As beautiful as fondant is, how many times have I heard people say things like: “It tastes like play dough” or “they’re just going to pick it off anyway”, or my personal favorite, “don’t put any of that fondue stuff on there”? They want the good stuff, the real deal, old school icing.
Now I do just have to interrupt this broadcast and stick a little plug in here to say that MY fondant, my homemade stuff, the one that you all swoon over, TASTES AMAZING.
Now buttercream…
Old school you say, in my neck of the woods, that means buttercream, more specifically American Buttercream (aka ABC)…
Here we go now, ABC it’s easy as 123. ABC-123 Baby you and me…
EVERY TIME… Without fail, I sing that in my head when I write ABC (and one more time now… I’ll spare you the audio).
I mean who doesn’t like a smooth, creamy icing smothering their cake, RIGHT?!?
But here’s the thing, smooth buttercream… Yup… My nemesis.
Now I know you can get these cool acrylic disks, but no, I don’t have ’em, yet! And from what I know they make life so much more simple… Ok maybe I’ll order them now.
I prefer texture, dimension and something a little more fun (Yup you guessed it, a cop out 😉 ).
There is still technique and finesse required to execute these textures correctly, however they require less work and are a little more forgiving than a smooth buttercream. Not to mention usually MUCH easier to fix if damaged in travel.
Check out the video below as I bring to life a 3 tier cake from beginning to end and completely cover it in buttercream. I’m not sure what you would call this technique (I’m sure it has a real name) but for me, I call it Horizontal Lines!!! Woah, I know… CREATIVE!
This technique requires:
- Your favorite buttercream (You may need to tweak your recipe a little to get the desired consistency, I usually add milk, warm water or whipping cream, really it’s whatever you have handy!)
- An angled spatula
- Pot (pan) of hot water
- Piping bags (I used disposable)
- Bench Scraper (pick up a stainless steel one here)
*****At the moment this video covers a few different areas, decorating, food safe flowers and boxing for travel****
Here is a shorter video of the support and stacking process.
There are so many more buttercream techniques to share, and we will over time. Things like:
- Petal Technique
- Rustic Techniques
- Rosettes
- … and many more!
As it stands at this moment in time, I don’t share my recipe, for 1 reason only: I have developed it over the years and I do still sell my cakes locally, so it is kind of a protected secret… for now 🙂
BUT I wouldn’t leave you completely hanging, check out this post to get yourself some tips, tricks and secrets to a great ABC
… Man not again… ABC-123, Baby you and me!
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