Really Smooth Buttercream- VIVA style and Strawberry Short-cake



Even big girls can love Strawberry Shortcake!

I made a Strawberry Shortcake-cake, for my middle sister's 29th birthday.  I'm pretty sure she's already had a Strawberry Shortcake-cake, but that was about 27 years ago, so I thought it was okay to make her another one!  For this blog, I will share my buttercream recipe (and also pics of the cake). 

In order to make your buttercream smooth, you have to use a "crusting" buttercream recipe.  I've played around with using Crisco, butter and various amounts of milk and water.  Here's the best combo for icing a cake.  Making flowers, and other decorations woud require a slightly more stiff buttercream consistency.  So, add less milk/water, or more powdered sugar...anyway, here's the recipe, and technique!

To ice a 2 layer, 8 inch cake- This recipe yeilds about 2 + cups of buttecream.  I always double this recipe because I use a lot to ice, and decorate. 

1/2 cup Crisco 
1/4 cup  of room temperatur unsalted butter
1/2 tsp clear vanilla flavor extract
1/4 tsp of butter flavor extract
1/8 cup milk (more or less as needed for consistency desired)
1 Tablespoon water
1/2 tsp meringue powder
1/2 of a 2 pound bag of powdered (confectioners) sugar (approx 4 cups)

1.  Mix shortening, soft butter, milk, water, vanilla, and butter flavors.  Mix until this is creamy. 

2.  Add meringe powder and powdered sugar 1 cup at a time.  Mix on low at first, or sugar will powder out all over you!!

3.  Keep adding sugar, and mix on higher speeds, until it looks smooth and creamy.  It takes about 4-5 minutes to mix it to the right consistency. 

4.  If it's too stiff add VERY small amounts of water, if you then make it too watery, add powdered sugar! 

5.  Ice your cake, top and sides.  Don't worry about trying to smooth it completely.

6.  After you finish icing your cake, let it stand for 15 minutes.  After that, gently touch it with your hand.  If it is not sticky, and your hand can glide smoothly over surface, it's ready for the "paper towel" smoothing technique.

7.  Take a piece of Viva brand paper towel, and lay it on top of your cake.  (Viva has no patterns or color) With your fingers gently smooth your hand over the cake.  Once you smoothed an area, gently remove towel, and move it to another spot.  Keep repeating this until the whole cake is smooth.  Start on top and work down to the sides.  I use my bent index finger to smooth around the edge of the cake. 

Decorating the cake...

I decorated the cake using buttercream dots, and swirls. My buttercream was getting too soft for the dots, but it was perfect for the swirls. 

The "strawberries" are made from a mini-heart cookie cutter, and then I added leaves with a the leaf tip.   I stole the little Strawberry figure from Lily's toys:)  And that's about it!! 

Happy Birthday, Sis!

Happy Berrycake-making! -Erin