Icing recipe safe at room temperature

[Susanwusan]

Hi, what is a good recipe for icing that can be spread or piped and kept at room temperature for a few hours?  A buttercream icing would be most suitable but I can try anything else.

[JeanneCake]

An Italian meringue buttercream would work, as would a Swiss meringue. An American buttercream, sometimes referred to as a crusting buttercream is also ok for a while at room temp.  I define room temp as between 60-68 defrees Fahrenheit. If your room is warmer, or has no a/c on a hot summer day, anything based on butter will soften and be a problem to work with and will spoil faster. You can use vegetable shortening to replace all or some of the butter, just remember the taste changes as a result.

[Susanwusan]

Crusting buttercream.  Is that what they call an oxymoron?  I'll have a look into those, thanks.  I take it the sugar in those icings would keep the product from going off too soon?

[JeanneCake]

For the  meringue buttercreams, it's more the butter going soft in the heat and melting/sliding; for the crusting buttercream it's a little firmer.  In warmer parts of the country, bakers use shortening which is stable for a longer period than all butter types.  We use a recipe from the Whimsical Bakehouse that has both shortening and a little bit of butter; it's very light and to my taste, not nearly as sweet as the "American Buttercream" type.  We have also used all vegetable shortening when we need a dairy free version.    Personally I don't  like very sweet things so my preference taste-wise is the meringue buttercreams.  Swiss meringue is "looser" than Italian; and American buttercream and whimsy will hold up better in the heat.   You can store Swiss or Italian meringue for 12-24 hours at rm temp, American buttercream I think is ok for 3 days (could be longer) and the whimsy is ok for at least 3 days.

[Susanwusan]

Thank you.