The last cake I did was hot pink and when I unwrapped it the next day had tiny little white spots. Also I don't know if I am waiting to long to do the viva trick but my icing is getting a cracked apperance. I use the Wilton buttercream recipie. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

The white spots were probably your salt. I use popcorn salt so I never have a problem, but if you're using plain table salt, a good thing to do is dissolve it to your liquid before adding it in.

As for your cracks, there are 2 things you can do to help. The first is to make sure your cake is on a board that will completely support the cake without bending. If it flexes at all, you'll get cracks. Another thing that helps a lot is to use milk, half&half or cream as the liquid in your icing. A icing with only water in it will tend to crack more.

i never sue dalt...i just use salted butter...never had a prob..

I've had both...cracks and white spots. The cracks were due to not enough support for the cake and the white spots were due to the salt. I've since used bigger/sturdier cake boards when making big cakes and started to dissolve the salt in the liquids first, then adding the entire liquid to my recipe. Now I'm happy to say my cakes are crack and spot free!

I occasionally have the little white spot problem, too! I didn't know what causes it, thanks for info!

I use the Wilton snow-white buttercreme recipe. It starts by whipping meringue powder in water, this is the only liquid in the recipe. If I dissolve the salt in the water, will the meringue still whip up right?

If you don't have salt in your icing and still have white spots it is sometimes where you may have had a clump in your icing.

How long are you waiting to smooth your icing? I agree you do want to make sure you have enough support under your cake, if not you can get cracking. But I have also had wrinkling if you want to long to smooth it. You want to wait until your cake has just crusted, usually 5 to 10 mins, maybe more on a humid day. The longer you wait the more your icing crusts.

I do not use salt in my icing maybe I had a clump. As far as smoothe icing i use the big parchment bag and huge tip to ice the cake. Then I take a long spatuala and run water over it till cake is smooth. But then my cake is damp so I have to wait till it drys out so it's not tacky and sticks to the paper towel.

heavenscent:

I reread you first post-could it maybe have been moisture on the suface that spotted your icing?

I know that if you try to ice a cake that has been chilled, as it comes up to room temp it can sweat!

that could very well be it next time i won't do that. Thanks for the suggestions