Butter Icing Recipe?

[Mickey]

Anyone have a killer butter icing recipe that doesn't involve shortening? The thoughts of putting Crisco on my cake just gags me, so I'd prefer margarine or butter only. I had a recipe that was awesome, but it will not work anymore--not sure if margarine has changed over the years or if the high altitude throws things off?

Going to bake a cake today and would really appreciate some help!

TIA!
Mickey

[kat]

No recipe sorry. I'm not big on sweets myself. I have a friend who worked in a bakery and she said that crisco is what they used for all their icings.

[AnnW]

Mix together butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar.

Have never used crisco..I agree that would be yucky.

[Amy2]

6 tablespoons butter
4 1/2 to 4 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter until light and fluffy.
Gradually add about half the powdered sugar (I measure it, then sift it in) beating well.
Beat in the milk and vanilla.
Gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar, then add additional milk if necessary.

OR

Prepare frosting as above, except beat in 1 EGG instead of 1/4 cup milk. After adding remaining powdered sugar, beat in enough milk, if necessary, to make frosting spreadable.

[Fern]

Mixing half margarine and half Crisco makes for a very creamy icing, it's not Yucky at all, because if it was I don't thing I would still be in the cake decorating business. My customers have loved my icing for the past 10 years.

[Melody]

I use the half and half like Fern does, never thought of it as anything but good! lol
Amy, your recipe sounds good. I think next time I bake a cake I will try it. Will it go through an icing bag easily?
Fern, how long have you been in the cake decorating business? Do you do character cakes or wedding cakes? I took a course but only do characters for my kids birthdays and for my nieces and nephews. I am going to do a wedding shower cake come Sept. but I need to do a few for practice first.

[Mickey]

Yummy sounding recipes, guys! Thank you very much! Going to bake the cake tonight!

Fern, I used to work at a bakery, too, and they only used shortening and it wasn't very nice icing...even their buttercream icing had a shortening base with the buttercream mix. I've never tried half and half--I'm sure that's much nicer than the straight shortening ones! Guess when you think about it, it's all just solid fat anyway, right? LOL!

Thank you all again for the suggestions!

[Fern]

The first cake I ever decorated was when my ds was 1.
I enjoyed doing it and just did them for my family, until people kept telling me how great my cakes looked and that I should do them for others. Well I started doing them through our bakery about 10 years ago, our bakery has since closed and I am still kept very busy with people ordering directly from me now. I do character cakes, cakes with just pictures drawn on them, basically anything, even wedding cakes. Just did a 3 tier wedding cake yesterday. I still really enjoy doing them even the days when I have 3 cakes to decorate and still go to my other jobs,I think it's the variety that keeps it fun, if i had to do the same design over and over, it probably wouldn't be as enjoyable.

[Melody]

Fern

The reason I took the course was because I was making cut-up's for the kids birthdays and holidays and thought it would be nice to do it a little more professional looking. I like to do the characters but find the mixing of the colors and getting everything ready is the longest part. I am good enough for my family but doubt if I could sell them off to anyone else. This is why I need to practice for the cake is Sept. I am making the flowers out of gumpaste with the stamps to make them. Ever use those before? The recipe also calls for me to use rolled fondont which I haven't tried before so I might end up using a poured icing instead. Like I said, lots of practice this summer. LOL
I couldn't make 3 in one day like you though, I end up with an awful mess to clean after one!

[Fern]

I have never used the gum paste, yet.
But I have done the rolled fondant, the first time was a little frustrating but after I've done it a few times I quite enjoy it. It rolls out just like pie pastry, is nice to do on a smaller cake, but on a larger cake is sometime hard to get it lifted up and on withing ripping. It is more of an icing for show, not really very tasty.
Have fun practicing!!

[Amy2]

I took a cake decorating class with some friends last year, it was a blast! But I didn't want to eat a bunch of cake, so I bought one of those styrafoam cake molds to practice on. It's great! Of coure, I haven't had time to actually practice....
Amy

[TXmom]

So, how did the cake turn out? What was it for?