Broken and Grainy – The Perils of Confection Perfection

Photo courtesy Sylvia Weinstock

(NOTE ON THIS POST:  for those of you who read my post early on yesterday, an error was made and it has been corrected – I did not beat the butter and cream cheese for 5 minutes – that is the cupcake part – that’s what you get when you are trying to remember what you did at 5:30 am – the butter and cream cheese were obviously just a little “too” warm and soft, I guess and the creaming that I did do did indeed leave the frosting grainy – anyway, the challenge still exists as is – to create a cream cheese frosting with great body, great piping appeal and texture and taste.  So, I’m still working on it!)

I can’t remember any cookbook appropriately prefacing results on overall output of the baking proccess,  of the effects of temperature and even more important, humidity levels – and I have read a few cookbooks in my time.   The photo above, courtesy of the great and inimitable Sylvia Weinstock, is of Ivana Trump’s (of course) wedding cake.   I have the utmost respect and admiration for the people who can execute “masterpiece cakes”.  These people are a breed apart and deserve a tremendous amount of credit for what they do.  They need nerves of steel, confidence and abundant and prime skill.  And, they operate under extreme pressure and have zero margin for error!  Really, can you imagine messing up someone’s wedding cake?

Looking at Sylvia Weinstock’s website always confirms this for me: http://www.sylviaweinstock.com/index_fl4.html.   I just love her work.

This is not the territory for me, although I would love to pursue the buttercream decorating genre.  One of my dreams is to have a shop which specializes in making cakes covered with my favorite thing in life, flowers.  I have often dreamed of a specialty shop where every item available was adorned with perfect blossoms, leaves, fronds, blooms, bouquets, specimen flowers, etc, etc.  You get what I mean……..

Perhaps it is because I am uber-temperature and humidity sensitive anyway, but I am one novice baker who prefers to work in perfect conditions.  I guess everyone does, but they have decided this is totally impractical – it is, of course, impossible most of the time.  But, truth be told, I am only truly happy with the outcomes of my efforts and outputs of my oven when the air outside is crisp and dry and there is no humidity in the atmosphere, aka all conditions perfect – including ingredient temperatures.  This leads me to my latest story.

Saturday was my neice Kate Hanley’s wedding shower.  I was asked to make the cupcakes – no brainer, right?  My sister-in-law Mary Anne and I agreed early on on Ina Garten’s Coconut Cupcakes.  NBD.  So, because Ina “says so”, I took the ingredients out the day before and left the cream cheese and butter for the frosting out on the counter to become truly “room temperature”.   You know I am a huge fan of Ina Garten and 99% of the time I think her recipes are perfect.

I was actually happy that the texture of both was very soft when I began the process at about 5:30 am……  I had reluctantly baked the cupcakes at 9:00 the night before after gauging that the morning would just be too tight – figuring I had to be on the road to Connecticut no later than 9:15 am.

So, order of events – butter and cream cheese into bowl of Kitchen Aid mixer – cream until smooth per Ina’s instructions.  Ugh, I knew then that they had been over beaten and my mixture looked  “broken”, that culinary term when the ingredient looks separated and becomes grainy in texture. In this case I think my ingredients were actually too soft and so when I creamed them, they were over beaten.

I remember the first time in pastry school when I had over beaten my butter.  Honestly, I don’t ever remember this happening to my Mom.  Chef Geri came around, looked in my bowl and said, “throw it out and start over”.  On Saturday this was not an option and so I continued on.  I was modestly confident that, when I added the sifted powdered sugar into the mixture, it would turn sufficiently creamy.  “Oh Good”, I said to myself, it is ok.  However, when I spooned it all into the piping bag, I had my doubts.  I had actually refrigerated the icing for a few minutes before putting it into the piping bag to “stiffen it up a bit”.  The last time I made this recipe, my ingredients were not quite this soft and the texture had been better.  Even then, though I made a note that this icing could have more body to be “perfect”.  And so, I believed that sticking my bowl in the refrigerator would help in this regard.

