Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A
Hi winnie
Lard wouldn’t be used for making buttercream, this is an animal product and not suitable for cake decorating buttercream. What is used in place of butter is white vegetable shortening like trex or crisco ( depending on where you live).
American decorators use shortening to make pure white buttercream and flavour it with artificial butter flavour as seen here:
http://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/butter-natural-baking-emulsion-4oz-lorann-oils?gclid=CJu95b-b1cYCFQEIwwodfYQLIg
If you would still like to use real butter, members have recommended using the Lurpak brand which beats up whiter. To further enhance the whitening, a teaspoon of Sugarflair super white powder can be added. Meringue powder can also help. There’s a good video from Raewyn Read on youtube using a tiny amount of violet gel colour. The violet calms down the yellow in the butter making the cream appear whiter. Take a look also at her method here:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/cakesbyraewyn/white-buttercream/581866645183525?comment_id=5779012&reply_comment_id=5779128&total_comments=2&comment_tracking={%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22}
I haven’t tried Rae’s method but I have used a touch of blue in the past which gives similar results. I think perhaps try different ideas until you find one which suits you best.
Another suggestion …. In place of buttercream I’ve often swirled pure white marshmallow meringue on cupcakes. I make it with egg whites and hot sugar syrup, a teaspoon of lemon juice or cream of tartar. The meringue becomes crusty on the ourside and stays soft and billowy on the inside. There are lots of meringue recipes to choose from online. For more ideas type in the search box ‘white buttercream’ where you’ll see past member contributions.
Hope this helps x
There are many Americans that do not like buttercream frosting with shortening in it, and I am one of them. There are a few things to getting my vanilla buttercream frosting as white as I do. First, after each cup of confectioner’s sugar that I add, I turn my stand mixer on the highest speed that it will go. This not only makes the frosting extremely fluffy, it also lightens the coloring of the frosting as air is incorporated.
The second thing is to use clear vanilla extract whenever I want my vanilla buttercream as white as possible. Remember, vanilla buttercream frosting still has butter in it, so it is virtually impossible to get it pure white. It will still have a bit of a tint of the yellow, but just as close as a vanilla buttercream can get without substituting shortening for the butter.
Winnie if you use clear vanilla essence just be aware that it is not real vanilla. It is an articial substance made chemically and doesn’t carry the same depth as real vanilla. It should be used in accordance to the instructions as more can leave an unpleasant taint. Real vanilla extract will darken a pure white buttercream and therefore would not be suitable for the purpose you require. You could use powdered vanilla, however this too has a small draw back in that tiny specks of brown/black will be seen in the buttercream.
