there and the buttercream made with egg has been out for so long.
Hope this helps.
anMochi
Any chance of re-posting it?
This is a great website and Michael Chu's buttercream recipe has worked wonderfully for me in Australia. Thanks!
I've had some trouble with the database migration. I'll see if I can fix this without messing everything up.
[i:dd0f4a5101]
American [/i:dd0f4a5101]- Usually powdered sugar with flavoring and butter
Swiss- Heated eggwhites and sugar beaten with room temp unsalted butter
French-Egg yolks beaten till lemon colored and thick; (soft ball stage) sugar syrup is added then chunks of butter beaten in
Italian- Whipped eggwhites ; sugar syrup that has been heated to soft ball stage is added then butter
I personally love the swiss meringue however I use the french one for my sans rival layer cakes.
I'm just wondering if it's just me or has anyone experience the following:
I've made the frosting with the milk and flour cooked mixture and I used all butter. While it tasted good on the same day.........the next day, I could taste the flour and it tasted sort of odd like....no butter or vanilla taste at all.
I've also tried another recipe that uses corn flour added to warm milk to form a paste and then beat into creamed butter/sugar and I piped flowers with star tip. Frosting tasted good....but after a few hours, it started weeping. The flowers are still defined and held up well at this point, the frosting still taste good, soft and creamy but weeping. I used 1 ply of tissue paper to soak up the liquid trying hard not to disturb the flowers.
The decorated cake looks ok and taste good with the frosting soft and creamy but the weeping is just annoying, any comments or help?!?!
cookie
Thanks!
On May 10, 2006 at 03:10 PM, McDee said...
I'm in a pastry course at culinary school now (just got home from my pastry mid-term) and our most commonly used buttercream is a whole egg mixture like above except:
sugar and water (4:1) are brought to soft ball stage
whole eggs are whipped to ribbon stage
sugar mixture is drizzled into the eggs (down the side of the bowl while mixer is running) which cooks the eggs
mixture is kept moving while it cools (we've been using an ice-bath under the 20qt mixer to cool it more quickly)
chunked butter is added
Proceed as above.
Having hated cake frostings my whole life, I can honestly say that I enjoy this frosting. It's not too sweet, nor too buttery
Thanks!
Soft ball stage is the temperature at which you can heat sugar such that a drop of the molten stuff dropped into cold water forms a ball that can be depressed by your fingers. This is generally 235°F to 240°F.
Ribboning is a description of what the eggs do when you pick some up with a spoon and let it stream down from a height of several inches back into the bowl. It should flow uniformly (like a "ribbon") and not in parts (with gaps in the stream).
:)
A friend of mine gave me a recipe last week for a Red Velvet cake that called for a cooked frosting . I joked with her about a gravy frosting because I had never heard of frosting with flour in it before. Anyhow here it is just like i got it.
Cooked Frosting
1 cup milk
1/3 all-purpose flour
1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
milk or cream
Frosting: In a saucepan, whisk together the 1/3 cup flour and milk and cook, stirring, until thickened; cool in the refrigerator. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla with mixer. Add flour and milk mixture a little at a time (make ahead of cake so that it has plenty of time to cool). Beat well, adding milk or cream as needed. Frost layers, sides, and top of cake.
Thank You.
You can use the "regular" beaters of you hand mixer. There are a couple reasons to use butter. The most important of which is that it contributes great flavor to the frosting - it's not called buttercream because butter is flavorless. In addition, margarines may contain partially hydrogenated fats (which have trans fatty acids) which you'll want to avoid as much as possible.
Margarine is generally not recommended for baking, although one can acquire satisfactory results with it depending on one's expectations. When making candy, only butter will work properly; margarine separates at high temperatures.
i'm not a professional chef or a dietician, but i do a LOT of baking and am highly reputed among our circle of acquaintances. :-)
Butter generally contains about 15-20% water.
