Over the past several months I have altered my bc recipe a bit, and now that I have to make a cake with a diamond pattern press (for that quilted look on bc) I left the cake to crust for a full hour, and still it is sticking to the press.
I have heard that the "crusting" has to do with fat... ours is an american style bc, and for the fat, we use about a 2:3 ratio of butter to shortening.

Suggestions please???
I'm trying to replicate a wedding cake tier for an anniversary for a customer whose original wedding cake came from elsewhere, and if I can't get this to work, she's not going to be happy!!

i take it you like your buttercream? If you can smooth with paper towels, then take a straight edge ruler and cover with pts and use that to mark your quilted pattern.

Is your buttercream 3 parts butter to 2 parts shortening? If so, I tried that a while back (usually I have more shortening than butter), and I had the same problem....it wouldn't crust like I was used to it crusting. So, I changed it back to slightly more shortening than butter....hope you can figure this one out, or someone else can help!

crusting is a result of a ratio of sugar to fat. Dont' ask me what the ratio is.... no idea.

more fat ..... less crusting.
more sugar .... more crusting.

If it's not crusting, then it sounds like you need to add more sugar.

No, it will not make it sweeter. It makes it thicker.

The amount of crusting has to do with the powdered sugar:fat ratio.

The more fat you add, the less crusting.

The more powdered sugar you add, more crusting.

Humidity can also play into as well, if you are having a humid day, sometimes you need to cut back some on your liquid.

To make your icing more crusting, try cutting back a little on your fat or increasing a little on your powdered sugar.

I personally like 1lb powdered sugar: 3/4 cup fat (I only use high ratio shortening)
With a butter/shortening mix, I have used 1 lb sugar: 1/2 cup shortening/1/2 cup butter.

I have found that adding less fat than the above makes the icing crust too quickly,not good when you are trying to do the bottom tier of a wedding cake and it's starting to crust before you get done icing the whole thing!

It takes a little while to find a happy medium, just up that sugar a bit (or decrease your fat), and give that a try!

Thanks guys! Will make a single batch with more sugar and re-ice this one cake, and we'll see how it goes...
I really appreciate your replies!!!
xo!