Stork buttercream disaster. Please help!

[TheNightIsDark]

It's DDs birthday party tomorrow. I've used up all my proper butter in the cupcakes and the DCs are asleep so can't buy more.

I have stork. Will this work enough to satisfy 30 3/4 year olds? Should I add vanilla essence to it? Could I add hot chocolate powder to make chocolate buttercream?

Next year I am buying the bloody cupcakes.

I don't think I'd make buttercream with stork... It might just be horrible... Can you just make a glaze with icing sugar and water and then lots of sprinkles???

Or peanut butter icing which is what I always do when I've run out of butter!!!

I need to stand up some jake and the pirates wafer cake toppers. Not sure if they'll stand up in just normal icing.

Bugger.

We always had stork in our cakes when I was a girl - I do actually think it makes a lighter icing and a slightly lighter cake.
Tbh, and I would never admit this to DH, I actually prefer stork icing to butter icing...

Yes, add the cocoa powder and they'll wolf it down!

Can you make up a little and then taste it to see if it's edible?? Vanilla might help the flavour but I don't think hot choc powder dissolves properly in icing... Try mixing it with hot water first...

I'll chance it then

Hopefully they'll be so distracted by sugar and balloons that they won't care how it tastes!

Put in a Tescos order for early delivery tomorrow? The minimum spend for free delivery is £25 now, so you could make that up with stuff for your usual weekly shop?

It'll be fine for the kids - I can always tell if it's not real butter and don't like it but the kids go for the sweetness and the lurid colour over the taste every time!

Margarine icing is disgusting, but not to young children. It's something people learn to hate as they age.

I'm dairy free at the moment due to baby's milk allergy but was craving chocolate cake. I made the cake and buttercream with stork and I won't go back to baking with butter, it was yummy!

It tastes ok actually. Then again I will eat most cake products!

My kitchen is covered in a coating of icing sugar though.

We use stork due to dairy allergies and it's definitely just as good!

Mum always used Stork for everything baked when I was little - I still rather like Stork buttercream...

Mary Berry uses stork for cakes. If it's good enough for her...

I now make my cakes with it. They come up super light and lovely. And you can do buttercream with it too. Just use less than you would do with butter and add a dash of milk and more icing and a drop of vanilla. Lovely.

Stork is basically vegetable oil. That's all.

So Stork is dairy free? So there's actually an excellent excuse for using it...

NO! it's ok for cakes, but beyond disgusting for icing or buttercream.

I know this as ds made a spectacular looking cake, but the noisome stork based icing rendered it inedible.

Nope! Has to be butter for buttercream,for me anyway.

Totally agree with Fairylea - I use Stork in cakes and for "storkcream" and yes add a few drops of vanilla if you have any - if not don't bother. It will be fine.

Hope the party went well - did they scoff the rank icing (and leave the lovely cakes?!?)

It's at 2:30 so will report back