to expect my buttercream not to curdle

[farewellfigure]

I'm trying to cut costs by using marj instead of ridiculously expensive butter, but the icing just turns to a wet curdled mess and looks utterly gross and unusable. My sister says she has never made butter icing with butter and always uses marj. Why won't it work? I've tried the soft stuff, and also the hard baking fat stuff, but both failed. Yuck. Any advice?

Gubbins, how do you mix it? A lot? A little? Fast? Slow? With a machine?

Is it making you want cake wannabe?

Yes. :(

:o

Oh I agree buttercream must be made with butter never marg.

I got 2 blocks for £1 each in Asda today you can usually get it on offer I bet value is cheaper and Aldi/Lidl too. I would rather scrimp on quantity than not use butter.

And you must lick it off the mixer paddles it's the law (or is that just me)

Tesco value butter is marked down in .. well, you guess where... atm I was pleasently suprised with the price.
y,y,y to freezing it when on offer.
n,n,n to marg in BUTTER icing, yes to marg in sponge cake, no in biscuits.

No sweetkitty I do the same. I always leave a little bit extra on the paddles for precisely this purpose

You can make butter yourself with a stand mixer...using only cream!

KitchenAid Butter

SweetKitty - both my bys know to lick the mixer paddles after cake or icing. They are 2 and 4. So I get the bowl ;)

boys

I always make my buttercream with Stork and it's always fine and tastes lovely!

I just put a dob of Stork in a bowl and then put a lot of icing sugar in and beat the hell out of it. I use a little bit of boiled water as well which helps it set a bit.

Gubbins Gel colours stop that happening

I've used marg on and off for years and never had it curdle.
I make it by hand, as taught by my DMum, starting with a walnut size blob of marg and then sifting in icing sugar and beating like hell. If I need more icing I add milk to slacken the mix and then keep adding icing sugar.

Economising on buttercream means using less, not using marg.

Having a good stand mixer has completely changed my buttercream, though - it is now light and airy and a lot more creamy than buttery - and it goes further too.

My dh bought our pack today 1.69 !!!! From telco

Tesco

Also, Americans seem to use half sold fat half butter sometimes to get a whiter buttercream (according to Pinterest anyway!)

Bunch of butter snobs you lot!

Ugh, I get flashbacks to gagging on butterfly buns at kids' parties in the early 80s when people mention margarinecream

For the love of all that is holy use butter, or go for a completely different type of icing.

Jackie if it tasted ok I wouldn't care all that much what was in it- after all, I use the cheapest butter I can possibly find, but no one can convince me about marg in cakes or icing any more than they can about soya mince [bleugh]

Use more sugar than you would normally do. Use a soft tub margarine any will do but do not do anything to soften it more. Add sugar till very stiff then relax consistency with a bit of milk. You may be over mixing it and that will over warm it causing the margarine to separate.

Buttercream is wrong.

I implore MNHQ to delete this thread on the basis of the wrongness of buttercream and/or margarinecream....

Ah, may have added a teenie bit of hot water to loosen it which may have made it separate. Is that where I went wrong. I'll try again without the water. I am a butter snob myself but am desperate!

I'm vegan so no butter...

I use Pure brand margarine with a smidge of almond extract, and a teeny bit of non-dairy milk. Tastes good to me :-)

Holly Bell of Great British Bake Off fame, says that buttercream needs 3 ingredients: butter, icing sugar and air. She says to whisk it for 7 minutes with an electric whisk (she uses a KitchenAid). I do this all the time now and it is perfect, light and delicious.