So I've been feeling a bit stuck in a rut lately. Not much time (or funds) to practice caking, so not a lot of opportunity to practice new techniques I've learned.

I have, up to this point, used AMBC exclusively. I use indydebi's recipe and love it. I live in South Louisiana, and I like having that security the shortening gives me in knowing that I'm not gonna have the whole thing melt on me. (I make a cinnamon brown sugar buttercream that contains mostly butter that melted on me IN MY HOUSE a couple of weeks ago because I couldn't keep the house cool enough during the day.)

But you know, I don't love the mouth feel of shortening and powdered sugar. And I don't want to be stuck on something without testing out other options. But I am genuinely concerned that, if I end up liking this SMBC stuff, it's just gonna melt all over the place on me.

Anyone have any tips they'd like to share? I currently ice my cakes with AMBC before covering in fondant and do NOT refrigerate. EVER. But I am also going to try ganaching my cakes soon, so that'll probably change.

I don't know about SMBC but .... I also hate the mouth taste of shortening, I have found that high-ratio shortening makes that go away.

It is the removal of trans-fat in the commercial shortening that causes that coating. I found that generic brands add a little of the trans-fat back in and it is much better. I get high ratio shortening from a peer but I am not sure where she orders it from. You might be able to google it and find it online.

One of these days I'll tackle SMBC too.