Good Morning,

This is my first post ever I just started the Wilton 1 class and I am not sure why the icing on my first cake cracked. I have been decorating for family for sometime and have never had this problem with the half crisco half butter receipe. However as many of you know you have to use the all criso recipe for class is this the problem. Thanks Georgette
Oh by the way I love this web-site

Well, it cracks for various reasons. The most common one is that the cakeboard was not strong enough to support the cake and had some flexibility to it, so the icing cracked.
With the all shortening icing recipe, because water is the liquid, the water has a tendency to evaporate. Particularly if you use a thinner or runnier icing for your crumbcoat or final icing coat and the drier icing coat tends to absorb some of the moisture from the wetter icing coat and you get cracking. But mainly because water evaporates, the water leaving the icing causes cracking issues. The best way to hold this issue off is to immediately box the iced cake or seal it in a plastic cake container. If you put a boxed cake in a plastic bag, like an unscented garbage bag, this will trap the moisture in longer.
I don't find this issue happens with cakes iced with the half butter, half shortening, milk or cream added icings, just the class icing.
Hugs Squirrelly