These wedding cakes are enough to make me want to quit cakes all together!!! No matter what I do, they are never smooth. I think I need some instructions entitiled "Buttercream for dummies". I used Indydebi's recipe (which I love) for this one. I messed with it for hours last night, the more I did the worse it got. Finally, I gave up and went to bed. It didn't turn out too bad, but I'm wondering if I should give up?????? Give me your honest critiicism please!!!!

Crystal

I don't see anything bad....Is that a design on each of the tiers? All I can say is, the more you mess with it, the more trouble you will have. I learned the hard way....I would put the BC on, and then smooth and smooth and redo and redo, and it looked horrible!
Put the BC on....smooth it the best you can, then leave it alone to crust up some. Then go back with parchment paper and smooth it out. HTH!

I mix some Pastry Pride (or similar, ala Rich's Bettercream) in with my buttercream and mix it for another 3-5 minutes. I never measure, I just pour some in until I get the consistency I want. It's really light and fluffy and smooths out easier than anything else I've used. It still crusts - but it takes about twice as long to develop.

Next time you make some buttercream, you might want to try mixing some in and see if that makes it easier for you to work with.

The best thing I ever did was purchase SugarShack's "Perfecting The Art of Buttercream". So worth the money!