Buttercream Cake

Here is a picture of a completed, 2-tier buttercream cake. Basically it is a white cake with plain buttercream. It was really just to teach us the proper way to cut, fill, cover, and build a cake. It wasn't done for taste, and the general consensus in class is that it "tastes like ass." And that truly is a quote.

I don't know about you, but I'm not a big fan of plain buttercream. If you love buttercream, you'd like this cake. But to me, buttercream just tastes like butter. Now, if you add some hazelnut paste to the buttercream, make the cake chocolate, and add a layer of chocolate royaltine, the cake would probably kick ass, rather than taste like ass.

Anyway, as you can see, my cake is pretty simply decorated. As most of you know, I'm no artist, and so I wanted to keep it pretty simple. And it's actually quite challenging piping onto the side of a cake, as some of you may know. But, I will say that as simple (don't say boring) as my cake is, it looked a lot better than some of the others in class. Unfortunately, many people don't subscribe to the "less is more" theory, and cakes that started out looking great ended up looking cluttered and/or gaudy.

As for the buttercream, you'll notice that the base layer on my cake is basically white (more on that in a minute), while the piping is more yellow. The base layer is unflavored, so the only coloring is the yellow from the butter. My partner and I ran out of buttercream after the base layer, so we used some leftover buttercream from last week that had been flavored with vanilla, making it darker in color (and actually better tasting.)

And now for today's little culinary lesson on buttercream. Any true buttercream will never be truly white, because of the color from the butter. If you see a buttercream that IS white, it's because it does not contain butter, but is made with a shortening such as Crisco. Crisco is cheaper and more stable at room temperature, which makes it great for grocery stores and people who like to cut costs at the expense of taste. But it's Crisco. Period. Have you ever put Crisco on a slice of toast? I didn't think so. Don't eat it in your "buttercream" either.