French Buttercream Recipe Help!!!

As they say, 'It ain't gona happen." You can't use yellow ingredients and produce a pure white product. If it didn't have 12 egg yolks, I would suggest using clear vanilla (which I think is really artificial vanilla flavoring) and to look at several brands of butter, choosing the least yellow. (Don't even think about using the white food coloring sold by Wilton. It won't masque the yellow color but it will lend an off taste and thin the buttercream.) But I think the 12 yolks will negate the other suggestions. I would suggest that you use the buttercream as a filling between layers and use something else on the exterior of the cake. In my opinion, nothing beats rolled fondant when you want a pure white cake with a classy appearance. If the bride won't accept the fact that you can't produce a pure white buttercream out of yellow egg yolk, I would run, not walk, away from the job. Hopefully the groom will pick up on the warning as well!

Could you use egg whites in place of the yolks? You could make white butter out of cream. And like Vox said, clear vanilla. ~Peggy

Like Peggy say's you could change the yolks to whites, and make Italian buttercream, off hand I don't have the recipe but it is very similar, hot syrup, cool, add butter, I have used it a lot, but you will still get a very pale cream colour from the butter. qahtan

I think the texture of the two products is quite different. It's not like you would be exchanging the egg white for the yolks and using the same recipe. You are simply making a different type of frosting. I like both. And as you say, the buttercream made by beating butter into Italian meringue will not be pure white.

True, though myself I like the tradiditional wedding cake, with the rolled icing rather than the the royal , when I was married it was all royal icing. One doesn't even have to make the rolled icing any more just buy it and roll it, can be tricky to apply though. or so I found. qahtan.

I make my own rolled fondant. It is pretty easy as long as you want white. I really envy bakeries that have sheeters to quickly roll the fondant into uniform sheets. I can be tricky to apply to large cakes. I find it much easier and quicker on small cakes as compared to buttercream. Rolled fondant is so elegant that it looks best, in my opinion, with a minimum of adornment.

Yes I make my own rolled fondant, but I know others who have bought it already made. I use and Australian recipe that calls for glucose and gelatine, bit of a job to knead the last of the sugar in , but sooooooooooo smooth when done, the end product is great, I have also used it to make flowers. qahtan

sooooooooooo

I use the recipe in the Cake Bible. It calls for glucose, but there is formula given for the substitution of corn syrup for the glucose. It is a bit of a job but much less expensive than the tiny boxes of ready-made. Someone here claimed that the commercially produced stuff was better for making shapes. I use gum paste for things like flowers, so can't comment on that aspect. I think the boxed fondant has an off taste.

A trick I use to get uniform thickness is to get metal rods from the hardware store. I get rods the depth of my counter. Two rods of each thickness (1/8", 1/4", 1/2", etc.) then use a nice heavy marble rolling pin.

You can use wooden dowels instead of metal but over time the wood will get a little dented and crushed. I use the wooden dowels with my wood rolling pin.

I was in minds about getting the Cake Bible , then some one said it wasn't all that wonderful. If you are into making rolled fondant etc then you are obviously interested in cakes period, what do you think of it. I did get The Village Bakers Wife a few weeks back, totally disappointed in it. Are you a baker or is it just a hobby. just me being nosy. qahtan

Nobody ever said anything about "having" to have the white frosting, I just really wanted to try to get it white. (although I do have a cake to do in October where the bride's mother is worried about the frosting not being absolutely bright white, and she absolutely LOVES the flavor of my french buttercream). This cake is for a teacher who my daughter and son both had in her first two years of teaching, and I really like her, and I just really wanted to make her cake something she'd really love. I have a lot of my own say in what goes on with the cake, so it's not that big of a deal. I've done a lot of fondant, but never really found a recipe with a flavor that I liked. They always tasted icky to me. The cake she chose for me to make is actually a fondant cake, but we decided to do it in buttercream instead. If I can get a really good fondant recipe, I'll talk to her about that, instead. Thanks!

I am just a home baker. I make the occasional cake by request, but I try not to get involved with things like weddings as it is too much bother unless you do it on a regular basis.

The Cake Bible is a good read for the basic information. It has some nice tables for scaling cakes for various sized pans. There are some good basic recipes. Much of the book is devoted to elaborate showcase cakes that one might make for a very special occasion. I would recommend that you go to a bookstore and browse through the book before buying it. I think your appreciaiton of the book depends primarily on your approach to baking.

I'll make a small batch and give it a try. I have some bachelor's living across the street, along with some teenage boys at home, so extra cake never goes to waste around here anyway! I could always also use white margarine and butter extract/flavoring, maybe...

Thanks, everyone, for all your help and advice! I have the cake bible, I'll try out that recipe. I have a few other fondant recipes also, from Pastry and Wedding Cake class. I'll make a few small batches and see how they turn out and hopefully I'll find one that I like the taste of. I wish I had purchased the sheeter from the bakery I used to work at...an old tabletop sheeter, one setting slipped, but I still could've worked with it! Oh well. Thanks again! I appreciate everyone's input!

Jenn. W.

I wouldn't expect rolled fondant to taste luscious. Most people just peel it off and eat the cake. In fact, most people are so horrified about fat and carbs that they scrape away any type of frosting. As for the use of the word "having," it isn't one that I used.

Jennifer, A cake or any thing for that matter is only as good as what goes in it. To me margarine, is a definite no no. And as for making white butter out of cream, during the process of making cream into butter it naturally goes yellow, it's in the richness of the cream not an added colour. qahtan

I could always also use white margarine

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Could you use egg whites in place of the yolks? You could make white butter out of cream. And like Vox said, clear vanilla. ~Peggy

Well, ya know, eggs and butter ARE yellow.

If someone wants the real thing -- and loves the taste -- then she should understand that it won't be white.

If you want to make it with Crisco instead of butter, and no eggs, she might like the way it looks, but maybe not the way it tastes!

Exactly, I went to cake decorating classes for a while, and it was mainly the so called butter cream, really it was Fluffo, looked nice but the taste, yuck. But then some people really don't know the difference, if it looks good they think it must taste good, huuuuuh. qahtan

Couldn't you ice the cake with the buttercream, then add a very thin layer of a very white icing to mask the color?

gloria p