Natural Whitening Agent for buttercream...?

[Awfully Nice Cupcakes]

Hallo there! I'm new to the cupcake forum, so hello fellow cupcake bakers! I'm desperately trying to find a natural (if possible) whitening agent for buttercream. We use natural soft butter and so everything comes up with a yellow'ish tinge. This is fine normally but when customers ask for whiter buttercream (for a wedding for example) we struggle. We've tried adding cream and milk which makes it less yellow but still can't achieve white! Any ideas or tips would be much appreciated, thanks! :smile:

[Princess Cupcake]

You could look for whiter butter, but unfortunately that usually means the cows have been force-fed corn instead of grass. See http://judithcooks.blogspot.com/2010/05/white-butter-yellow-butter.html for an explanation... basically the butter made from milk of corn-fed cattle doesn't have the beta carotene that gives butter it's distinctive yellow color. If your ethical outlook permits, looking for white butter might be the easiest solution. If not, there are powders like Superwhite, a concentrated white powder made by Sugar Flair Colours ltd.
Wilton's advises substituting shortening for butter, though I can't imagine the taste would make you popular.

[Awfully Nice Cupcakes]

Thanks Princess Cupcake! I'll def look into it. Although I feel our customers on the whole are more than happy with pale yellow buttercream it would be good for weddings if we could create something whiter without chucking a load of nasties in! x