Chocolate Buttercream help needed

[JSkilling]

I just added caramel to my regular buttercream until I thought the taste was strong enough. Chefette just posted a recipe that I'm going to try this weekend - basically in the proportion of caramel to buttercream I used but she uses a French meringue with the yolks. I'm anxious to try that.

[Wendy DeBord]

Here's the link to Chefettes recipe: here.

Let's keep this thread on chocolate and that one on caramel please.

[JSkilling]

I've done testing this week. Tried the SCW chocolate cake with a dark chocolate buttercream - added some cocoa for a richer flavor. This stayed out for days and never oozed out between the layers the way my castle cake did. It definitely had some deflation but it's chocolate after all and the temps have been warm. As I would cut a new slice (you know, for testing purposes) it would be fine inside but would have a slight bulge in the layer the next time we sliced it. So, so far so good. For those reading along, it has never been about the outside layer of buttercream causing the fondant to slide off, it's the inside layers that oozed and caused the cake to collapse on itself instead of allowing me to cut nice slices.

Next. I made another version of the Swiss meringue but added 2 oz of egg whites per Keith's recipe. Since I'm using the Papetti, it took forever to get a meringue but once it's there the resulting buttercream is quite nice. I used 8 oz of bittersweet chocolate and got a very light, whippy chocolate filling. I put that between two layers of the SCW chocolate cake and one layer of the golden vanilla. Decorated Spongbob and then into the cooler overnight despite all warnings in every book to the contrary. Today I took it out 3 hours before the party, left it there (actually had to hide it so the kids at the next party wouldn't come over and eat it while it was unattended - I'm not kidding). Beautiful slices, great texture, yummy cake! I was able to very quickly slice the cake and plate it and had every piece hold exactly as I expected.

My lessons: I believe letting chocolate fillings stay out over 24 hours means I'll have a softer filling that might not handle well. I don't think the milk chocolate was stable enough in the buttercream to hold up. The cooler is my friend even with fondant. I even had used a simple syrup on all the layers to keep them nice and moist and still had no problem with the structure.

Granted, ole Spongebob (stupidest character on earth) didn't have any weight on top but I think I know better now about how much support I need to handle the sugar work on the cakes. Live and learn. Practice on your friends....

[BROWNSUGA]

How'd I miss this post? I love this cake!! Great job!