An Experiment in Buttercream

Here is a historical post for you all. I am always looking for the #1 Recipe for White Frosting of My Dreams, and I still haven't found it. Granted, I have only tried making two so far. This was a different kind of recipe that involved using flour in buttercream. I decided to try it out and make cupcakes for my mother's birthday in 2006. Hm.. if it wasn't for her birthday, I'm not sure what it was for. I think some got passed along to my friend Natalie was well...



Nonetheless, here are some pictures since I had realized "oh, maybe I'll want to post this on AllRecipes or something..." This blog is a better idea than that, my reviews won't get lost in a sea of other questionable ones.

I think I just used a regular box cake for the cupcakes, but I decided to dress them up by making a surprise filling of Sander's Hot Fudge. Then I spread a bit of Hero Raspberry jam on the top before frosting. The strawberries were added for some interest on top. The fillings turned out to be really good and stayed a good consistency - I'd use it again. My mom loves yellow cake with chocolate butter cream and raspberry jam layers (like a torte), so this was a pre-portioned cupcake easy-way-out version. I didn't bust out any cake decorating tips, as you can see... oh - that's because I hadnt gotten them for Christmas, yet!

I found this buttercream recipe was OK, but my mom really liked it. It uses flour and shortening, which I was worried about.. I thought you could taste the flour a little. My mom didn't notice, so you may not either. So this one, and my mom's classic recipe are both not the "White Frosting of my Dreams" so the search continues. I haven't tried a 7 minute frosting or meringue buttercream frosting yet, so there's a lot of testing to be done!

I'm not 100% sure (it's been over a year now) but I think the following recipe is the one I used from http://www.allrecipes.com/.

Mom's Buttercream Icing
(not my mom's.. this is from allrecipes.com)

"a smooth creamy frosting, old recipe from the 1940s"

Yields 2 Cups

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. In a small saucepan mix the flour and the milk and cook over low heat until it forms a smooth paste with no lumps. Place in refrigerator and let cool completely.

2. With an electric mixer beat the shortening, butter or margarine and the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the cooled flour paste and mix until smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Use to frost any cooled cake. Makes enough to frost one 9x13 inch sheet cake or two 8 or 9 inch layer cakes.