I am having a cake emergency!  I have to make three cakes for this weekend before leaving for my mini vacay so I thought I would save myself time by making my BC on Monday and putting in fridge until I baked the cakes.  Apparently this was a big mistake! lol  This cake is supposed to be a number 53 and after baking and shaping the cake, I tried to crumb coat but the icing is hard, thick and it's pulling up all the crumbs from the cake!  Any suggestions on how I can salvage this cake and not have to start all over again?  I did leave the icing out overnight before using it but nothing helps.  I feel like I just wasted a lot of butter, sugar, eggs and cake mix.....

I would scrape off what you can of the crumb coat, bring to soft room temperature on the defrost program in your microwave, add a bit more liquid, and try again. You can use the BC to stick any broken cake pieces together. Worth a try before throwing the whole lot away!

ANot sure what kind of buttercream you are using. I use American. Sometimes mine will be too hard. I just add a bit of water to make it less stiff.

ADid you re-whip your buttercream after it came up to room temperature? That can make a big difference. If you did and it is still too stiff you might want to try adding a bit more butter.

I'm going to try that now, thanks!

just be sure you don't whip it cold!  or you'll have a bloody mess on your hands if its a SMBC or IMBC

Thanks to you all, I was able to salvage the crumbling mess from before.  I microwaved, whipped and added shortening to my icing.  I'm not quite finished with it yet, but it came together quite nicely. 

New question for you guys - my customer likes, pink, yellow and fishes so this is the design I came up with.  But it looks unfinished to me.  Do you have any suggestions for additional deco I can add? 

This board has been a HUGE help to me.  CAKE CENTRAL ROCKS!

Thanks to you all, I was able to salvage the crumbling mess from before.  I microwaved, whipped and added shortening to my icing.  I'm not quite finished with it yet, but it came together quite nicely. 

New question for you guys - my customer likes, pink, yellow and fishes so this is the design I came up with.  But it looks unfinished to me.  Do you have any suggestions for additional deco I can add? 

This board has been a HUGE help to me.  CAKE CENTRAL ROCKS!

AIt looks great! I wouldn't add anything else. Sometimes less is more, right? I think it is lovely just as it is. :)