I recently made a cake for my Granddaughter's First Communion. I noticed by the time I got it down to her house the buttercream started to crack in places. I used a frosting with butter, confectioner sugar, milk and flavoring. No crisco in this. Can anyone tell me if I can fix it before we cut it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.....

Thanks,
NanaCin

Most of the time if your buttercream cracks it is because there is movement in the cake. This happens a lot if you use cardboard to put the cake on.

Agreeing with grandmom. You need a VERY strong board(s) for your cake to prevent this from happening. I'm not aware of anything you can do once the cracking has happened.

Yes, cracking usually occurs when moving the cake that's on a board that isn't thick enough. You could try to smooth out the cracks with a hot knife, but I think it would be more trouble than it's worth--just eat it!

Thanks for all your help, I am sad that it happened but, life goes on..

I agree with Indydeb, it could be you didn't use a strong enough base.

But this is the third time I have read this question. I am beginning to think a lot of people are making their BC a bit too dry.

Guess I should have clarified: too thin cardboard will cause cracking.

I agree, I think maybe your icing may have been too dry and for a sturdy base, we have been using the foam board poster board and cutting to the size we want...we make it 2-3 layers thick depending on the size of the cake...I'm not sure if you have Dollar Trees in your area, but that's where we order ours from..you might even be able to order it online from them...I pay a dollar a sheet and it is usually all I need for a cake...hope this helps some!

So then why does my buttercream crack when it sits in one place overnight? I use Dawn's Butt-R-Cream with water added to thin it out some. Any ideas?