I've been fightingt with my buttercream because it does not wan to stick to my cake. When i put it on top of my cake is fine but when i start covering the cake and trying to smooth it out its when the buttercream sticks to my spatula instead of the cake. I thought that maybe was too hard so I added water, maybe too thin so i added sugar but nothing seems to work.

Any suggestions?

PLEASE

If you could post your recipe, maybe we could tell what the problem is. Sounds like the icing is too stiff, but then you said you thinned it, not sure what is going on.

Is your cake still warmish? That could be it

I've added either water or milk to thin the icing or more sugar to stiffen the icing but nothing seems to work.
I usually let the cake cool off on the fridge before icing it.

This is my recipe
1/2 cup of shortening
1/2 butter
4 cups of powder sugar
2tspn of milk (or more if its too stiff)
1 tsp of vanilla

Thanks for the answers

Have you tried running your spatula under hot water and then smoothing the BC out? Or even misting the cake w/ water and then smoothing it out, it makes the spatula glide right over the icing and smoothes it really nice.

Ugh, I've had icing do this to me. I've started putting on a thin crumb coat first, then my coat of good frosting. It hasn't been a problem since then. Unless I don't let the crumb coat set long enough... :/

Get your cake cold. I usually frost and fill frozen cakes and they give me no problems. When they start to warm up is when I have BC problems. Once you get SOME BC on there stick it in the fridge and let it harden then take it out and add more and smooth.

Here's the recipe you used (Wilton's Buttercream) with mixing directions:

http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Buttercream-Icing

First thing I noticed was that they started off with 2 Tablespoons of liquid not 2 teaspoons which would be used for making decorations not frosting the cake.

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add (additional) 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

HTH

I wipe the spatula off and also dip in hot water after each pass to smooth. When I am icing the sides and not using the icing tip to do it, I always wipe off the spatula after each addition because it seems to stick to the icing on the spatula and lift off the cake. I also use the viva towel method to do the final smoothing so that pressure seems to help too.