I fought the frosting and. . . I won.

I recently bought a fabulous book. It's called Cake Art, and it was put out by the Culinary Institute of America. These people are serious. I like them. Let's back track though, shall we?

This is a cake I made for my sister-in-law's graduation party. It was my go-to chocolate cake recipe, off of the Hershey's cocoa powder package. The FROSTING however, was one I wanted to test out for the 50th wedding anniversary cakes I'm making in May. Holy crap, it IS May! Well I guess you'll be seeing pictures of those cakes soon too. Anyway, the frosting was swiss meringue buttercream, which from what I've been reading, it a typical frosting used on wedding cakes because it can stay out a room temperature and hold its shape for at least a few hours.

I did try to make swiss meringue buttercream not too long ago. The recipe I used that time however was from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook -- another terrific book. The woman is totally nuts, but has some great tips, ideas, and recipes (usually. . . ). The frosting (and maybe I didn't beat it long enough) was really thin, and much too sweet for my taste. So I knew when I read the swiss meringue buttercream recipe in Cake Art, with less sugar and more butter, that it would be exactly what I was looking for.

I followed the recipe precisely, as I've fought with frosting in the past and wasn't going to let the frosting win again. . . or at least this time. Let me tell you, it was the perfect spreading consistency and it was creamy with a deliciously light taste. I won.