Buttercream frosting

Cafe Society
1

When I make homemade buttercream frosting and put it on a cake, it’s extremely delicious. When I buy a can of buttercream or even just vanilla frosting made by Pillsbury or Duncan Hines, it is also very tasty. Rich and super sweet, it’s almost a little too good as I am tempted to eat it straight from the can.

However, when I buy a cake or cupcakes from the bakery section of the supermarket, the “buttercream” frosting tastes kind of blah. It tastes like cool whip and air or something. My latest cupcakes were from Foodtown but I’ve noticed the same thing at many other supermarkets. I’m curious about the disparity. Unfortunately the ingredients just list “Buttercream” like that’s an actual product that comes straight from a cow. I’m always at the supermarket after the bakery is closed, so there’s no one around to ask.

If anyone on here used to work for a bakery or supermarket and could fill me in, I would appreciate it.

2

The supermarkets probably use just a basic buttercream: fat and confectioners’ sugar, with maybe a bit of egg and milk tossed in. Richer buttercreams use more eggs.

3

Are you sure it’s not “buttercreme”? The types of frostings I think you’re talking about are often made with vegetable shortening to be more “shelf stable”. They look prettier longer but leave that greasy feeling on the roof of your mouth. You find this in diners, too.

4

Most standard bakeries us Crisco instead of butter in their “creme” frostings.

5

My guess is that they’re using the super-tasty buttercrem as an adjective instead of a real ingredient. Also, bakeries use a lard base to make frostings easier to spread and decorate, which detracts from the flavor. (which I see on preview someone else mentions.)

You also see a lot of stuff claiming to be chocolate-flavored that would more properly be called “chocolate~ish.”

6

Also, real vanilla is important. Artificial vanilla flavoring is never going to taste as good.

7

Crisco, not lard.

8

The frosting I’ve tasted on pre-bought store cakes is, lately, more of a whipped cream type frosting, not buttercream. Although that’s often what they call it, buttercream I mean.

About items being termed “chocolate flavored” well, the FDA laws state that “chocolate” as an ingredient must contain certain percentages of both cocoa butter and cocoa powder. Many “chocolate flavored” coatings have the cocoa butter replaced with a less expensive, or more stable fat, so you can’t simply call them “chocolate”

I make buttercream icing from scratch for the cafe bakery I work for. It has both real butter and shortening. The shortening is a very firm, neutral tasting fat marketed by food wholesalers for the cooking industry. You can’t get it in grocery stores. I use almond flavoring instead of vanilla, as it gives an appealing taste that many customers have remarked on, and besides, it’s colorless.

1 pound softened unsalted butter(salted will do but I prefer unsalted)
1 pound bakers shortening
4 pounds confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract.
half and half(light cream)

Cream together the fats and the sugar. Start the beating slowly, until the sugar is absorbed, then beat until mixture is very creamy and smooth. Add the flavor and beat in until it’s blended. The frosting may be too stiff, add the cream gradually as needed, until desired consistency is achieved.

Flavors other than almond can be used if desired, such as plain vanilla. But if, say, you’re baking a flavored cake, such as strawberry, then you could add the flavor to the icing as well. Our cafe has the whole range of flavor syrups for coffee and Italian soda drinks, and I find them good additions for specialty frostings.

To get chocolate flavored frosting I prefer to use cocoa powder rather than melted unsweetened chocolate. Easier, less waste and mess. And I don’t add more sugar to offset the bitterness of the cocoa powder, just a little extra liquid to keep it spreadable. I add the powder with the sugar.

I don’t make this frosting at home, because I can’t buy the shortening, and Crisco is a softer fat and has a different taste. What I use at work doesn’t have that greasy after feel in the mouth, strange as that may sound.

9

Watch carefully the labels on the cakes at the bakery or grocery store!

One of my birthday cakes as a kid, which we all thought would be a delicious buttercream frosting, turned out to be labeled…

Bettercreme

Buttercream it wasn’t…

10

A buttercream recipe from Good Eats.

11

Yeah, don’t diss lard. Lard is awesome.

12

I have never heard of buttercream frosting having egg in it. Buttercream is a completely raw frosting – wouldn’t adding raw egg that make it dangerous to the young and the elderly – the kind of people for whom supermarket cakes are often purchased?

13

Anyone who likes buttercream frosting, and especially anyone with kids who like to help in the kitchen, should read Rosemary Wells’s charming Bunny Cakes.

14

This is why I don’t buy baked goods from grocery stores anymore. I can easily make a chocolate devil’s food cake with delicious buttercream frosting at home for less than the cost of the cake in the store.

15

Um…Crisco is lard. Name brand lard.

16

Disagree. Crisco is a vegetable product; lard is from animals.

17

Crisco is a vegetable-based shortening (hydrogenated veg oil, IIRC). Lard is pig fat. Not the same thing at all, especially if you’re Jewish, Muslim, or vegetarian.

18

Um… Crisco is VEGETABLE shortening. Lard is pig fat.

19

That’s part of why I said “maybe.” See Leaper’s link for an example that uses eggs.

20

Complete with raw egg warning. That alone would make it impractical for supermarket sale (they would have to prominently display a warning, which is offputting). I also HIGHLY doubt any supermarket is making buttercream that way, when you get perfectly acceptable results creaming fat & sugar together directly. Maybe a high-end private bakery, sure. But not your local Safeway. And the OP is specifically about supermarket frosting.