This is EXACTLY the information I wish I had a week ago! I just baked the worst cake of my life last week for my 10-year-old's birthday. Not only did I underbake the cake (gross!), but my buttercream frosting was a disastrous mess. I followed Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe from The Cake Bible, similar to your Italian Buttercream recipe, but I think maybe I didn't boil the syrup long enough, then didn't get it from the saucepan to the mixing bowl fast enough because it started to harden to the sides of my mixing cup, and then I stopped mixing and started glopping the goo on my cake when it looked like your "intimidating stage." If you want a good laugh at my expense, you can see pictures of the Ugliest Buttercream Frosting Cake Ever here: http://cheekycognoscenti.blogspot.com/2010/12/happy-half-baked-birthday-lars-of-ours.html. Anyway, I'm looking forward to giving Buttercream another try, but next time, I'm going to have your directions and photos in the kitchen with me on my iPad. For those of us who haven't been to culinary school, terms like "soft ball stage, "soft peaks" and "hard peaks" can be pretty ambiguous. Your pictures are worth a thousand words, and THANK YOU for working so hard to wreck your frosting so you could show people how to fix it. I'm feeling inspired and encouraged to get that mixer out and try this again. Wish me luck! :-) Wow, Rebecca, thanks for your kind words. And for having the good humor to share your troubles! Now maybe we can bring it back around to a happy ending together. I'm right behind ya, sister! Susan

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