Wedding Cakes & Food Forum

Alternative Frosting

I'm baking a wedding cake and just found out the venue may not have a fridge, so the buttercream frosting is out. The cake will be sitting out, most likely in 80 degree weather, for a few hours. What's a good alternative? Cake is chocolate raspberry.

Re: Alternative Frosting

  • twixinthemixtwixinthemix member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    My baker refuses to use buttercream because 1) it's too sweet, 2) it melts in heat, and 3) refrigerating cakes dry them out.

    Instead he uses pastry cream, and it works great!  I'm not a big cake person and I scrape most of the buttercream frosting off of the cake because it's too strong, but this stuff is great!

    I think your only other logical choice would be fondant.  I know some people do fondant on the outside and then ask the baker to use a generous amount of buttercream on the inside to use as glue.  That'll be more expensive though!

    Good luck!

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  • edited December 2011
    Ganache would work well, too.
  • Sue-n-KevinSue-n-Kevin member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer First Comment
    edited December 2011

    Oooh, ganache! Chocolatey smooth top. Love that idea.

    If you want to have it look like a wedding cake though, there's no reason you can't just use white frosting from a box. Seriously, try it before the wedding. It's not buttercream, based on my experience it holds up pretty well outdoors in the summer (high sugar content), and will have the look you might want.


    If you have a cake or candy supply store near you, Wilton also makes their own boxed frostings. You might also be able to buy it at a local Joann's or Michael's. If you google, you can also buy pre-made sugar paste or sugar flowers on internet sites to make it look more professional.


    Good luck.

  • edited December 2011
    Ganache gets pretty melty too... what with it being mostly chocolate. I had my cake out for about an hour in the Hawaiian heat; it was buttercream and held up beautifully. Can you arrange for the cake to be dropped off later to the site? Is there a way you reduce the time out of the fridge?
  • edited December 2011
    I recently made a ganache cake during a heatwave, topped out around 86.  I don't have a/c in my home and it held up great.  I finished about 20 hours before I delivered it, I had put on the ganache before I finished decorating, so all in all I'd say the ganache was on there for 24 hours in that heat before it was eaten and it didn't melt at all (my gumpaste was a litlte droopy though).  
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