I don't know why, but all of a sudden a few of my latest cakes are giving me trouble. First it was the train, I had to take it about 20 miles out of town and it was a pretty warm day. When I got there, I had to drive cross country to get to the door. The icing had slid right off the sides in places. I thought it was the heat or the bumpy ride. Then, I did a simple baseball cake and she had to drive it about 70 miles to her son. Warm day again. When she got there, it was starting to slide off the sides. I thought long journey and warm day were the problems. Then, yesterday I took a cake to my son's friend's bday party. It was totally fine, very mild day, we put the cake on the dining room table where it sat for about an hour and a half. When it was time to do the cake, I noticed it was sliding off the side as well ! ! ! It's never done this before (that I know of!). I'm not doing anything different. I use my own BC recipe, sort of adapted from a bunch of others...1 c butter, 1 c sweetex, meringue powder, 2lbs powdered sugar, flavor and half and half till it's the right consistency.

Anyone else had this happen? Solution? Suggestion? Anything at all??? I'm at a loss.....

I am a newb to decorating but we did a birthday party cake and had a little bit of trouble with icing sliding. Upon brainstorming, I asked my dh if he made a "dam" before he filled the cake. He said yes. He made a dam with cool whip! lol

So basically it was seeping out the sides and mixing with the buttercream!

I've had it happen to a cake I used cream cheese frosting with. I don't think I used enough powdered sugar to make it super-stiff (since cream cheese in buttercream tends to not hold its shape for me), but I have had it happen before.

Sometimes I think I have too much moisture in my cake (or put too much simple syrup on the sides).

Did you use a simple syrup on the cake?

Only other thing I can think of is trying to make a stiffer frosting consistency. It's very frustrating when this happens and almost impossible to fix if you're already on site.

I think humidity and moisture from the cake can contribute to this problem. Make sure the outside of your cake is nice and dry before you add a crumbcoat or icing. If it's a really humid week, you might have to decrease the amount of your liquid because buttercream seems to absorb it from the air.

I had a heck of a time during "wedding month". Two cakes slid on me on the way to the venue. I have NEVER had this happen. Heard many others having same problem. I think the heat is the biggest culprit, along with high humidity. Might want to up the powdered sugar a bit and maybe some more meringue powder maybe?

do you refrigerate your cakes? Because the only two times I had similar icing problems was when I refrigerated the cakes. The icing, when exposed to room-temperature, began to melt. Air-dried icing doesn't melt since it's "dried" and the moisture has been removed. (but it's still moist).

Yes, I also thought maybe the cake was too moist so I stopped putting sour cream in it. But it still happened! I'm thinking of trying out some different icings rather than BC. It's just that I KNOW BC, you know?!

Oh the drama!!!!!!!!

debi--of the ones that slid, 2 had been in the fridge and 2 had NOT. Argh! I can't draw a conclusion at all!!!

The only time I had it do that is when I was using the crisco w/o transfat. I switched to Hi-ratio and haven't had a problem. I also freeze and fridge my cakes so I am not sure what the answer is.