Butter cream frosting question:

[Tamsen]

All my life my mother made homemade butter cream frosting. Her recipe has the usual mix of butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. But her recipe also called for one egg yolk. It's not a cooked frosting so the yolk always was a curiosity to me. The frosting turns out perfect every time so I've never questioned it.

But I'm making a cake for work tonight and I'm wondering if people would enjoy it as much if they KNEW it would contain some uncooked egg. Of course I could just not tell them. Still....I'm debating if I should leave the yolk out. I hate to mess with a recipe that ends in perfection.

Much of cooking is really just tasty chemistry. The butter makes it creamy and the powdered sugar really binds it all together. I can't tell what the yolk does in this recipe though.

Should I stick with what works or modify to suit the masses?

[Solfy]

I've never used egg yolk in my buttercream, but if you like it that way you could buy pasteurized eggs and greatly reduce your risk of eggy illness.

[Radical Edward]

I would enjoy it just as much if I knew it contained uncooked egg. You could use pasteurized eggs if it makes you feel better, but realize that it's unlikely that anyone will get sick even if you don't. Most people will eat raw cookie dough and cake batter, and both of those contain uncooked eggs as well.

[Salambo]

Is anyone at work pregnant* or have a compromised immune system*? If you don't know for sure, steer clear of the raw eggs.

You can still make buttercream frosting with egg in it by slowly heating the eggs and (granulated!) sugar in a double boiler (to avoid scrambling the suckers), a bit of salt and vanilla.

For a standard round cake (what's it? About 9"?):

a pound of butter
4 eggs
1 cup gran. sugar
dash salt
good old dollop of vanilla


Heat the eggs and sugar in the double boiler SLOWLY, whisking them together. Don't let it get over 160F.

Beat this mixture with a flat beater for about five minutes, the mix will get all light and fluffy. Make sure the mixture has cooled (so as not to melt the butter), then add the butter in pieces. Keep adding, it will stop being lumpy soon.

Mix mix mix until it's all nice and butter-creamy. There you go.

All recipes for buttercream I've ever used that involve eggs (most buttercream I've used does) - they are cooked. I have no idea about the raw stuff, but hey, if it works, it works, right?

* - these people should be smarter about asking what's in something, or just steering clear in the first place, but people are pretty dumb as a whole. However, I wouldn't withhold the information, that's the thing. For everyone else, Rad Ed is right on - who the hell doesn't eat cake batter or cookie dough? Same damn thing.

[Solfy]

Originally Posted by Radical Edward

You could use pasteurized eggs if it makes you feel better, but realize that it's unlikely that anyone will get sick even if you don't.

I take the risk myself whenever I'm baking (good luck tearing me away from the raw cookie dough) but when cooking for others I'd hate to unwittingly feed them something they would prefer to avoid.

Salambo, your recipe intrigues me. I don't care for the buttercreams I make (butter/granluated sugar/milk/vanilla; too sweet) and I've got a recipe for the cooked icing my mom always made (cook flour and milk together until it thickens, cool and add to a mixture of shortening and granulated sugar) but I find it too greasy.