Ok so I just posted a picture of my youngest daughters first birthday cake. I am pretty pleased with it over all. The humidity in my area was disgusting that week and it certainly made working with the gumpaste lots of fun. My question is what caused the little white/faded spots on the icing covering the cake. Here is the link.   http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1444112.html I first thought it was caused by water droplets from my friend washing veggies less than carefully in the sink to the left of the cake but looking at the pictures I can see that the spots are on both sides of the cake and not likely caused by anything going on in the sink. Any ideas? I would like to avoid this in the future.

Very nice cake by the way and I'm not sure about that. Was your buttercream a smooth texture? or did it have little bumps? like maybe you powdered sugar was a little lumpy. I have had to sift my pwdered sugar first before to get rid of all the tiny little balls which will give you a smoother finish. Not sure if this was any help but maybe someone can help better.

I agree about ps but one other question. Did you use hi ratio shortening? Sometimes the non hi ratio can cause irregular color but I really think is is ps. Your cakes look great.

I definitely agree with the others about the sifting. Also, did you use an electric mixer? I used to mix by buttercream with just a spoon (didn't do very many cakes), and I got that consistancy alot. Now that I use an electric mixer, my icing turns out so much smoother.

Hi there I had that happen to me once while I was doing a wilton course.

My instructor called it buttercream chicken pox.

It is caused when water or moisture gets on or near the cake.

I caused mine by using a spatula dipped in hot water to smotth the buttercream.

I imagine since there was humidity and that the cake was near the water , this was the cause.

No worries though my instructor said cake was edible just looked spotty.

By the way your cake is fantastic!

I saw another cause of spots on another thread here. If there is salt in your icing, make sure it is thoroughly dissolved in the liquid before adding the PS, or you may get spots. I use popcorn salt because it is so much finer and dissolve it in my liquids.

Wow thanks every one. I did sift the sugar so that was probably not the cause. It was VERY humid and as for salt, there was definitly some salt in there and it was not very fine. I think maybe that could have been the issue. I will try this popcorn salt you speak of.

I also think it was salt mixed weith humidity! I had this same thing happen to me and it happens when I don't put the salt in the vanilla or almond extract before adding to the buttercream. Live and learn I guess!