I couldn’t create my cakes without this very useful product!
White vegetable fat (shortening), is a solid white fat that has traditionally been used in pastry making, however in cake decorating it has a number of uses:
· Rolling out: sugarpaste/rolled fondant, modelling paste, flowerpaste, and pastillage. Smear a thin layer of white fat over your work surface before rolling out – use instead of icing sugar or cornflour.
· Dry paste: Knead a little white fat into your sugarpaste, modelling paste or pastillage to help change the consistency of the paste, to make it more pliable. You may also find a little water kneaded in also helps.
· Reduces stickiness: knead into soft paste that has become too sticky.
White vegetable fat (shortening) is often known by a brand name: in the UK, Trex or White Flora; in South Africa, Holsum; in Australia, Copha; and in America, Crisco. These products are more or less interchangeable in cake making. You will find it in the chiller counter of your supermarket near the butters and margarines.
Hope this helps
Lindy
I am very pleased to read this as I was never sure when I could use white fat, I do tend to get cracks in my sugarpaste so hopefully I will now be able to over come this problem.
I also use trex to make my buttercream…half trex half marg/butter. i find it a lot lighter and not as sickly…also great used on its own with icing sugar to make ‘pure white’ buttercream…people are abit apprehensive to try it as its pure fat…but its really nice…apparently its how the Americans make ‘frosting’ !!!
Hi Shelley
Thanks for adding your comment, I’ve done this as well and it works a treat. I also used white buttercream on the unicorn cake in my Storybook Cakes book – it works and as you say its how buttercream is made in the States. I know it sounds horrible to us brits but I’m not a buttercream fan, so I actually prefer the flavour of pure white buttercream especially if I’ve added a drop or two of vanilla.
Hi there,
I am fairly new to the cake world, but I too make my buttercream with the vegetable white fat (TREX), and it tastes wonderful, so light and airy. Also I dont think it can be overwhipped.
My 6 year old gorl certainly approved of the trex frosting rather than the butter frosting.
Loving your work Lindy, you are my inspiration x
ciao,sto imparando anche io, per cui seguo il tuo blog oltre avere qualcuono dei tuoi libri. dunque, qui in italia si trova questo trex? o con che cosa si può sostiutuire questo grasso bianco puro di cui parlate? I MIEI COMPLIMENTI PER IL VOSTRO LAVORO .STELLA
Hi
I don’t think shortening/Crisco can ever change the taste of real butter. Never ever. Neither can unsalted butter even though you add salt. I know, I’ve tried. And unsalted butter tends to melt more easily when exposed to the outside world of the fridge.
Guess I’m a bit old-fashioned, but who can blame me
Ciao Stella,
Trex = grasso vegetale bianco
Hope this helps
I live in Turkey, but we dont have any of the white vegetable fat products you mentioned above (only normal butter, unsalted butter & margarine). Could I use anything else to substitute white vegetable fat?
Thank you!
Hello Leigh,
The white vegetable fat is hard block of white fat which we use in England for making pastry.
We are not familiar with the product name in Turkey.
Can anyone else help?
I read a sugarcraft book-But when i read white fat,I was’nt sure what it was or what you would buy. So I want to the suppermarket and a little help later, I bought trex. Read the recipe again and then googled it. Thank you all for your tips and the internet. I bought the right thing! charlottex
Excellent Charlotte, hope you have fun with your creations!
Marina
Thanks you for clarifying that trex could be used for buttercream frosting. I was searching for an alternative to crisco when i stumbled upon trex and cooken another vegetable fat..but alas the frosting tasted horrible as i chose to use cooken… i will be trying trex for my next frosting..and hope it turns out well
Hello Lindy,
I own a few of your books and love them, thank you. I’m still very much a beginner but learning a lot along the way!
I was just wondering if Cookeen is the same as Trex here in the UK? It’s a hard vegetable fat suitable for pastry here in the UK. Website: http://www.cookeen.co.uk/
I tend to shop at both Asda and Tesco equally and neither sell Trex but sell Cookeen. I did visit Sainsbury’s especially for the Trex. Cookeen seems different and seems to stay hard when at room temperature. So, do you think it’s the same thing or just strictly for pastry?
Thanks in advance.
-Lisa.
Hi Lisa,
We buy our Trex or white flora in our local supermarkets such as tesco, sainburys, morrisons and asda. Cookeen is the same and will be ok to use.
Have fun creating!
Marina