The legal acceptable minimum fat content of both butter and margarine is 80%. Thus, tub margarine (often called vegetable oil spread) is not recommended for baking. From what i understand, the water content in butter is determined by the churning process-- the longer one churns the cream, the less liquid remains in the butter. Margarine, as i understand, often has water added as a fat-reducing trick. Some stick margarines do have fat contents lower than 80% (some have 60%), which is why it's important to check the label. i believe those less than 80% will be clearly labeled as such, since 80% is the minimum in order to legally call a product margarine.
That all being said, i don't use margarine, so someone with more experience using it in baking might be able to further clarify this. Thanks for pointing out my inadvertent error. :-)
But the texture and taste have always come out fine. Even in some candy-making situations. And even when using cheap store brands (I know from my poor days in college). Though tubs and/or low fat sticks/spreads are always said to be a no-no since they aren't likely to get the job done.
I've never had a recipe fail me, and I'm considered quite good in my own circle. My mom's legendary! So I think I can speak with some authority on this subject. Not that it matters, since I'm abandoning margarine use due to the whole trans fat deal, anyway.
Too bad; I made a mean margarine-based faux buttercream frosting, too (even better than Mom's, which rocked). Nobody ever scraped globs of it to the side in my house; my kids sometimes eat only that part of a cake, and us grown-up kids still fight over who gets to lick the beaters. Or we did. *sigh* Makes me wonder how much better it could possibly be with eggs. And real butter, of course. ;)
[u:99f888ca01]Fluff Frosting[/u:99f888ca01]
1c milk
1/4c flour
1tsp. vanilla
1c sugar
1/2c butter
1/2c shortening
In a small saucepan, cook flour and milk until thinck. Stir well. Cover and set aside to cool.
In a bowl, beat sugar, butter and shortening at high speed until fluffy. Add the milk mixture and vanilla. Beat until frosing is very fluffy.
On another topic-
I had a wonderful French Buttercream on a cake at a party today. I found this buttercream recipe in my search to find the same type of buttercream. From conversation with the creator of the delicious dessert, I know it had egg in it. It was so creamy and smooth and so very tasty. I hope to duplicate it for my son's birthday in a couple of months.
Thanks for the website!
Great recipe, and no I wouldn't try the Swiss one, real pain in the keester for my taste!!!
when it gets to 34'C, you're in trouble . . .
but 24 should be good for several hours.
Thanks - it seems I may have to resort to regular buttercream frosting then, since this cake is being made on a Saturday for a Sunday event. I was hoping someone would say it could last for the following day at least.
the cake, at a cool temp will do fine for days.
I thought your concern was traveling in a car for 'a spell' in 24'C temp.
that is, the buttercream warming up and turning to soup.....
YOU ARE INSANE AND HAVE ZERO TASTE!
This is not the easiest recipe to make and I must admit that the first time I made it did not come together and I had to toss. On the second attempt it was a success and tasted wonderful. After making it, my husband who doesn't eat sweets, asked for a piece of cake and wanted the buttercream smeared on top. He devoured the entire thing. This is a definate winner!!!
I have a couple of questions.
1. Is there anyway to stabilized to survive east coast summer weddings in heat and hummidity of 95 degrees F?
2. I would like to use this on my wedding cakes with fondant topping but you should not refrigerate fondant covered cakes. How can this be stored once the fondant is placed?
Thanks for the recipe!
Actually, this frosting should not be refrigerated before being spread on a cake--no wonder people are having problems with it weeping and separating after being refrigerated!
1/2 cup room temperature butter (1 stick)
1 lb confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla
milk
Start with putting butter, sugar, and vanilla into a bowl. Add 1-2 Tbsp of milk to start. Begin to mix and check for consistency. Add more milk as needed to get the icing liquid enough to spread, but be careful not to add too much. Most likely you will need a total of around 3-4 Tbsp.
This recipe makes a very fast buttercream that is sweet and not too buttery. It will be a bit yellow unless you use shortening and clear vanilla which hurt the taste. No eggs and takes 2 min if your butter is room temp. Great for icing event cakes.
