White Buttercream icing - maybe white chocolate?

[MyCatLovesMeSometimes]

I'm making a Frozen themed cake for DD birthday shortly.

I've had a practice run at a cake and decided on a lovely chocolate cake recipe www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1276636/doublethelove-chocolate-cake

Halving the recipe and making that - however I tried a swiss buttercream recipe on top - though it was lovely it was horribly hard work (it went wrong and had to be rescued by putting in fridge and then some in the microwave).

So I'm now looking at making either just a normal buttercream or the white chocolate version in the original recipe.

Has anyone any recommendations about white chocolate to use? Or how to make buttercream white rather than yellowish.

Thanks.

Use a whiter butter to start with, I use Lurpak. And beat it and beat it on it's own before you add the icing sugar, this makes it even whiter! Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Agree with bluesky.

Also, I would consider doing white chocolate shavings on top of the buttercream.

Cheers for that - I was thinking about Lurpak or President butter as I thought a continental one would be lighter so that really helps.

I was thinking about colourless vanilla as the one i've been using lately is quite yellow which I didn't think would help.

If you use an electric mixer to beat the icing for about 5 minutes the air beaten in makes it almost white.

I have recently acquired a kenwood chef (my new pride and joy!) so that should help with the mixing i think.

Avoid President, it didnt work for me! Definitely Lurpak.

Love alpacas idea of white choc shavings, yum and will look nice.

I used an icing made with liquid glucose, sugar and egg whites for my snow on a Frozen cake, it turned out very effective. It tasted like that marshmallow fluff!

Your cake looks lovely!

I did try a swiss buttercream which is egg whites heated with sugar - so very similar I'd think. It was good, and looked very white but I was unsure about serving it to 5 year olds. We're quite blasé about raw eggs in our family (DD loves raw cake mixture) but I don't want to do anything to other people's children just before Christmas.

You can make white choc icing with white choc and sour cream it's lovely and not too overpowering google it

White choc is also yellowish. I find beating the life out of lurpak and then the icing once the sugar is added makes it white. I have used this for buttercream iced wedding cakes when I needed real bright white.

If the egg whites are beaten with sugar syrup it cooks them so you don't need to worry about unfortunate food poisoning events. If you go with buttercream you just need to beat it for a really long time and it will turn white eventually.

Agree with lurpack, plus you get special food colouring for it

www.craftcompany.co.uk/index.php/catalog/product/view/id/12139/?gclid=CjwKEAiA2JqkBRDshIOY_9eMghkSJABvNd1Q3qPXM1fbenSp4h7s_yQSWWveQzpOzpngCm49R1dtzxoC4uDw_wcB

I've used italian meringue before for a pure white finish, with no butter added. Did it the "whip in bowl over bowling water" way not the "add a stream of hot syrup way".

Thanks for that.

I've got some lurpack in the fridge ready and waiting and just bought some of that whitener as well. I do love the colour of meringue icing but I think it'll just be added pressure on the day to make it.

So far I'm planning to make the cake next week and freeze it then decorate it on the day once it's defrosted.

I have tons of decorations to throw on it if all goes wrong.

Good luck, although I'm sure you'll not need it. Standing at the stove with a pan full of hot egg white and an electric whisk for half an hour is a faff so I don't blame you!

Cake went well as per the photo and was eaten with enthusiasm by the children!

Thanks for all the advice.