at Sun, 01 May 2005 20:47:14 GMT in <1114980434.187101.327270
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, (JArthur) wrote :

>Hi folks. I have tried 5 times to make a buttercream frosting and each
>time it came out wrong. The recipie goes something like this.
>
>bring 4 whole eggs to room temperature. Bring 2 1/2 sticks of unsalted
>butter to cool room temperature (65-70 degrees). Heat 1/2 cup of sugar
>and 1/2 cup dark corn syrup in a small saucepan over high heat for
>about 2 minutes or until the mixture just comes to a boil then take it
>off the heat and set aside....
>Now this sounds pretty straight forward. But everytime I get down to
>about 8 tablespoons of butter left the entire batch in the mixing bowl
>turns into something resembling cottage cheese floating in a brown
>soup.

The recipe you have seems to have a pretty high amount of sugar. That could
cause problems but I don't think so. More serious is the extremely high
amount of corn syrup. More typically you only need a very small amount of
corn syrup to keep your confection stable - it might be 1-2 tbsp to 1 cup
of sugar. That much liquid sugar could certainly be causing issues.

After the mix reaches the appearance you state, have you continued mixing
in the butter or immediately abandoned the project? IME buttercream *does*
go through a stage where it looks exactly as you describe, but then after
you've added *all* the butter it once again suddenly turns into a proper-
looking buttercream. Keep in mind that the sugar mix has to cool down a
long way before the frosting is ready. After you've added all the butter
you typically have to beat for a while longer before its consistency is
ideal. Consider also putting a candy thermometer in the sugar syrup.
Typical buttercream calls for soft-ball to firm-ball temperatures - 235-245
F (113-118 C).

Buttercream is one of those things where you really have to trust the
process in spite of intermediate conditions that don't look promising. Many
times the situation will look like a ruined disaster only to turn out fine
in the end if you follow through.

--
Alex Rast

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