Congratulations to Michael Chu! This site and recipe is referenced on Wikipedia's "Buttercream" page!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttercream#Fondant-type_buttercream
However, I made it again tonight, and I don't know what happened, but it became soupy like melted ice cream. It never firmed up. I ended up beating it for over an hour. I tried chilling it in a ice bath while beating it on the mixer which helped a bit, but as soon as I stop the mixer and try using the buttercream, it would go back to the melted ice cream stage.
HELP! What did I do wrong?
This time right before the mixture came together, the butter started to separate. I tried cooling it down with ice and cold towels, when that didn't work, I stuck it in the fridge for about 10 minutes. When I pulled it out, I can see the butter had melted (little pools of melted butter throughout the mix). When I mixed the butter in, it was a little bit colder than room temp (I'd read in another site that this can help create a more stable buttercream). I didn't even mix it for that long.
It's happened to me before with another recipe. Is it because of the weather today? It's not really warm in Vancouver, but it is very humid today. Please help. I'm addicted to meringue buttercream and can't work past these little/ BIG issues. THANKS!!
essentially this is an emulsion - a mix of water&fat whipped into a congealing mixture.
note that in this case the fat/butter is _physically_ beat to a pulp ie itty bitty pieces vs. the more conventional "whisk up the liquids" emulsion technique.
once an emulsion breaks, it is difficult to get it reassembled via the intuitive-but-probably-won't-work "refrigerate the batch" approach.
also possible - overbeating the eggs can result in liquid / water separating - perhaps the melted ice cream effect?
I just wanted to "thank you" for taking the time to post this recipe, and demonstration. I look forward to trying this out, tomorrow. :)
Martha Stewart's Feb 2009 Living magazine, says buttercream will keep for 3 days in the fridge.
her formula is Butter and sifted confectioner's sugar.
Butter is fat - a preservative which I have never, ever witnessed going rancid.
Sugar is a preservative.
How can you only get 3 days out of 2 combined preservatives?
I accidentally seasoned my dansken kitchen clogs with salt, and am afraid that they will be around 3000 years from now, as salt is also a great preservative.
her formula is Butter and sifted confectioner's sugar.
If those are her only two ingredients, then I'm pretty certain it will last a lot longer than 3 days in the fridge. They're just being careful over there.
Butter can go rancid if left out especially in humid environments, but it takes quite some time in the fridge.
Also, my friend's favorite frosting is peanut butter. Do you all think i could substitute the butter with peanut butter? If I get daring enough to try this i will certainly let you know how it goes. Thanks again,
The butter should be cold, but not rock hard. If it's room temperature, it should be okay, but it shouldn't be on the verge of melting.
On another subject, I love the flour/milk buttercream. It's our favorite tasting icing, however, yesterday I used it to fill and ice a 3-layer cake. This icing doesn't work well for decorating, so I just made some butter/shortening type icing to decorate with. The side decorations kept sliding down, so I salvaged it by scraping off all the flour/milk icing, and replaced it with the butter/shortening recipe. This icing doesn't taste as good but it was okay, but by the time I got to the party the oil in the icing was begining to look "wet". Please tell me what frosing people put beneath royal icing. One more question; how much buttercream should go under fondant, and do most people peel the fondant off? Is it mostly for appearance? Thank you for these answers. I have parkinsons, and can't be involved in a regular class, but its a wonderful hobby, and it helps my mind and body keep going.
Thanks again for your help.
Janice
the frosting recipe says
6tbsp plain flour
440 ml milk
450g unsilted butter, softened
450g sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract.
Instructions mix together the ingredients and apply the icing.
I've never seen a recipe before that used uncooked flour.
Please can someone confirm this to be correct and safe.
I have searched and searched (and searched) on the net for a [u:73a554762a]clear[/u:73a554762a] answer as to how long a buttercream - french/egg yolk type - can be kept at room temp without worry of poisoning to friends and acquaintances. As I understand, cake responds very poorly to refrigeration, causing it to dry out (whereas its molecules apparently do well with freezing and won't cause a sense of dryness upon thawing). I'm therefore not eager to put my cake in the fridge, even if I can bring it to room temp before serving. I certainly think I have experienced the dry fridge effect and it's not nice.
