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Message: [QUOTE="Norcalbaker59, post: 43536, member: 2340"] [USER=3784]@Cahoot[/USER] You definitely want to use a paddle when adding the butter. The whisk is going beat in a ton of air bubbles. Those air bubbles will be impossible to smooth off the side of a cake and will make your piping look like crap. Throwing on the paddle after the fact and beating more to knock out bubbles will not work well. Plus it over beats and over heats the buttercream. Use the correct technique to begin with, and just avoid this mess altogether. Dropping the speed to the lowest setting is very important. Buttercream is an emulsion and it will take some time to create it. It will look like a hot curdled mess before it emulsifies. But don’t freak out, just let the mixer run and keep the faith. Yes, once you start adding the butter the mixing is the same for both SMBC and IMBC. Just jump in and give it a try. It really not that difficult. I prefer chocolate or good vanilla bean paste in my buttercream. I don’t think vanilla extract does much for flavoring buttercream. I took this photo from the internet; not going to credit the website cuz I don’t want to trash the baker. But this buttercream is going to make a crappy looking cake. It will pipe into a jagged mess. Some air bubbles are going to happen. But you want to avoid a buttercream that looks like this. This just screams of poor training. [ATTACH type="full"]3423[/ATTACH] This is my buttercream. After I beat in the butter, it will look a bit rough. I use an offset spatula to smooth it out. As you can see there are few air bubbles. This what you get when you beat it at low speed, use the right temperature of butter, high butterfat butter, and a paddle attachment. [ATTACH type="full"]3424[/ATTACH] And when your buttercream is free of air bubbles, it pipes smooth. [ATTACH type="full"]3425[/ATTACH] [/QUOTE]

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