Stop the BC from tasting "gritty"? I tasted some of the icing I had made for my Course 1 class last night, and even though it tasted delicous, it had a bit of a gritty taste to it.
Also, I am not sure if this has to do with sifting the sugar either, but when my icing dried, I had little white dots everywhere, even though that did not show up when I first iced the cake. The little white dots were on my cake, and in all the icing I coloured for my cake design. The instructor suggested it was lumps of icing sugar, but wouldn't I have noticed that when first making the icing?
Thanks in advance.
That happened when my friend tried making the icing. She used a different powdered sugar, so I believe that it was the sugar's fault. It didn't show up until I started icing the cake for her. Kind of like hard flakes, or something like that.
I sifted the sugar last week because I was thinking the same thing about the grittiness. I didn't notice a distinct difference. I use warm water which seems to help.
HTH
Angie
Maybe it was just a bad bag, because I have made icing with that same brand and not had the white spots.
There might be a couple of things...yes, I would definitely sift my powdered sugar, switch to another brand and also did you add salt to your buttercream? I have read here that sometimes that could be the culprit and to use a popcorn salt (butter flavor if you can find it) which is a finer grain of salt and to dissolve it in your liquids (flavorings or water or milk) before you add to the icing. Just a couple of ideas...best of luck!
2 things I learned...don't buy cheap icing sugar and always sift your icing sugar! I only buy name brand now...mainly Dominos...too many lumps in the off brand stuff. Sometimes too sugar can old from sitting on a store shelf too long...particularly smaller grocery stores...ones that don't turn over inventory as quickly as a place like Walmart. Just my thoughts!
I do use brand icing sugar, Rogers - it is the only brand of sugar available in Western Canada.
But this still I did use salt, I have never used salt before, but the class recipe calls for it, and it really did cut down on the sweet taste. That must have been it.
If I use salted butter and crisco next time, will that cut down on the sweetness?
The little bleached spots were most definitely grains of salt that sloooowly dissolved in the fat. Add your salt to your liquids and you won't have that problem! 
Also, I never sift my sugar. If it's nice and fluffy, it's really quite unnecessary.
Hope that helps,
Sherri
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