Help!!!!!!!!! Icing Tooooooooo Sweet.
Decorating By cat121481 Updated 19 Jan 2006 , 3:28pm by MommyEdzards
You can try a bit of very fine popcorn salt to try and cut the sweetness.Or you can dissolve a bit on a teaspoon and pour in.
What kind of icing are you trying too make? If you are trying to make buttercream icing you need the following to make 3 cups (stiff consistency):
8oz crisco
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp water
1lb powdered sugar
1 tbsp meringue powder
for medium consistency you need 3 tbsp water. For thin consistency you need 4 tbsp water.
I was taught not to use milk, but to use water.
Jennifer
I agree with kiddiekakes. I use the exact recipe you used, but I add a little popcorn salt when I am mixing it and it doesn't taste too sweet to me. Just about any buttercream is going to taste pretty sweet though, unless you make the whipped ones which have a really high ratio of shortening to sugar. But in my experience, which is pretty limited, the buttercream like you made is much easier to work with if you are doing decorations.
Pwd sugar frosting is very sweet compared to a meringue frosting or canned frosting or cream cheese frosting. I use a splash to lime juice, almond extract, rum extract and a tiny bit of vanilla. Vanilla adds to the sweet taste. You can add a tiny bit of salt, but you should dissolve it first so it doesn't make your frosting gritty.
I skip the salt as the salt seems to take longer to disperse through the frosting so I had a hard time judging how much to use. Always taste your frosting the next day even if you think it was a bad batch. The taste changes once the flavors mingle and get to know one another.
hth
I use the 1/2 Crisco 1/2 butter recipe. I add 1/2 tablespoon of salt to the powdered sugar before sifting.
Our cake club was discussing this subject, and it was suggested by two of our members to add up to a tablespoon of cake flour per 6-cup recipe of regular buttercream. I tried it and it worked great. You couldn't taste the flour but it made the icing much less sweet.
I figure it's icing, it's mostly sugar, it SHOULD be sweet! 
Deanna
P.S. - I found (the hard way) during my years as a Wilton teacher, that if a person didn't fully dissolve the salt in their icing, it could react with certain colors - blues in particular, it seems - and would make spots that didn't show up until the next day. If you're using the salt, I suggest dissolving it in whatever liquid you're using in your icing recipe, then add the salted liquid to your recipe and continue as usual.
I was once told that if you beat you're frosting for 8-10 minutes on a medium speed it helps to cut the sweetness. This is what I do and I never have a problem with sweetness. 
I am soooo excited! I just tried Martha Stewarts Italian Meringue Buttercream, and it rocks!!!! I was having the same problem w/ too sweet, but this stuff is great! Try it! It is a lot easier that the recipe looks and the results are amazing! Sorry, I am just really excited!
I was once told that if you beat you're frosting for 8-10 minutes on a medium speed it helps to cut the sweetness. This is what I do and I never have a problem with sweetness.
The only thing this does is add air to the icing, which does not affect the taste or sweetness (sugar content) of the icing at all. Someone told you an old wives tale! 
Salt dissolved in liquid is indeed the best way to cut on the sweetness. 
I made a batch yesterday of the half-butter, half-Crisco and forgot about the salt, and YUCK, I could definitely tell the difference.
can I use salted butter instead of adding salt?
Yes you can, I do.
Other adjustments you can make to this recipe:
It works with an extra cup of icing sugar if you find it gets too greasy.
It works using unwhipped whipping cream instead of the milk for your two tbsp. of milk.
It works with 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla, I tend to use the pure brown which will give you an ivory shade so you won't get a white white but other colours will be fine.
You can thin it down with more milk if needed. Some folks don't have luck with roses made from this icing and prefer the class buttercream for roses but all other decorations come out just fine.
According to Wilton, this icing is fine at a room temperature of less than 75F for 2-3 days. The salt in the butter works in conjunction with the powdered sugar to preserve this icing. You can make it up to two weeks ahead if the expiry date of your ingredients are within that timeframe.
Using salted butter will make it less sweet but it still will be sweet. If you are looking for a less sweet icing, you need to go to something like an Italian Meringue or an icing like the Whimisical Bakehouse buttercream.
Hugs Squirrelly
I am soooo excited! I just tried Martha Stewarts Italian Meringue Buttercream, and it rocks!!!! I was having the same problem w/ too sweet, but this stuff is great! Try it! It is a lot easier that the recipe looks and the results are amazing! Sorry, I am just really excited!
Is that the same IMBC icing that is listed here on CC? If not, may I have the recipe? I haven't tried decorating with IMBC icing yet but I would like to.
Lazy_Susan
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