Does anyone have a buttercream recipe that doesn't melt? I have tried everything, but that darn stuff just won't hold up for me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
TIA
Janeil
I actually do 1/2 shortening and 1/2 butter. I don't have to add as much ps that way and it isn't as sweet. Is that my problem?
You mentioned not having to add as much sugar to your icing. That may be your problem, honestly--you haven't added enough sugar to make an icing you can use for decoration.
It's icing, babe. It's made from sugar and butter/shortening. It's going to be sweet sweet sweet. That's what icing is. You can't add less than adequate ammounts of powdered sugar in the hopes that the icing will be "less sweet" (it won't be--the tongue is still registering the same ammount of sugar because of the limited surface area). You'll just have a soupier icing glaze, not decorator icing.
People say to add salt to your icing to make it taste "less sweet." And I always do add a bit of salt to my icing, because it really does improve the taste. But the salt does nothing to CUT the sweetness down. Think back to grade school and that experiment where you mapped out the areas of the tongue:
What you're actually doing when you add salt is activiating an additional set of tastebuds. It's not enough so that you taste saltiness, but it's just enough to make those tastebuds fire. So adding salt is a great thing to do, but it doesn't cut down on the sweetness! Those sweet sensors are still firing full blast.
Me? I hate icing. I hate decorator/shortening icing, all butter buttercream icing, italian merangue buttercream, swiss merangue buttercream, you name it. All way too sweet for me. But I make it and I use it because that's what I have to do to to get the effects I want when I'm decorating. Then, if I'm eating the cake, I take my slice and scrape it all off. We who do not like icing must suffer for our art. 
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