Hello!

I've been a silent cake central stalker for a while, and am still learning a lot about decorating :) 

I tried making swiss buttercream for the first time, and it seemed to work out perfectly when I made it. I stored it in the fridge and then let it get to room temp, and used it for a crumb coat on my practice cake. While spreading it, it seemed to "break" (pic attached).

Was I supposed to whip it up again before using it? I'm not sure what the problem is. I finished the crumb coat just fine, but I was going to use it for the main coat and am concerned I won't be able to make it nice and smooth.

Thanks! Any advice is welcome - and apologies if this was covered somewhere else, this forum has thousands of pages. 

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Yes, you should always whip meringue buttercream before using it if it's been refrigerated. The problem is that you'll have to make sure that the temperature of the buttercream is really room temp  or it will break while you're whipping it.      

If it looks curdled like that, take a dishtowel soaked in hot water, wring it our and wrap it around the bowl while you whip the buttercream. That will warm it up and help it to smooth out. On the other end i=of it, if you end up with buttercream soup take a bunch of bags of frozen vegetables and stick them around the bowl while you whip it to cool it down. It will take a while, but you can save a batch of buttercream by adjusting the temperature slightly.                        

Thank you. It seems American buttercream is a little easier to work with but I do much prefer the taste of Swiss! Gotta pick your battles I guess. I'll whip it up!