I am new to cake baking and my son wants me to bake his bithday cake. But my buttercream has a gritty texture. Please is there any thing that I can do to make it taste smooth?

what type of buttercream did you make?

Its a regular buttercream recipe consisting of both butter and shortening.

Regular buttercream meaning:

powdered sugar
water or milk
real butter
vegetable shortening
flavoring

And that's all? The only gritty culprit I would think would be lumps in the powdered sugar, potentially. I'm not sure!

I used Dream Whip once in some buttercream and it was gritty the first day and the 2nd day when I whipped it just prior to use, it was smooth.

Did you add anything that needed to dissolve?

Beat it longer until the grit is gone.

Did you sift your powdered sugar? Not sure... does it help to sift it twice? Good luck... I'm sure it will be wonderful!

I find some brand of sugars seem to be gritty, Wal-Mart brand has been gritty for me but Kroger and Schnucks store brands are my favorite

Did you use a name brand powder sugar or a store brand? Name brands will always be pure cane and you shouldn't have any issues there.

Store brand powder sugars can be made with beet sugar, which can cause the gritty feel. If it is a store brand, check the bag. If it doesn't say pure cane anywhere on the bag and the ingredeints just say sugar and cornstrach (which keeps it from clumping up) then chances are it is beet sugar. If it says cane or pure cane, then you are fine.

Walmart brand will vary from region to region and will vary with in a region. Sam's 7lb bag was pure cane for a while, but now it seems like it has gone to a beet sugar.

I agree with Texas Sugar, when this happened to me it was store brand sugar. I haven't had the problem since switching to name brand sugar. I used the store brand for months before the problem and then ended up with a bad batch. Had to run up to the store at 11pm and get more PS. It's worth the extra cents for me not to have the risk. It might settle in over night but it's up to you if you want to wait or remake.

Thank you all for the tips. I will try whipping the BC a little bit more.

I have tried to sure off brand ps but my bc always was grainy!!!! i tried the ps from sams and found the same problem which sucked cause i wanted to be able to buy larger quantities. i just stick to the name brand sugar and have never had a problem.

now i must say, i never knew there was a difference in granulated sugar. i always just grabbed whatever package of granulated sugar that was on sale. after i noticed a difference in my cakes (how they rise and sink) i am not thinking maybe i have been using beet sugar??? i recently purchased c&h gran sug and it was so much more smoothly grated then the store brand!

Does that make sense?