I live in AZ where it is very dry and often HOT! I made my cousin's AUGUST wedding cake with a crusting buttercream and it came out REALLY shiny. Like greasy shiny. The room was a little on the warm side. It looked fine once the lights were turned down for the reception. Here is the link to the shiny look, the alternate view is the "after the lights are out" view! http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1925191/1925192

I thought it was a fluke. So today I made a different cake for a bridal shower. AGAIN the icing is really shiny.

Am I working with it too much? (I spend a lot of time smoothing the icing) Is there something I can do to prevent this or fix it when I'm done? I thought of dusting it with cornstarch, but the cake is green and I don't want it to show.

I have two wedding cakes to make in March and really don't want SHINY cakes again.

FYI -- My kitchen is about 70 degrees.

I live in Fla. hot and humid. When making stacked cakes that are to be display outside, I have to cut back on the amount of butter I add and use more hi-ratio shortening. I have about 1/4 butter- rest shortening to make the 1cup. So 1cup PS to 1 cup (butter/short.) gives me a nice balance- and no chance of melting in the heat. Good luck

I also live in arizona and so far I noticed that when I use butter to make my buttercream it gets shiny, Now I use the extra special buttercream from wilton and use the butter flavor crisco and havnt had a problem with it and my kitchen gets pretty warm, Even when I run scalding hot water over my balloon whisk the buttercream doesnt melt LOL and it dosent leave a greasy feeling in your mouth either, good luck and if you need help feel free to pm me

Sigh. I'm using an all Crisco buttercream. And you can SEE how shiny it is.

USE HIGH RATIO SHORTENING!! It costs a little more, but worth the stress to relieve!!

Are you using any corn syrup in it? Sometimes that makes mine shiny.

Is it still crusting even though it's shiny?

Oops, thnks, JanH ....

Yes, I'm using a crusting buttercream. Nope, no corn syrup! This cake didn't turn out nearly as shiny as the wedding cake did. I'll try to find the high ratio shortening.