I've never made a buttercream with ALL butter, but I have a request for one for Valentine's Day.... I was just wondering if it will crust for me? I usually use the Buttercream Dream recipe and that crusts beautifully... then I use the Viva method for smoothing. If it doesn't crust, then I can't "Viva" the cake and it won't be as attractive for sure!

Help?!!

TIA!
Stacy

i use all buttercream, it crusts fine. never tried the viva method though.
xx

What makes it curst is having less butter & liquid w/ more powdered sugar. You might have to play around w/your recipe.

I use all-butter icing often. I do have to chill it really well in order for it to crust enough to Viva or stencil it, and I find I have to work quickly or the icing starts sticking to the paper towel.

Adding some meringue powder might help too.....

Thanks for the ideas everyone! I'll be working on it today.

Maybe a tablespoon of merigune powder as well.

Well I tried the all butter buttercream... I added about a teaspoon and a half of meringue powder to it and it worked pretty well. It was a little harder to smooth with the Viva but it still looked good. It tasted 100 times better than buttercream made with shortening... all the people that tasted the cake said it was the best icing they had ever tasted!! I will use this icing for all my cakes that don't need to be white. I think it would be hard to make flowers with this icing though... they would probably just melt away.
Here's a pic of the cake... thanks for the tips!

It's really pretty!!

Your cake turned out awesome!!