Ann, I almost forgot to review my bakery-bought cakes!
I thought I'd love the "Must buy a cake from a pastry shop" rule, and that I'd buy a few during the year. But as it turned out, I only bought cakes once --- for Adam's baptism.
Adam was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in October. What a wonderful occasion for him and for our family! He was so excited to be baptized, and had been praying about the truthfulness of the Church for several weeks, so by the time his big day rolled around, he was very ready. I was so proud of my little boy.
I get pretty nervous at events that I'm in charge of, and I had 4 house guests (my mom, my in-laws, and my sister PRINTER [Ann]) so I didn't want to leave too many details up in the air. Early in the year, I decided to buy cakes for Adam's baptism, instead of making them. I wanted several different flavors and styles, so I decided to just go to the bakeries a couple of days in advance and buy some random 8-inch cakes. It worked out great -- just the way I thought it would. I bought two buttercream cakes with interesting stuff in the middle (I can't remember what), one lemon-coconut cake, and one carrot cake. (The only thing I didn't like so much was that it was more expensive than I had expected. I thought the cakes you special-ordered -- with all the writing and froofy stuff that's personalized to you -- would be more expensive or equally priced. I didn't expect the cake "off the shelf" to be so much more expensive. I would have known that, though, if I had researched it for 2 minutes!)
I loved the display of the cakes, I loved the variety, I loved the cake stands, and most of all.....I loved that I wasn't scrambling around trying to bake stuff for the baptism while I had a house full of guests!
(Side note: I learned something about myself from these cakes: I learned I hate real buttercream frosting. HATE. Oh well. The lemon-coconut cake was divine!)
Our family
7 comments:
Awe, so cute, we love your family!!!
Just out of curiosity, what don't you like about buttercream frosting?
ps..
oh and I am with ya Elizabeth, I don't like buttercream frosting either...
Remember how great it was to slice through the buttercream, though? So satisfying...
Hooray for Badam!!!!
Ann, help me out here, because I thought I knew what I was talking about and I guess I don't.
I thought true buttercream frosting was different from the powdered sugar-butter-vanilla-milk mix everyone frosts their cake with at home. It sure tastes different! But now that I look it up, those recipes are also called "buttercream." So now I don't know the difference. I also see the terms "french-style buttercream" and "swiss meringue buttercream." What are those?? Did the Year of Cakes teach me nothing?????!!!!
I'll just say this: the buttercream that bakeries use is much stiffer and tastes like a cold stick of butter in every bite. I find it so unappetizing, and these cakes were the most "stick o' butter-esque" that I've ever had. Usually when I don't like a dessert, I just kind of shrug my shoulders and eat it anyway because its in front of me. After one bite of this buttercream, though, I couldn't eat another. That's how unappetizing that flavor and texture were to me.
I'm sure they put that much butter in it for the ease of decorating with it. Still, it's icky!
But it sure makes a pretty cake!!
Holy crap, I don't know!!! We FAILED!!!!
I always thought that a buttercream had to have butter in it (which a lot of frostings I've had on homemade cakes don't have - just powdered sugar and milk). I think also it's possible to have tastier buttercreams than the one we had, because it really didn't have any flavor at all.
I just looked up on Wikipedia (I know, I wouldn't use it to write a paper, get off my back, SLIS!) and it looks like meringue has a simple syrup and egg whites included, and French buttercream has simple syrup and egg yolks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttercream
I can't believe we failed.
P.S. I guess what you are thinking is "American buttercream". I'm glad the article didn't include But-R-Creme because that would have just gotten confusing.
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