That cream on those fancy bakery gateaux?

kathyb, Jan 20, 6:59am
Could any experienced bakers or cake makers take a guess on what that creamy stuff is on those fancy bakery cakes (the big round ones, often have nuts on the side).

For example, the cake may be covered in ganache, but there are buttery creamy swirls on top of the cake with bits of chocolate or another decoration on top of that.

I don't *think* it's buttercream, or at least not the icing sugar variety. It's more like a flavoured mock cream!

This is the sort of cake I mean:

http://www.1-800-bakery.com/images/mocha_cake_med.jpg

dbab, Jan 20, 7:08am
I think it is Mock cream.

kinna54, Jan 20, 8:50am
I would say that's mock cream, possibly with a stabiliser added. Probably a commercial product bought in bulk.

punkinthefirst, Jan 20, 10:55pm
Well, in Patisserie Class I was taught to make a buttercream using unsalted butter and soft fondant. I don't remember the recipe, but you could approximate it by creaming unsalted butter until it is white and fluffy, then beating in small amounts of softened fondant until it tastes and looks right, Flavouring is added last.
Does that help!

davidt4, Jan 21, 2:21am
I imagine that it would be a commercial product with stabilisers and preservatives, but if you want to make a buttercream that tastes nice and is easy to pipe here's a link to a recipe for French buttercream (not buttercream icing).

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-challenge/french-buttercream-recipe/index.html

kob, Jan 21, 2:41am
the grocery stores use mock cream which is made from quite a bit of fat. Much nicer if you made a nice buttercream and coloured it chocolate.