Exhausted! Time wasted! I junked the whole lot in frustration in the afternoon. Freezed the night's 'watercream'
In the night, undeterred, I did my buttercream again. Again the same problem!! Hey hey.... I begin to suspect if it's the butter. I did notice it took a longer time for my bowl to be 'cool to the touch'. Overwhipped? Can't be coz' I'm dealing with egg whites and lots of air pockets - sufficient for a child to have colic for 365 days. Needless to say I'm even more frustrated with 2 failed attempts! Baking is science, you just need to follow the recipe to a tee and you shouldn't fail. But I failed miserably twice. sob sob.......I need a pat on my back.
I'm trying to think if unsalted butter should be used, as I always do. We know that salt is used to lower down temperature.. so could the salted butter have lowered the nicely white fluffy meringue temperature and *pomf* volume decreased drastically to liquidy form? I really have no answer coz' I'm not an expert.
SMSed A, the expert, to ask her this morning at 6+, she might still be asleep. Heehee! It was a real SOS SMS.
But I suppose some people do use salted butter on buttercream. Coz' not everyone will insist on unsalted butter. Plus, if recipe calls for 'salt', they can cut down one step.
But Golden Churn should be good right? Mei-mei's darling Aunty Ros talks about her Golden Churn in tin (which is expensive. And I thought mine was, still better than some other butters though) so I thought I should try this block butter. There were some promotions with a few brand of butters but I choose this. Price = quality mah! Hate to think that $6.45 for 2 blocks can't compare to my usual $5.60 for 1 block butter. Sorry I don't mean to be hao lian, but if it's for family bakes I can go for quality stuffs. But if I'm selling cakes, I'll go bankrupt.
A replied back, said it should curdle. So nice of her to make a call to me. She could only deduce either I add in when meringue is still hot thus melting the butters or I worried too soon. But I did explain to her that I've made this so many times and never failed on me until this 2 times. And it didn't look curdled, it became liquid. She did tell me that I should try to whip the rests, as I didn't finish all the butter and it should be okay. Of course I had to explain to her that I had to stop before wasting more butters + sugars + eggs.
Oh! Speaking of eggs. KZ will eat the egg yolks of all my bakes. Then when I told her my failure," I've got good news and bad news for you. Bad news first, the cream is spoilt. Good news is... you get to eat more egg yolks."
Well, will try that later. If not, it's NTUC here I come again. Buy sufficient Lurpak for buttercream and use the remaining GC butters for my bakes, which may yield different results. Taking the risk again.
Poor cows, kena milked until their neh-neh pain and I had to waste the butters.
And then I clarified with her the difference between the 2 GC (tinned and block), she explained that the tinned ones have higher fat content which is really fattening. Yup! Fattening stuffs really taste good. And yes, then I remember Aunty Ros did mention about very fattening etc..Well, I'm going to try that one day.
In the night, undeterred, I did my buttercream again. Again the same problem!! Hey hey.... I begin to suspect if it's the butter. I did notice it took a longer time for my bowl to be 'cool to the touch'. Overwhipped? Can't be coz' I'm dealing with egg whites and lots of air pockets - sufficient for a child to have colic for 365 days. Needless to say I'm even more frustrated with 2 failed attempts! Baking is science, you just need to follow the recipe to a tee and you shouldn't fail. But I failed miserably twice. sob sob.......I need a pat on my back.
I'm trying to think if unsalted butter should be used, as I always do. We know that salt is used to lower down temperature.. so could the salted butter have lowered the nicely white fluffy meringue temperature and *pomf* volume decreased drastically to liquidy form? I really have no answer coz' I'm not an expert.
SMSed A, the expert, to ask her this morning at 6+, she might still be asleep. Heehee! It was a real SOS SMS.
But I suppose some people do use salted butter on buttercream. Coz' not everyone will insist on unsalted butter. Plus, if recipe calls for 'salt', they can cut down one step.
But Golden Churn should be good right? Mei-mei's darling Aunty Ros talks about her Golden Churn in tin (which is expensive. And I thought mine was, still better than some other butters though) so I thought I should try this block butter. There were some promotions with a few brand of butters but I choose this. Price = quality mah! Hate to think that $6.45 for 2 blocks can't compare to my usual $5.60 for 1 block butter. Sorry I don't mean to be hao lian, but if it's for family bakes I can go for quality stuffs. But if I'm selling cakes, I'll go bankrupt.
A replied back, said it should curdle. So nice of her to make a call to me. She could only deduce either I add in when meringue is still hot thus melting the butters or I worried too soon. But I did explain to her that I've made this so many times and never failed on me until this 2 times. And it didn't look curdled, it became liquid. She did tell me that I should try to whip the rests, as I didn't finish all the butter and it should be okay. Of course I had to explain to her that I had to stop before wasting more butters + sugars + eggs.
Oh! Speaking of eggs. KZ will eat the egg yolks of all my bakes. Then when I told her my failure," I've got good news and bad news for you. Bad news first, the cream is spoilt. Good news is... you get to eat more egg yolks."
Well, will try that later. If not, it's NTUC here I come again. Buy sufficient Lurpak for buttercream and use the remaining GC butters for my bakes, which may yield different results. Taking the risk again.
Poor cows, kena milked until their neh-neh pain and I had to waste the butters.
And then I clarified with her the difference between the 2 GC (tinned and block), she explained that the tinned ones have higher fat content which is really fattening. Yup! Fattening stuffs really taste good. And yes, then I remember Aunty Ros did mention about very fattening etc..Well, I'm going to try that one day.
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