I have followed this recipe to a T a number of times and am still having TWO problems with this recipe.  

1) Everytime I make this icing it seems there is not nearly enough liquid right off the bat (or I am not measuring my powdered sugar correctly). My machine (a fairly new Cuisinart) begins to struggle and I freak out and turn it off. When I look into the bowl the mixture looks like coarse dough - lumpy and dry-looking and I can hardly even move it with my hands. I end up adding at least another half cup of water and in the end it makes a beautiful icing but in my mind I know it's not actually correct -  it's bugging me! Here is the recipe below (except I use 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of shortening). 2 lbs of powdered sugar is 7.5 cups, right?  I put the liquids, powdered sugar and 1/3 of the butter/shortening just as it says. And that's where I get stuck.

if the confectioner's sugar is sifted it should just all come together -- what i do sometimes is get everything moving around in the bowl except the liquid then when the mixer starts to strain while it is still going -- i pop the liquid in right at the base of the bowl where the beater hits the bottom so the liquid gives it a quick jolt of mercy and then just let it mix slowly-- scrapey scrape scrape -- continue to mix till all is well --

I'll give that a try right now. Thanks k8!

I would suggest you try to make it by weighing out all the ingredients to make sure.  It's much more accurate, and he gives you the weights in the recipe.

Anyone have trouble with this icing holding up under fondant? I get a bulge at the very top of the sides of the cake (as well as where the fillings are). I am doing a zebra cake and I want to make sure I can put the black stripes on pink winbeckler buttercream icing and it will hold up. I want to make this icing work for me because it is SOOO nice for covering cakes. Sheen and beautiful!