I saw a post yesterday. Someone was asking how to get smooth buttercream. So I saw Indydebi said its good to beat it on low for like 10 minutes.

So, cool. I have a 4 tier BC wedding cake Im doing today. I made my icing, beating it on medium for 5 mintues, and on the lowest speed for 10 minutes. I started to ice my cakes and realize Ive just made the holiest (holey-ist, is that a word?) buttercream in history.

Did I over beat it? Do you think maybe if I put it on low for a bit longer I can work out those bubbles? Im running low on PS. I hope I have enough for another batch or two if needed. I dont know if I can save this stuff.

This is the recipe I use, if that helps...
-2 sticks butter
-2 cups shortening
-2 lbs PS
-2 tsp vanilla
-1 tsp butter flavor
-1 tsp almond
-water to thin as needed.


Advice???

I don't know if this could be the problem, but If I only have 2lbs of powdered sugar then I only use 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter and 1 cup of shortening. It appears like maybe too much liquid in your recipe, I could be wrong. I'm not that great at troubleshooting without physically "seeing" it. I'm sorry, I hope I helped some. I'd throw another 1 lb (4 cups) of PS in there, just from your recipe description....

Looking at the recipe you made need to add 2lbs more of PS. The recipe that i use 2 lbs of shorting to 4 lbs of PS.

HTH
Roger

Hmm, it does seem a little softer than normal. In addition to the recipe I only added about 2 tbsp water.

I did change butter recently. I stopped using store brand butter and get land-o-lakes now. I figured out that the store brand butter was causing my ganache to seize, land-o-lakes doesnt. So I just use that now. I guess the store brand must have had more water in it or something. hmm.

Anyways, I havent changed anything it seems except the butter of course, and the way I mixed it. I dont normally mix it that way. I might mix it on medium for 3 minutes, then on low for 3 minutes and that's usually it. Im guessing I over-whipped it, but Im not sure because of Debi's advice, and I trust my girl knows what she's talking about!

Ok, well Ill stick it back in the mixer with some more sugar....worried it will be too sweet though. It tastes perfect right now....

Ok, I added some more PS and beat it on low for just a minute or so. It did seem to help a bit with the holes, but not as much as Id have liked. The icing doesnt seem like its crusting really well, so I stuck it in the freezer. I hope once the BC is cold I might be able to smooth it with a hot damp spatula or my finger or something.

I tell ya...its just not my weekend.

You didn't beat it on high enough speed. Was your mixer completely full? You need a totally full mixer and beat on speed 6 for a while.

I find the trick to no air in the icng is to fill that mixer bowl over the beaters:

My bowl was completly full. It actually was over the beater, just about as full as it could get without overflowing.

Its ok. Ill smooth it out somehow.