I need help!! I've been making cakes for about two years, always using Wilton's buttercream recipe. I live in South Mississippi and sometimes I can make my buttercream and it's so pretty and fluffy, then I make it again and it's so flat and ugly, and I can't get it to do anything. When it's flat, it gets a very oily watery finish on the crust. I use the same recipe everytime with transfat shortening.

What can be causing this? Could it be the high temps with high humidity?

Please help!

Anybody have any ideas?

I would guess that it's probably the heat / humidity. I would suggest trying a different recipe. I use Indydebi's buttercream, and it always holds up to humidity. I think it tastes a ton better than the Wilton recipe, too.

I'm in Alabama, and the answer is "yes"!! Judging by the weather, either increase your powdered sugar or decrease your liquids. A change from a 'normal' day to increased cloudiness and humidity can cause a good batch made earlier that same day to wilt.....just happened to me the other day

Thanks a bunch y'all! I thought that's what was causing it. It gets me so irritated when I've got a ton of cakes to do and my icing is just as flat as it can be! Of course we have the high humidity and heat with thunderstorms just about every night. So...I think I'm going to try Indydebi's recipe.

Thank you so much!!

Has any one had the butter & crisco seperate from the sugar. Every thing is mixed then I start frosting in a bag & the heat makes it soft os I refg. it & then it seperates???

I'd say read the labels on the veg shortening carefully. The labels from the with transfat and the without transfat are nearly identical. It really sounds like you've got some without transfat shortening.

I have that happen ALOT!! Really...all the time! I pipe a minute then put it in the fridge for a minute. The heat from my hand makes it seperate and if I don't catch it in time, it looks horrible on the cake and I have to take it off and redo. I use the GreatValue brand with transfat and I still have trouble and I don't want to have to order shortening.