I am new to cake decorating so i was wondering if someone could answer my question. I made some butter cream last night and i colored it pink and spread it on a cake last night and this morning i noticed little tiny white spots in my pink frosting like the color had vanished or something. Can anyone tell me what happened?

I'm not sure what happened but, I had the same thing happen to me. if you look in my pics it's the swamp fire ben 10 alien. I still don't know why it happened. I'm wondering if I just didn't mix the color in all the way or maybe my coloring was clumping up . not sure. maybe someone will know.

This happened to me with my first few batches of buttercream. It is the salt. It has not been incorporated and is showing up as white spots. I do not use salt in my icing anymore.

Did you use salt in your buttercream? I always use popcorn salt and dissolve it first in the liquid before adding it to my buttercream.

I used the same recipe i always use. I don't use salt. I use vegetable shortening, powered sugar and mirargue powder. Well now that i think about it the only thing different that i did was this time i used strawberry extract. I usually use Vanilla or almond. the strawberry extract is immatation i don't know if that would have anything to do with it.

Hello there this is my recipe for smooth buttercream and i varely get any white spots or none at all.
(1) 1 package crisco shortening pack comes in set of three but use just one.
(2) blend the crisco till well blended
(3) add 2tbs. meringue powder, 1/2tsp clear vanilla, 1/4 tsp. clear butter flavor extract, 1/4 tsp. almond extract, 3 tbs water.
(4) mix in together with crisco shortening. blend well
(5) add 1 pound confections sugar. and add an additional 2 to 3 tbs water and blend. add more water to your LEVEL of consitancy.the smoother it is the easier it is to apply. remove from bowl and mix with spatula then add your color. wilton products are the best...try it out. if your refridgurating it make sure you blend well by hand until smooth. and there should not be any spots.hope this helps.

There isn't really one cause since you can go done a list and everyone did something a little different.

It could be:
1. If you used salt it wasn't all the way dissolved and it reacts with the color.
2. You had little lumps of crisco or powder sugar that didn't get blended in.
3. The chemicals in your water.

Personally I think it is #3. And since chemicals in the water can very now and then that can explain why sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. You can always try bottled water.

Purple is really bad about this. Pink will do it sometimes and I even had two students that had spots in blue last week.

The good news is that once it spots, and you stir the spots back in it doesn't re-spot. So if you find you have this happen often you can always make those colors of icing a few hours earlier and let them sit in the bowl until they spot, then stir and use.

The last batch of BC I made had small bits of what I think were butter in it. I beat the crap our of it and it was at room temp when I started so I dont know why it happened. They would plug up the piping bag and made decorating the cake a real pain. Any idea what happened here? The icing was a cream cheese BC. jsut shortening, cream cheese, butter and Powdered sugar.

I had the same problem and my cake decorating teacher from a local bakery told me it was my shortning. I use high ratio but she said from time to time it just doesnt mix in well enough. Needless to say I cream it for about 3 mins on med-high speed to try to blend it real well first... no more white spots

i have had this happen and for me it was the shortening.

some batches seem to have a harder consistency and don't cream as well. If I find that is happening, I now put it in the microwave on a low power to soften it a bit and all the little spots blend up easier in the mixer.