I hate kitchen waste. I'm the girl who will eat the same thing for dinner three nights in a row to avoid having to throw it out. So you can imagine how much I dislike throwing out half a bowl of frosting that remains after a recipe.
Now a simple cream cheese frosting is bad enough, but a more complex buttercream seems even worse. Time, effort, and endless whisking went into the latter and to simply toss it breaks my heart. This came to mind last week after I baked a cake and had a ton of leftover buttercream. I spoke with some of my pastry chef friends to find the best solution.
The consensus seems to be that, unless you have something to bake right away in which you could use the buttercream, you should freeze it. That's right: don't toss that buttercream! It will remain good in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. Alternatively, put it in an airtight container and freeze it up to 3 months. When ready to use again, take out of the freezer and place in the refrigerator overnight to thaw. Before you frost the cake, let the buttercream come to room temperature and give it a good stir before piling it on.
When I was talking with my aunt the other day on the phone, I mentioned this and she said she always keeps a container of buttercream in the freezer in case she needs it. While I can't say I'd ever go quite that far in my quest for cake-preparedness, I am happy to learn that buttercream will never be wasted again in our house.
Related: French Buttercream: What's the Difference?
(Image: Flickr member JamieAnne licensed for use under Creative Commons)
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I'm the kind of person who will just eat frosting with a spoon, so having leftover frosting has never been an issue. This is also why I'm overweight.
I'm with @kestrel127, eat it like ice cream. Oh yeah.
Frost cookies, practice your piping skills, or just use it like toothpaste (ohhhhh yeahhhh).
Yeah I'm with the above three. Leftover buttercream has never really been a problem. Unlike my current pants size. Connection? What connection???
Have always frozen buttercream icing and it's a great idea. Don't be tempted to warm the frozen buttercream to hurry along the thawing process or it will fail.
My mom used to spread leftover buttercream on graham crackers for an extra-special after school treat, between the 6 of us kids, leftover buttercream disappeared quickly :)
Leftover buttercream? I don't understand the concept.
Yeah, I am definitely in the "never too much buttercream" boat. I just toss it in the fridge and pick at it plain for a couple days, and keep an eye out for other things around the kitchen that might be awesome smothered with frosting.
My Nana makes the BEST homemade lemon buttercream icing. She ALWAYS made much more than she needed for her delicious cakes. We would take the leftover icing and spread a generous amount between graham crackers and refrigerate. Seriously DELICIOUS! Must eat chilled!
This reminds me of when people talk about leftover wine...I don't think I'll ever know what they're talking about.
This is good to know - I have a default amount of buttercream I generally make (starting with one stick of butter) and sometimes, with new recipes, I have more than I need to frost a cake or batch of cupcakes but hate to throw it out. I will just freeze it next time!
I freeze my leftover frosting, even if it's not enough to frost an entire cake. Just this week I made white cupcakes and used leftover frosting to make 2 kinds of toppings. I didn't have enough of a strawberry frosting to do a dozen cupcakes so I did a big dollop in the center of each cupcake and did a circle around it with just plain vanilla buttercream.
I'm with Aninhas - leftover wine, buttercream, cheesecake etc. all must be oxymorons. Just doesn't happen on my watch.
I do love frosting, but I often find that by the end of making it/a whole cake I've tasted it so much I can't eat much more in its natural state. In a happy accident one morning, I realized they're great glaze for french toast or pancakes, because the heat melts the buttercream perfectly, and if you tend to make boozy buttercreams (as I do), it's an even more ridiculous breakfast. Now I'm thinking about a bread pudding topped with dollops of buttercream...
Put it on saltine crackers. One cracker at a time. One cracker a day, until it's all gone. Best. Treat. Ever.
This is what the spoon is for ;)
I'd like to share this recipe for the perfect buttercream so that in the future you will never encounter leftover frosting.
Cream 1/2 cup shortening with 1/2 cup room-temperature butter. Mix in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Add 4 cups of powdered sugar, one cup at a time. (Frosting will seem very dry.) Mix in about 2 tablespoons of milk (more or less depending on desired consistency). Mix in 2-3 tablespoons of meringue powder and food coloring (if desired).
Meringue powder is an absolute must! (You can buy it at Michaels, Jo-Ann Fabrics, etc.) The frosting is even better a day or two after you make it. It stays soft in the middle but forms this sugary crust on the outside, it is heavenly!
Growing up we'd always buy the tubs of frosting, and I have great memories of spreading that on graham crackers... We'd also spread butter/margarine on graham crackers too. Anyway, more related to this article, I made coconut buttercream by hand a couple weeks ago (seriously. My wrist hurt the next day from all that whisking...) and ended up with twice as much as I needed, and threw it out because I don't want to be tempted to make another cake! So much effort, wasted, if only I knew it was possible to freeze it!