ooooh boy, did i have trouble with chocolate buttercream dream today. after i made it, i was totally excited because it tasted oh so good. then i tried to frost my cake with it... ugh! it wouldn't spread and only wanted to tear my cake up. then, after i finally got the cake frosted, i couldn't get it smooth. then i tasted it again and it was grainy.

has anyone else had trouble like this?

this is what i got from it, and i do have to say it's not all that bad, but it was a battle and a half, lemme tell ya!

now it's cracking!! what the heck???

the cake looks great in the photos. too bad about it cracking and stuff. I dont know the recipe so i cannot offer any suggestions

I'm guessing you needed to add more milk to make the icing a bit thinner. I know when my icing tears the cake apart, it's always because it's too thick and stiff with powdered sugar. HTH.

The cake turned out very pretty, though.

Depending on your chocolate, adding it to an already "perfect" buttercream can make it thicker and require a tad more liquid. For me, it's easier to add the melted chocolate to the butter and shortening and then mix in the confectioner's sugar and liquid. It seems to come out more homogenous.