okay so i bought these brightly colored tubs of buttercream frosting from walmart, right? they were like 3 bucks a piece.

i went to make them pourable the other day in the microwave, and was so excited.

they came out? chunky! then? the oil separated! I have had SO MUCH TROUBLE with frostings! now, then i go to the garage and had a couple of pillsbury frostings, which i heated up, colored pink real quick and they worked GREAT. now? i have like 50 of these fucking things and idk if i heated it too long???

i wanna go grab another and SEE. bc im hoping walmart will let me bring them in and switch them out for the regular pillsbury colorful stuff.....but really? i WANT FROSTING IN BULK THAT MELTS TO POURABLE WHEN YOU FRIGGIN HEAT IT UP!!!
and pillsbury little containers are the only ones ive seen that actually do it right...but of course, i WANT MORE.

so? any chefs here? piecook where are you? bc i need to order a BIG GIANT TUB off webstaraunt (i have free shipping for another week or so!) and i need to know what to get! last time i got some chocolate buttercream off there? it like, went on....but then? the more you played it started to roll off on the tarp!
the colorful bucket i got from sams? melted then HARDENED bc it was decorative icing! ugh!

so? am i stuck buying a bunch of little bitty pillsburys? or is there a bucket of the stuff that is the same shit as the pillsbury ? it worked like a dream! im so sad! this stuff? it just chunked!

like i said....idk if i overheated it or what! help!

i just found "richs buttercream frosting" in 15 lb pails on webstaraunt. is this a good brand for smearing?? pouring?

I wonder if it is something you have to dump out of the container and put on the stove and slowly warm up and stir while you are warming up. Kind of like making a hot totty with honey how you have to stir it to dissolve it.

Might be that it needs to warmed up slowly and constantly stirred when it gets more liquid. Try putting it in a hot bath with the lid off.

I'd love to see the ingredient lists of the Pillsbury vs the ones that didn't work. There's probably a stabilizer or emulsifier like sodium citrate or tapioca maltodextrin in there to maintain the consistency. You can buy either of those products online, but that might be more than you want to throw at this project. Perhaps you can try heating it more gently, and possibly adding an inverted sugar like corn syrup to make it more pourable. Keep me posted!

Jayce, when I checked frosting on my Sysco account their 11lbs Paul of frosting is pourable @ 120f max. So I think it could be a combination of overheating caused separation and the products ingredients.
And I sorry if I missed the actual point of your original question because I'm at work between parties.

Baker here,
Used to use rich's products when I worked as a cake decorator. Their traditional buttercream can be pretty hit or miss seemingly depending on time of year. Sometimes it would come in very hard, other times so soft I couldn't pipe flowers with it. When it was very hard I would throw it on our big mixer and add some water to it to thin it down. Just beat it until it's all incorporated. No heating necessary. Not sure if you can use your current stuff with a splash of water to thin it a bit to a desired consistency?

Jayce,

The basic ingredients of a buttercream frosting are shortening and sugar and AIR. Air is why it is so fluffy. Any time you heat it you will start to turn the shortening to liquid. Once it starts to liquify it will dissolve the sugar and there is no going back to frosting after that. You also loose the air that was mixed in to make it fluffy. So heating it will be hit or miss. You could also thin it by adding some additional vegetable oil or milk, in VERY small doses. You would have to experiment with it. I would suggest a paint mixer on the end of a drill in your large tubs of frosting. Add a little at a time to get the proper consistency.

With all the frosting and other concoctions you make I am surprised you have never bought yourself a Kitchen Aid mixer. The 6 quart professional is $379 at Costco. I'm sure a refurbished one can be found on line for less. There are countless YouTube videos on making bakery buttercream frostings. I have one and have used it for 25 years. Frosting and pudding come out so smooth! The things you could create would be endless!

In a Wammers dream I had temp job working at General Mills, Betty Crocker division. I watched them make the frosting 1500 lbs at a time. The mix them for 15 minutes at a time to whip in all the air! The dream of playing in that has never left my mind! The same with the boxed cake mix. They start by pumping in 3000 lbs of flour. The mixer is also the scale. Then they add in all the other ingredients by hand. You know all those ingredients on the side of the box you can't pronounce! Most of them are less than a pound each! But they are to stabilize the product to keep it fresh and to keep it from clumping. Coloring and flavoring too. That is also mixed in a closed drum for about 5 minutes, then pumped to the packaging line for boxing. How many boxes of cake mix this group has gone through would be staggering!

My last thought for you Jayce is you need to buy a cement mixer! There are a lot on line for under $200 new. But think of all the cake batter you could mix in one of those! Or pudding! And how about some of the smoothest clay you have ever felt. Wouldn't it be great to make a huge batch of slime and pour it right onto your model right out of the mixer!

