I made my first cake covered in buttercream with no fondant. While trying to get it smooth, I was having headaches. I saw the 'paper-towel' method and thought I would give it a try.

The problem is that it would not crust. I was done frosting and let it sit even over night and it was still soft and would stick to my finger to the touch.

Recipe:
2 lbs of powder sugar
1 cup of non-fat milk
1 lb of butter
1 cup shortening

Any suggestions to change this up? Do I have too much fat in this?

Thanks

Hi Chapetta. I think your problem might have been having too much liquid in your icing. You might want to try this

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup butter
2 lbs powdered sugar
6 Tablespoons water
Flavoring of your choice

This recipe crusts very well. Adding a teaspoon meringue powder also helps but I find this recipe to crust well with or without it so I just omit it all together.

Take away a little wet, add a little dry. I find that when my frosting doesn't crust I need more sugar. Normally means that there is too much shortening and grease

I usually start with less water and add as needed. Like the other ladies said, yout icing is too soft.
Edna

holy milk batman! yeah, way too much milk in your original recipe! crusting is dependant mostly on the fat to sugar ratio...but with that much liquid (milk) it was never gonna crust, no matter how perfect the ratio was.

add a bit of liquid (water, milk, cream, creamer, whatever) at a time...you can always add more, but you can't take away

what was the consistency of the icing you tried to cover the cake with? did it seem runny?

Wow, I just saw the amount of milk..way too much! That aint a crusting recipe
Edna