Have you ever wondered what is in that fluffy mound of frosting that sits atop those delicious cupcakes?

The truth is some bakers use real butter, but more than not it is a product made up of soybean oil, fully hydrogenated palm oil, partially hydrogenated palm and soybean oils, mono and digycerides, THBQ (TBHQ an anti-oxidant that keeps fats from going rancid),  and citric acid aka vegetable shortening.

So with that said what is buttercream frosting? It is the amalgamation of substances that may or may not include butter and/or cream depending on who is making it.

I have a real problem eating a spoonful of vegetable shortening, no matter that it is blended with sugar and flavorings. Recently one of the baking message boards addressed the issue of what to use instead of vegetable shortening (VS) and the conversation went from nothing, since VS is the best product for buttercream frosting to butter, plain old fashioned butter, then I think someone else suggested an Italian product called strutto, a melted animal fat (sorta like lard), free of all meat particles and preserved in soft form, not sold in the U.S.

I started to look up some alternatives to using vegetable shortening and found some other ways of making buttercream, but they would probably be more expensive for most bakers and less stable, meaning they would not withstand sitting on a table waiting on the guest for an extended length of time.

There is Italian Buttercream made with simple syrup and eggs whites,  and the usual ingredient, cooked of course.

French Buttercream made with egg yolks, whole eggs and the usual, also cooked of course.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream, again cooked and makde with egg whites.

German Buttercream made with pastry cream, confectioners’ sugar and butter, but not cooked!

Last but not least, Cream Cheese Buttercream also not cooked.

With all these options why on earth would anyone ever want to us vegetable shortening in their buttercream frosting, have you ever tasted the stuff?