Are Holes In Buttercream Normal?
Decorating By mlrojas Updated 25 Feb 2007 , 12:35am by LisasCakesNM
Hi-
I have noticed when I spread buttercream onto a cake, it's not always a smooth spread. It almost seems like it has air pockets that pop open when I spread causing little holes or else it looks like spackel. Am I incorporating too much air or is this normal and something I need to practice?
I believe it is caused by overbeating your icing.
.....I believe it is caused by overbeating your icing.
Fooby, I hear that all the time, and it's very logical, but I find it to be the opposite. The longer I leave mine in the KA, the smoother it is. I think the "holes" are gaps caused by the butter or shortening that is not beat enough into teeny tiny particles. If the fat is not beat well, then you have these pieces of fat that will "move" when the icing is spread. The difference between the space they moved "from" and the space they are "now" leaves a "hole" (sorry for all the quote marks)!.
Visualize a box of sand and you take your hand and smooth the sand across the surface. If there is a pebble or a rock in the sand, that pebble or rock is going to leave a trail (or a "hole" if you will) in the smooth sand.
When I was a wee lass, a very experienced cake baker explained it to me this way and it's made sense ever since.
I usually make my icing up a couple days ahead of when I will need it, and that gives time for the icing to "settle" in case too much air was whipped into it.
Normal...yes. Preferred...no. It does take some practice and I am still practicing. I feel like I have smoother buttercream if I mix it at a lower speed. But I will try beating it longer and see if that helps.
Just wanted to say, "hi neighbor!" I think there are three of now from Burke, VA alone!
Melissa
I got a KA for Christmas. I never had trouble with my buttercream with my old mixmaster. The KA literature says that it's so efficient you will mix shorter times, but I don't agree. I made some rough and bubbly looking buttercream the other day in the KA, so I got out my hand mixer and viola! In about 1 minute it was smoothing out. I didn't add anything. I think it actually takes longer in the KA, especially if you are doing a smaller amount. You may also want to see the forum "paddle or whip". I think the consensus was paddle.
.....I believe it is caused by overbeating your icing.
Fooby, I hear that all the time, and it's very logical, but I find it to be the opposite. The longer I leave mine in the KA, the smoother it is. I think the "holes" are gaps caused by the butter or shortening that is not beat enough into teeny tiny particles. If the fat is not beat well, then you have these pieces of fat that will "move" when the icing is spread. The difference between the space they moved "from" and the space they are "now" leaves a "hole" (sorry for all the quote marks)!.
If this were routinely the case in all of these "holes in buttercream" threads here, you'd see just as many posts about "crisco clots in buttercream" as well.
I've been teaching for nearly a decade now and I have only seen crisco clots in buttercream a couple of times (which is indeed caused by not creaming the shortening/butter well)...but in the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of batches of buttercream prepared by my students, the holes are almost always caused by air bubbles, a sign of overbeating.
If the holes were caused by displaced butter or shortening clots, you would be able to see this phenomenon in your icing (I've done it myself! 
)
I find the longer I beat mine the more bubbles I have when spreading but it easier to spread. Honestly I have forgot long about bubbles after converting to the Melvira Method!!! I would HIGHLY recomend it. I found a few posts about, most everyone who tries is loves it (I know I do)! Hope this helps!
Here is a the article about how to do i!
http://cupcakes.cakecentral.com/article83-Quick--Easy-Smooth-Icing-Using-a-Roller-Melvira-Method.html
Here are some great forums about it!
http://forum.cakecentral.com/how-do-you-smooth-your-ftopicp-1237421.html#1237421
http://forum.cakecentral.com/melvira-method-ftopicp-1281271.html#1281271
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