So... if I make and ice a cake with french buttercream in the morning and leave it at room temp all day on a non-summer's day, is this cake safe to eat in the evening? If I then put the leftovers in the fridge, how many days can I "enjoy" the dry leftovers before poisoning would occur?
Do cake shops that sell slices (or cupcakes) keep their wares in refrigerated cases???
If I wanted to be really safe and ice a cake with an icing that has no eggs, can anyone suggest a recipe that's not as sickly sweet as the powdered sugar icing (the typical one which has a pound of sugar and 1/2 pound butter)?
Thanks so much for your help!!
An American in London
http://www.baking911.com/pantry/storage_baked_goods.htm
Buttercream frosting made with butter, confectioners' sugar, flavorings and liquid are safe to eat if stored in a cool place outside of the refrigerator for 2 - 3 days. You can crumb coat the cake with buttercream the night before and then frost and decorate it the next day and serve that evening without a problem. Powdered sugar buttercream icings made with fat freeze well. Cakes frosted with Meringue-based buttercreams freeze well, too.
as a generality, uncooked eggs:
Perishable frostings and fillings - contains dairy and uncooked eggs, except for butter Refrigerator - 2 to 3 days (For best results, whipped cream and a few others must be served immediately or within a few hours)
cooked egg types are okay 2-3 days at room temp.
As I'm such a paranoid I just want to double-check -- would we count an icing as a 'cooked egg' icing wherein a hot sugar solution is poured into yolks and then this new mixture is cooked on a gentle boil for two minutes?
To that end, I've always been told to be wary of cream cheese sandwiches left out more than a couple of hours. Is this true? How about cream cheese icings? How long are they safe out for? Does the sugar in them hold back on the development of unsafe bacteria so even these icings can be left out a day or two? I need hard facts!!
Finally, I'm still open to and looking for sans-egg icing ideas that don't involve four whole cups of confectioners (powdered) sugar for a 9" cake. So I'd still be most delighted for any ideas from people.
Thanks again from the American in London.
x
when you are using processed products - like cream cheese - one could presume the processing/etc has killed any salmonella bacteria - the recommendations for non-refrigerated storage times are precautionary in that respect - however 'better safe than sorry' does apply. . . for stuff like sandwiches, altho the cream cheese itself may be 'sterile' & safe, other ingredients could carry salmonella bacteria and 'contaminate' the dairy product - which is a fertile breeding ground for bacterial.
high sugar content does retard bacterial growth - think of jams & jellies...
but diary products are an ideal growth media for bacteria - hence raw dairy anything must be properly handled and stored.
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup Butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
Food color, if desired
Combine all ingredients except food color in large bowl. Beat at low speed until well mixed. Increase speed to medium; beat, scraping bowl often, until light and fluffy. Tint frosting with food color, if desired.
Enjoy
After making this, I will never eat that crap again! This recipe inspired me to make all sorts of buttercreams - French, Swiss, and Italian. The French recipe I found (using just egg yolks) and the American recipe given here are my favorite - they taste like creme brulee icing! The Swiss and Italian buttercreams are nice if you want really white icing. They are also bit lighter in texture so they work well for icing cupcakes 9I like to make a sort of mound). I threw a bit of cream of tartar into the meringue when I was making Italian buttercream and it was the perfect consistency/stability for piping/decorating. Thanks for the great recipe.
I've been playing with these recipes trying to make a perfect chocolate buttercream. I am not quite there yet, but I am enjoying the process :)
nom-nom-nom
I'm already salivating over how good it's going to be. I love your recipes!
My question is: can I use 4 eggs,but cut the butter from recipe in half(4 eggs and 1/2 pound butter) or will it mess up the whole consistency?I really like to use more eggs,because it will feel less buttery and heavy,but do you think it will come up to the correct consistency with half of the butter?