Bottom line is, my frosting was grainy and too soft.  This is not an uncommon problem with most buttercream frostings as well. Refrigeration and re-beating is usually an antidote – but I had no extra time. UGH,  I had to push myself through the impulse to despair and panic.   Remember, it was about 40 degrees on Saturday morning and I thought that having the cupcakes at a cool temperature for a couple of hours would help.  Long story short, I was unhappy with the appearance of this frosting and the granularity which developed.  Chalk this up to one more learning experience – don’t let your ingredients become too warm.

For Saturday, it’d have to do.  I’d just sprinkle on the toasted coconut and move on.  BTW, Ina’s recipe does not call for toasted coconut and I think this is essential.  Would anyone but me notice the faux-pas?  I hoped not.   But, I made a big mental note – when I get home I’m going to figure this out.   So, off I went in search of a list of improvements so that I could “perfect” cream cheese frosting.  I wanted a frosting which had great body and almost a firmness which stood up like a thick fudgy frosting.  Is this possible?  I don’t know, yet.

  job well done?  well, not really……..

We all know the benefits of the internet.  You can google anything you want and come up with “answers”.  My choice?  Go to “the” resident expert – Toba Garrett, the famous pastry chef who also teaches at ICE.  I looked over several comments and recommendations online first (one actually said let the butter be room temp but keep the cream cheese cold) and then went in search through my library for Toba’s book, “Professional Cake Decorating”, one of our textbooks from school.  Page 267: Cream Cheese Buttercream.

TOBA GARRETT’S CREAM CHEESE BUTTERCREAM – recipe courtesy Professional Cake Decorating by Toba Garrett

Yield 1 1/4 qt

8 oz unsalted butter

2 oz solid vegetable shortening

10 oz cream cheese (regular or mascarpone)

1 1/2 lbs 10x confectioner’s sugar

2 tblsp heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tblsp fresh lemon juice

1 tblsp Meringue powder

• cream the butter, shortening, and cream cheese together for 3 minutes.  Stop and scrape the bowl.  Cream for an additional 60 seconds.
• slowly add the sugar to the butter mixture.  Add the cream cheese, vanilla, lemon juice, and meringue powder.  Beat for 1 minute on slow speed to incorporate the ingredients, and then beat on medium-high speed for 3 minutes.
• stop and scrape the bowl.  Beat for 2 or 3 more minutes.  The buttercream should look light and fluffy.  Do not overbeat, as the buttercream will become too soft for icing and piping.
• Store leftover buttercream in plastic containers with lids.  Refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 2 months.

Ok, so, YIKES, as I suspected there were a couple of professional “secrets” to be had here.  First, there was the vegetable shortening.  Yikes, yikes, yikes!  I only remember using vegetable shortening once, maybe twice the entire time I was in Pastry School.   But, I am going with Toba, because she knows her stuff.   Second, there is the meringue powder, and I had suspected this.  And so, this is it for me – I’m trying this out.   I have recently reformed from the age old Crisco Shortening to organic, non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening – if you have to use this, this is the only way to go.

And so, after Saturday, I will migrate away from the Cream Cheese Frosting recipe called for in Ina’s recipe and to strive for a recipe that has great body, great visual appeal AND great taste.   I’ll keep you posted on the results.

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Have a wonderful day today.  Happy Memorial Day to all and thank you, thank you to all the soldiers past and present who so nobly have given of themselves to our Country to support our freedoms, rights and dignities.  Thank you to you!

TODAY IN THE GARDEN:

  My new “Purple Tiger” Foribunda rose

First Nasturtiums coming;

  

   new herb planting including Lemon Verbena, tarragon, mints, more thyme and wintered over sage

  looking good

  and finally, the Orange Strawberry Oxheart Tomato blossom

 

Sadly, have to tell you some of my rose blossoms, including Lillian Austin have been damaged by too much rain and perhaps the cold, as well.  The knock-outs, though are thriving – just coming into bloom and are going to be amazing.  I haven’t fed or sprayed them in over two years either.