Heartbreak: Melted Buttercream

Imagine this scene, you slave over your hot stove, carefully spin your turntable, and loving pipe each petal. Sitting in front of you is a masterpiece of your own imagination. Your surrounded by friends and family and can’t wait to reveal the fruits of your labor, only to discover that the butter in your frosting has begun to melt. Icing is sliding off the side of your cake and your poor roses look more like very colorful pancakes.

Trust me my friends, you are not alone when it comes to the pain of melted buttercream. I’ve been there. In fact I remember when I was in elementary school I was so excited to show my parents one of the first cakes I ever made in class. I held it stable in the car the whole drive home, placed it on the dining table, and lifted the top off the carrier. The icing had begun to melt already. Of course my family was still proud of me, but I still remember that feeling.

The Dilemma

Buttercream frosting is probably one of the most popular and iconic icings for cake decorating. It’s classic, delicious, and easy to make. It’s also simple to work with because you can change the consistency of the icing depending on the task. You can soften the icing for covering cakes, thin it out for writing, or thicken it for to make flowers that will hold their shape. It’s timeless, and definitely a staple for both beginner and advanced bakers alike. 

But an issue with buttercream also presents itself and it’s right in the name… BUTTER. Oh now trust me, I’m not going to “shmear”  the name of butter. Honestly, is there anything better on movie popcorn, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, toast, waffles… pancakes… warm rolls out of the oven….
Okay I better move on, I’m making myself hungry.

Now that I’ve gotten a snack let’s get back to it. Butter is amazing, but it isn’t exactly stable. While warm and melty butter has a well deserved place in cooking and baking, it isn’t great when it comes to frosting. Think about that beautiful cake from earlier and your carefully crafted, and now wilting roses. Heartbreaking.

Don’t Fret! There’s Hope!

So how do you fix melted buttercream? One solution is to use shortening in place of butter. Which honestly, will work. Shortening doesn’t melt with temperature changes the way that butter does. You can make a decent buttercream icing with shortening and be ensured that your roses will arrive at their destination and consumed un-wilted. Seems simple right? Perfect solution. But, in my experience, baking resembles life, in that it is rarely simple.

Buttercream icing is essentially butter (or butter substitute), confectioners sugar, milk, and some flavoring of your choosing. Easy, but all it is, is sweetened butter or shortening. I don’t know about you but eating sugary shortening is not all that appetizing. It’s greasy and it takes like, well, shortening. 

There is definitely a time and place for pure shortening buttercream. I used it all the time when I was teaching classes and advised my students to do the same. We were going to be in the classrooms for a few hours, not including transport back and forth. If you just need some icing to practice techniques then it may be a great option as well so you aren’t constantly going through butter. Plus there are some decent butter flavored shortenings available that may be the way to go depending on your needs and preferences. But for me personally, I’ve found that there is nothing that can truly substitute that true butter creaminess. 

Compromise is a Beautiful Thing

So the issue we are left with is simple, risk using butter and having a melty icing, or use shortening. Ah but my fellow bakers, we have an amazing thing in this world, moderation. I think there’s a saying about that. Whatever buttercream recipe you choose, half the butter. Use half butter and half shortening. It’s really that simple my friends. Using real butter will bring out that rich and creamy flavor that we all love, but the added shortening will help stabilize the icing during decorating sessions in warm summer kitchens, and transport to your desserts final destination. 

Everyone has different preferences, and I understand that. I’m sure some of my lovely readers love shortening and don’t mind a pure shortening based icing. That’s the beauty of baking and decorating, you can find solutions that fit your needs and wants. This is truly personal for every one of you. I’m sharing this information with you all because I struggled with this issue early in my baking and decorating journey.

Of course there are other solutions, different icings, different recipes that you can use, and I’ll definitely get into these during the course of this blog. But this, to me, was the simplist solution when I was starting out and is a good starting point for any novice baker, and a good tool for any advanced baker to have. 

So, my lovely bakers. Ditch melted buttercream and let’s get decorating. 

Also, if you don’t want to make icing, or are running out of time, you can always buy pre-made buttercream online!