Thanks for all the wonderful wam you have brought us all. Hope this helps.

Bob

Sad your buttercream turned to buttercrap. I appreciate threads like this though where peeps come together and offer advice on this stuff though.

Also, it's a good window to look into all the work that goes into prepping for a scene/session. It's a SHITTON of work.

Some people just don't have any idea.

This is an example of why I stick with things like pudding or applesauce. So, maybe if it's just for the sake of consistency, you could mix what you have with something else to try and reconstitute the texture?

We recently bought a bunch of colored buttercream tubs and i can say the consistency was slightly different between them. I can understand weather will play a role (mainly as we get into summer) but they overall are very dense as depicted in an upcoming scene involving Kate. I will continue experiments adding more and more water to try to make it more pourable and runny. We have a lot of buttercream to experiment with. Poor Kate. Add insult to injury, Amazon sent us some tubs that were not the correct color that i had ordered. They cannot take those tubs back so we got some money back and get to keep those tubs. Poor Kate. We get to try ordering some more and maybe they will send us the right colors i wanted - or maybe not and we just keep getting more. Lol. Poor Kate.

I also love the small frostings and thier pourability when they get microwaved.

indeed! the small ones? they melt SOOOOO WELL! oh my guuuuurrrrd.


well, i went out ona limb bc heres the deal....so this customer likes to encase me in cakes, pies, and peanut butter sandwiches...yes. you all recall me encased in pies and BREAD so i have a FUCK TON of supplies here already. now.

yesterday i ordered richs in 4 different colors.

the idea of mixing water and corn syrup NEVER CROSSED MY MIND AND WHY THE FUCK DID IT NOT???
BC CORN SYRUP HAS BEEN A STAPLE in the house of mess for SO LONG.

guess i just went duuuuurrrrrrpppp on that one!

so, i grabbed some black for an upcoming project to add something to it...i grabbed 3 other bright colors.

i have a 45 dollar drill that plugs in thta is INSANE. yes! my customer i did a session with had one (you have seen him lately on archnemesis store doing some gang bangery!) and he had this drill. it was amazing. i had always worked with paint mixers and battery operated drills.

this. DRILL. IS. LOCO!

ill be making a new "mystery substance" in a couple weeks or less that has a new base and im so amped.

i have 3 different heads for it. a smaller cement, claw type mixer, a smaller paint and then a larger paint.....so you can really get your mix on, smooth then make it smoother.

its work. yes! lots of work. but its a labor of love.

YALL I NEVER THOUGHT TO ADD WATER OR CORN SYRUP! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?

cause yo. im making all these frosting pies...and ill probably have to make them day before or atleast have the frosting ready to pour before we shoot.....and there are like 50 i think? so, i dont want it to harden in the crusts.
you guys are the best. thank you! im excited to get this stuff here! i have so much fucking icing now?
i have leftover pourable pb, leftover dark chocolate....

hit me up if you want a discounted custom with mel in some different colored icings or some pourable pb and chocolate! bc MY GARAGE IS A SHIT SHOW!

TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!

Hey Wild Thang, I noticed some misspellings. Pour Kate LOL

You are absolutely right! A thousand apologies.

My biggest fear with those pre-colored pillsbury buttercream icings is that they will stain my skin. Is that not a concern?!?! If not, I'll be purchasing them a lot in the near future!

Jayce!

Get the buttercream frosting tubs from Sam's (not the decorative type). I believe it was less than $20 for a giant 14 lb bucket. We heated it up and it poured great on Mia in "Mia's Baking Lesson".

Picture below from the scene:

https://wam-with-benefits.umd.net/download_info/mias-baking-lesson--icing-pies-cake-batt

How warm did you make it? Just microwave?

Yep - Microwave it in intervals of 30 seconds until it starts to flow a little bit, then mix it up with a spoon. You don't want it hot by any means (can't have anything burning or irritating the models) and be aware that the internal center of the frosting bowl may be hotter than the outside.

well fuck i just got buttercream frostings from webstaraunt...the richs kind? bc i had free shipping.

i did check and it says it is for cupcakes, etc. hold up ill show ya what i got.

if i did wrong? well. i guess ill have to order some maple syrup or corn syrup to add to it! shit.

i got 3 big tubs of this:





and damnit. i have a sams here and a membership! now im gonna want to get a bucket from there....
and i do not have anymore monies. lol


so it says that it is smooth enough to spread onto cakes but firm enough to create flowers and such? but smooth enough to fill cakes etc?
shit. im really hoping this stuff turns out like i want but if not? water or syrup will be added!

this was one color i got.

i got 4. i hopes they works!

I think that will work just fine. You're about to turn really yellow!