Oy! This is so not working for me! This is exactly why I would NEVER do this for a living. I can handle it for a birthday party, and that's it!

Okay, so I made tons of icing a few days ago and put it in the fridge. I rewhipped it a little this morning, so that itw as thick enough to do dams.
Well, it seemed to work at first and then it started breaking down. I don't know why i even tried to do the raspberry thing. I put a HUGE dam, I put a thin layer of BC down adn then some preserves. Then BC on the underside of the layer above. I made 3 double recipes of icing and didn't get more than a crumb coat on the bottom tier and NOTHING but filling on the top.

So, I used an all butter recipe. Do you think that's the problem?

I have to make more, tons more, so I can crumb coat the top tier and frost BOTH tiers. Maybe I need to try a crisco based recipe??
This is making me CRAZY!

Plus, the turntable I got is wobbly because I didn't really think NOT to put all the layers on the thing at once. So, it's holding 6 layers, n owonder it's wobbly but I'm not moving it now. I already had to move it once to a bigger cake circle.

Any words of wisdom? Once I get the thing Iced, I'm good. maybe I need to find a partner to ice them and I can just decorate

I like all butter recipes because of the taste, and I hate crisco or the idea of eating it, BUT for stability and if I really need to have it hold up, I will always make my piping icings (but not the whole cake's icing and filling) and filling dam icing with the half-crisco/half-butter recipe, because all-butter recipes can soften VERY quickly in the bag in your hand while you're piping...

If I do use an all-butter, or sometimes even with the crisco recipe, when the icing starts to get too soft, I stick the bag in the freezer for a bit to re-firm it back up before continuing. It works great, 'cept sometimes it gets too cold and I have to wait for it to warm back up to that "just right" consistency.

You're right about lots of recipes--I almost always go way WAY over on the amount I actually use. I just used Wilton's estimates for "amount of icing" for a cake for 250, and I made 2+ cups more than what the total was that Wilton said I'd need, THEN I ended up needing two more QUADRUPLE batches of icing to finish the job...of course, I have about 8 cups left, so that's, let me see, well--too much, but you get the idea...

Hope it works out!

KarenOR: yes, if you use all butter the icing will be too soft.

If you don't like all Crisco, then do, half Crisco and half butter. It is much better to handle.

I don't use butter, but all Crisco because the stability it gives you is wonderful when working with it and for an outdoor party.

I agree. You need to use 1/2 butter or marg, & 1/2 shortening. The all butter icing is just too thin.

I used all Crisco and it worked SO much better. I hate that stuff, but obviously it works great.
I posted the cake in the Decorating Forum. I'm so glad it's done. I just used a ton of decorations to cover the bad ice job. LOL!

I use the Buttercream dream from this site....very good. I love it! I was using all crisco...but just as homecook stated just the thought that it is half pure shortning...yuck. Tasted not bad just knowing the amount that is used killed it for me (and my thighs) lol