Making a Bakery Style Buttercream Frosting

I received the following email from home cook Rhonda requesting a recipe for a buttercream frosting that would taste more like she has experienced at a bakery. Here is what she said,

"I am a stay at home mom that has looked everywhere for the
real sweet buttercream frosting that the bakery uses.  I have looked
on-line, cook books and none of the recipe’s are right.  The kids love helping me make cakes but they only like to decorate them.  They do not like the frosting.  If you have a recipe I would love
it.  I will keep trying until I get the right one.  I hope you can help. Thank you, Hi Rhonda!"

I immediately sent her request to my friend Chef Jenni Field, a professional pastery chef who graduated from Orlando Culinary Academy with her own blog called Pastry Methods and Techniques. Jenni asked for her original recipe that you can see below and offer her the following comments and recipe. (The photo above is from a birthday party my daughter attended. I was blown away at how this caked looked with its rich buttercream frosting that even include the ribbon. It’s not a great photo but I couldn’t ask the hostess to take the cake out of the box just so I could take a photo.)

Hi Rhonda,

I’m sure it must be frustrating to have fun decorating a cake with your kids only to have them refuse to eat it because they don’t like the frosting! I, personally, like almost all kinds of frosting, but I will do my best to give you some recipes that your kids will enjoy.

You said that you are looking for a recipe that tastes like bakery frosting. Unfortunately, there are many bakeries, and most of them use their own “special recipes.” It might be difficult to pinpoint the style of frosting you’re looking for, but I’ll give it a shot. Thank you for sending in the recipe you used. This gives us a place to start.

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup shortening
1/8 salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/8 almond extract
5 cups powdered sugar
4-6 teaspoons half and half

This recipe is your basic Wilton-style American buttercream. The texture can be kind of fluffy but a little bit gritty since it is based on powdered sugar. Powdered sugar contains some corn starch to keep it from clumping, and sensitive palates can pick the raw starch flavor up. Even if you don’t taste the raw starch, the texture is unmistakable—barely gritty if you rub a little between (clean) fingers.

Many icings are based on this basic American fat + powdered sugar + flavoring formula, including one of my favorites, cream cheese frosting. So, I won’t even linger at the standard American counter. Let’s wander over to another counter.

I found a modification of the standard American buttercream in The Whimsical Bakehouse by Kaye Hansen and Liv Hansen. I’ve made this before, and it is pretty tasty. The use of boiling water cooks out some of that raw starch flavor, and the resulting texture is much smoother.

House Buttercream

3 cups confectioners’’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup boiling water
1 1/3 cup shortening
3 ½ ounces (7 tablespoons) cool butter, cut into pieces

(more…)

HOW TO GLAZE A CAKE

I received an email from Nan asking, "I am making a lemon cake. Most of them call for a glaze. What type of frosting would you suggest for a lemon cake? Thanks, Nan.

I immediately forwarded this email to my friend Chef Jenni Field, a graduate of Orlando Culinary Academy - Le Cordon Bleu and a professional pastry chef with her own web site called Pastry Chef Online. She is a wealth of culinary knowledge especially when it comes to baking and pastry. Here is how she asked Nan’s question:

Simple Glaze

Depending upon the texture of your lemon cake, a glaze or a frosting could be called for. If you are making a dense lemon cake, like a lemon pound cake, I recommend a lemon glaze. A simple way of making a lemon glaze is to mix fresh lemon juice with powdered sugar until it has a "drizzling" consistency. Then, drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake.

If you’d like the glaze to soak into the cake, glaze the cake while it is still very warm. The glaze will thin and run, so you will have to "baste" the cake several times with the drippings. The end result will be a lovely, moist cake with a deep lemon flavor and a shiny, slightly sticky outside. Sift some powdered sugar over the cake right before cutting and serving for a pretty look.

Simple Lemon Glaze

Another option for a lemon glaze would be to make a simple lemon syrup. Bring the zest of two lemons, 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 cup water to a boil. Cool to room temperature, and strain out the lemon zest. Taste the syrup. You can add a touch of fresh lemon juice or a bit of lemon extract if you’d like it more lemony. Thoroughly brush the cake with this syrup while it is still very warm, but after you have taken it out of the pan.

Lemon Frosting

If you are making a lemon cake with a lighter crumb, more like a standard yellow or white cake, you can use a lemon frosting. Lemon cream cheese frosting might be nice–the slight tang of the cream cheese would marry nicely with the fresh lemon flavor of the cake. Cream 4 oz. each of softened unsalted butter and softened cream cheese until light and fluffy. Slowly add 1 pound of sifted confectioner’s sugar and cream very well. Beat in a pinch of salt, the zest of 1 lemon and a couple of tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (enough to give it a good spreading consistency).

Whatever option you choose, and whatever kind of lemon cake you made, I’m sure it will be very tasty.

What is Pectin?

For those of you who don’t jar your own jellies and jams, you may be unfamiliar with pectin. It is a polysaccaride that is found naturally in fruits like berries and when combined with sugar and heated up becomes a thickening agent. Before pectin, you would have to continuously reduce jam over heat to get it to the right consistency.

Found in most supermarkets but with a limited shelf life, you want to use a new box each year. I have found an excellent source describing just about everything you want to know about pectin here.

What About Sugar Free Pectin?
I received an email from Robert N. asking about the availability of “No Sugar Pectin” for preparing raspberry jam. I immediately contacted Chef Jennie Field, a graduate of Orlando Culinary Academy, Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts School in Florida. Here are Robert’s question and the Chef’s response:

Hi RG -    Kathy M. suggested I ask you  to help in our quest for NO-SUGAR PECTIN. We grow lots and lots of raspberries and the family loves the jam my wife makes, but prefers it with no-sugar pectin.  We just have not been able to find it.  Any suggestions?

Chef Field’s Response:

Most pectin needs a high sugar to gel–there are special low-sugar and no-sugar kinds you can get to make jams and jellies with a lower sugar content.  Here’s a link to purchase no-sugar pectin:

Apparently, you can use this type of pectin to make a Polaner All-Fruit type of jam:  fruit, some fruit juice, and maybe some sugar along with the no sugar pectin.

In my experience, raspberries have a pretty high pectin content.  I used to make a great raspberry jam at the restaurant with just IQF raspberries, lemon juice, a bit of salt, and sugar.

Not sure how “low-sugar” they want their jam to be, but my ratio was 1 to .9 fruit to sugar–gelled just fine, as long as I reduced it to the right consistency on the burner.