If it’s too humid for Swiss meringue buttercream, what would be your back up icing?

[mariadnoca]

I’m just curious because I made the standard American butter cream for years and after making the switch to Swiss meringue buttercream AB just seems really, really sweet now.

I was thinking back to the time I was tasked with making my father-in-law‘s birthday cake and had everything ready to go. I made a three layer chocolate/vanilla checkerboard cake to go with the racing car theme, but three times in a row my SMB failed to whip up. Thinking back I should’ve had a back up icing planned. Instead, I ended up going to a bakery and later throwing out those three layers of cake that were in my freezer. A bad use of everything all the way around. So would it maybe be that flour icing? I’ve never made that one before. I remember looking back at the weather and they said it was 77% humidity, so that’s my only guess is to why that icing flopped. We don’t have hot+humid here so . However, it made me realize I don’t have a back up other than standard American buttercream and cream cheese, and there must be a whole bunch of different options out there for icing that I haven’t tried. In hindsight, what would you have made as an alternative?

 

[marilynfl]

Both Rose Levy Beranbaum and Shirley Corriher agree on this icing for cakes that will be exposed to hot, humid weather (like an outdoor wedding): high quality white chocolate (think Lindt or Valhora), cream cheese and some butter. It is a lovely combination...the sweetness of the white chocolate works much better with cream cheese than standard powdered sugar version. It is what I use all the time now for carrot cake, cinnamon rolls, etc.