Thank you in advance!I'm waiting for your response and will make the cake this weekend.
aside from the vanilla, the liquid in the recipe comes from the egg and butter (which has about 10% water by weight)
you've probably seen many buttercream recipes with milk - if you opt to go with 50% of the butter, you may need to add a bit more liquid (I'd try the milk) which by my rough calculations would be 2-3 tablespoons. go slow on adding additional liquid - once added, if the mix is too thin, the only solution is to add more and more sugar.... [I goofed up my measurements once - wound up with enough icing for the cake and both cars . . .]
I would start creaming the butter and sugar, and as it may appear "too dry" add a bit of milk until you get the "conventional" lighten creaming result with no gritty sugar left in the mix.
>>honey
sorry, we're out on a limb here - definitely into "experiment" territory.
honey, although it does contain water - it is also a lot of sugars - that would not be my first option.
not sure that Mother Nature intended "icing" to be a health food - cake is pretty much just an excuse to spoon down a good tasting mixture of sugar and fat . . . .
thanks for any help on this!
worth a try - but be aware the yolk contains both fat and emulsifiers - the result may not be quite a smooth as with whole eggs.
It is now my favorite icing. I am just about to make a double batch for my granddaughter's birthday cake.
Thanks for this lovely recipe!
My son's third birthday is in two days and I think I'll have to chuck this out and try again with something based on icing sugar - call this a failed attempt.
Any suggestions welcome.
you could try "superfine" sugar - it has finer crystals that dissolve more readily.
If I were to have guessed, I would have thought that perhaps that the butter didn't fully integrate with the other liquids and while very smooth at room temperature, micro fine butter pieces congealed to make a grainy texture once the frosting was refrigerated. Perhaps not, so I will try again with the going more slowly with the superfine sugar.
Thanks.
Good catch, I accidentally left it off the step-by-step, but had it in the recipe summary table. I've updated the article.
I used the 5 quart mixing bowl and I combined everything but the butter as instructed. I whisked constantly over a pot of simmering water until the egg mixture hit 160, it took at least 5 minutes, but I wasn't really watching the clock, as the instructions didn't give a time to shoot for, so I can't be sure.
Everything seemed okay, I put the bowl in my mixer and beat with the paddle beater on high five minutes. I think this is where my trouble started...while my egg mixture did get light yellow, it got more bubbly than fluffy, and when I slowed the beater and started adding butter after the five minutes was up, the butter never combined with the egg mixture - I just ended up with whipped butter coated in sweet pastuerized egg goo.
It tasted alright, but looked quite awful - where did I go wrong? Any tips for next time?
thank you so much for all of the wonderful ideas you all have shared over the years on this recipe!
I was looking for a no egg alternative to my mocha buttercream recipe and the flour/milk did it!
Subject: Confectioners Sugar Alternative
My mother's "special" cakes were the Waldorf-Astoria red chocolate cake and Nutmeg Feather Cake from a 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook. She always used what she called 12 minute frosting (also called "Poor Man's Icing) on both -- still my favorite frosting. No confectioners sugar. Easy and cheap and tasty -- and it can be flavored as you wish. It is similar to the two listed above but not quite. Great as a filling for sandwich cookies or in/on chocolate cupcakes.
Recipe:
Step One: Mix 1 cup milk with 4 Tablespoons of flour (COOK & STIR UNTIL THICK, COOL).
Step Two: Beat 16 Tablespoons of butter (unsalted) with 1 teaspoon of vanilla for four minutes.
Step Three: Slowly beat in 1 cup sugar (regular or superfine granulated) on high speed four minutes until fluffy.
Step Four: Add cooked and cooled flour mixture and beat four minutes more.
I use about 2-3 c. powdered sugar instead of granulated (I like the texture and lighter flavor better)
and mix coffee syrup and melted (cooled) chocolate of your choice for the mocha.
(I usually substitute instant coffee and baking cocoa with great success)
anyway, it turned out great.
Thanks all!
:D
So simply, worlds best icing for eating.