Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Buttercream Beauties


I think its safe to say buttercream is BACK. Not that it ever went away completely, but after years (decades even?) of playing second string to fondant, buttercream-covered wedding cakes are making a comeback.


Maybe its the blossoming culture of relaxed bridal "rules", or the trend of rustic-chic wedding decor, or it could be valuing taste over perfection, but more and more brides are eschewing fondant for the cake of their dreams.


I have a few opinions on fondant, some of them conflicting. There is a time and a place for fondant cakes. Many of these times and places happen to be weddings, but I don't see it as a necessity anymore . Once upon a time, and I was recently told this by a VERY traditional, VERY southern mother of the bride, the cake represented the 'bride', and therefore needed to be white. Pure white, inside and out. She was not very happy with the bride wanting my buttercream on the outside, and buttermilk cake on the inside, both of which are made with butter, and therefore not pure white. I explained that I do not use shortening or imitation vanilla extract which results in my frosting being a very slightly off white, but that the flavor and texture is unbeatable. For my cakes, if you want pure white, it has to be fondant, I simply will not compromise the quality of my ingredients for color.


If your primary goal with the cake is design, and tying it perfectly into the theme or color scheme of your event, then fondant may be the obvious way to go. On the other hand, I would say 90% of people end up peeling it off before consumption, or just eating around it. It truly is for aesthetic purposes only, albeit an edible one. Don't get me wrong, I love making edible artworks with fondant, but sometimes, buttercream is best.


Sometimes, simplicity makes for a stunning cake on its own, without all the adornment of details and adornments. These two cakes were my first of many this wedding season and I think they kicked it off with a great start. More to come, so stay tuned.



14 comments:

Rian said...

GORGEOUS!!!! Love them, and it makes me soooo excited for you to do mine! I love the polka dot one. So cute!

Carrie said...

Is that the cake I snuck in and took at peek at?!!! Beautiful cakes--both of them! I can only imagine what you have in store for your sister's cake...

LaLa said...

Thanks so much for posting this! I am in the process of planning my wedding (here in Australia) and have refused to look at many bridal sites so I don't fill my head with OTT ideas. But this puts my mind at ease that I've made the right decision regarding my cake. I've decided on buttercream because although fondant looks great I think it tastes pretty foul.

You're cakes are stunning!

Unknown said...

please tell me why i cannot post these genius recipes of your on pinterest!!!

Bria said...

Thanks sister, can't wait to do yours!

Carrie, it sure is, so great to see you by the way!

Lala, I can imagine that it can be absolutely overwhelming with pinterest and all the websites these days to go completely overboard. Thanks for stopping by!

Edward, you can! I just haven't gotten around to putting a pinterest button on my site yet (or figured out how to yet) so you can just copy the link to the post and add them that way. I also pin most of my pictures there so I see you followed me, you can re-pin from there! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

great job, and way to stick up for butter!!! I'm glad to see someone is being successful making things without shortening and imitation vanilla!!!!

Unknown said...

Beautiful cakes! I'm a fairly new cake decorator and I'm doing a wedding cake, and they showed me your cake! The first one you have listed with the horizontal texture. I was curious on how you did it? I'm unsure on how to approach it. I know I could come close but I'd rather have it perfect for their wedding.

Lee said...

Simple. Beautiful. I love them both! Like Erin, I am curious as to what tool you used to make the textured cake. I have seen a spoon and a small offset spatula to create the lines, but the ones I've seen were bigger indentations. I am excited to hear what you used. Thank you!

Bria said...

Erin & Lee,

Sorry for the delay on this I haven't been around here in a while!

For this particular texture, the first thing I did was make a nice smooth level cake, so basically frost and smooth it to the point of it being completely finished. Then, i take a mini (like a 4in) off set spatula and place it gently in the center of the top of the cake. As I spin my turntable, I slowly pull the spatula outwards until I go over the edge. How fast you spin your turntable and how much pressure you put on your spatula will determine how big/small/deep the texture is. I Gently scrape off any overhanging excess buttercream and then I do the sides. Start at the bottom, start turning your table, then slowly bring you spatula up to the edge. Hope this helps, I bet you can find videos of this somewhere on youtube, which would probably be much clearer! Thanks for stopping by!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely stunning and the fern adds a nice touch of color. What sizes did you use for the tiers?

Bria said...

Sunshine,

I believe the one with the fern was a 12", a 9" and a 6". I like to at least give at least 2, but no more than 3 inches between sizes of tiers.

-Bria

Unknown said...

Thank you for being so helpful and willing to respond to those who ask questions. I also had a bride interested in a textured buttercream cake and I found your response to a previous question really helpful. I wasn't able to find tutorials online unfortunately but am looking forward to trying it out on my own. Thanks!

Unknown said...

I'm sure your cakes as very bit as delicious as they are beautiful! Would you mind sharing what type of buttercream you used on the rustic textured cake? Is it a crusting, non crusting, or possibly SMB? I'm going to be making a similar cake for an up coming wedding, but am not sure which buttercream would be best to use. TIA!

Bria said...

Joey,

I am a pretty consistent user of Italian Meringue Buttercream these days. It is the most stable of the meringue butter creams because the egg whites are fully cooked by pouring in your soft ball stage hot sugar. It is silky smooth, and not overly sweet. The recipe for the buttercream I use can be found here

http://thesepeasarehollow.blogspot.com/2011/06/going-pro.html

this is for orange buttercream, but for plain vanilla, just omit the orange. hope this helps, good luck!

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