I made my first course 1 cake this weekend and when I got to class and took the top off my cake server there was a huge bubble in the icing on the side of the cake 
! Does anyone know what causes this or how I can stop it from happening again? Thanks!
Was the buble in the frosting or between the cake and the frosting. If it was in the frosting that could have been that is was mixed too long. If it was between the cake and the frosting, hmmmm, that's a tuff one. It's never happened to me. Sorry, hope some one can help you better than I.
How weird! I had the same problem this weekend with a wedding cake but my problem was a double whammy - The buttercream would NOT stick to my cake for anything and I kept getting large airbubbles also...I'm on the forum searching to see if this has happened to anyone before. I went thru the same steps I always do and don't know what happened this time....eeeck.
The bubble was between the cake and the icing. It's like the icing popped away from the cake in that spot.
alibugs-Yes, I use the new Crisco.
I haven't heard of NEW Crisco? hmm, give me scoop. I followed all of my recipes and steps exact. Yeah, I use the Wilton Classroom Buttercream recipe but I add three flavorings that I swear by. The taste is phenom and the smell even better. I think my problem was this - When I crumb coat I usually just use enough frosting to smear on and absorb the crumbs - This time, I was trying to be extra perfect and I think I used too much frosting on my base coat? Maybe? The frosting would not stick to my cake for nothing. Then when I transported to the event, oh my gosh - It was just falling off of the cake - Luckily the flower shop where the event was had a refridgerated room where I could play doctor, but I was crying and couldn't believe I had to give this cake to the bride. Although, the reviews came in today that they loved it - man, they must have not had their glasses on. ha,ha.....There was more humidity in the air yesterday but is it possible to put too much frosting on? I've bought grocery cakes and heck you can sometimes have an inch of frosting. I love this forum because I know I'll get the help.
I've heard about this crisco problem. What is it about the crisco that's doing this? Is it all crisco, the tubs and the bricks, the white and the butter flavor? How do you know you got a bad batch before you use it? I just bought some and need to use it soon. Should I go get something else?
I just used some crisco i bought last week on a cake this past weekend. It was the individually packed bar that I used and everything came out great.
The new crisco is listing 0 transfat...basically the stuff that keeps it solid at high temps and gives the creamy texture. Without this transfat the shortening is 'liquifieying' at a lower temp and causing all sorts of problems with most people when decorating cakes. Problems range from getting a slimy coating, not sticking to the cake, falling off the cake to having a soupy texture and not giving stability to the cake (filling dams that give way!). If you have some time check out this thread.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-225701-.html
I do not think this problem is related to the change in Crisco formula - as I have seen it posted before and I had the issues once with the old formula Crisco.
You may want to try and run some searches for prior threads, my recollection is that it has to do with the cake settling. I know I was parnoid that the cake had fermented or something along those lines, but I just "popped" the bubble and the frosing settled down again - and the cake and frosting got rave reviews.
I agree with coffeecake, it sounds like your cake and/or filling settled a little and caused the icing to bulge. Gravity is not always our friend. Did you give it overnight to settle before frosting it?
tc4cake-I also wondered if I put on too much icing. This was my first class cake (but I had made two practice cakes before since our class was canceled last week due to Memorial Day) and my very first one bubbled on top, the second came out just fine. Well when I went to icing this one the top layer just started crumbling, it was too moist for some reason and it was getting in the icing everywhere. So I let it sit for a bit and then iced over it again to cover the crumbs.
Could have possibly been settling as I made it yesterday morning before class, so it did not have time to sit.
Is there a difference in flavor or texture when using something other than Crisco?
I had this happen to the Elmo cake I did this weekend. Pretty sure it's because I mixed it too long. The phone rang...shoulda known better but I didn't. Anyway bubble on the side of the cake happened pretty quickly, I iced the cake let it crust and started smoothing and bam air bubble. Just poked it with a toothpick and continued on.
I also think the humidity and settling has a part in it as well. Summer cakes-ug 
Ahhh, I might try an offbrand - maybe a restaurant grade - I'm going to see what Smart n Final might carry. One off brand I tried once was very thinnish and it didn't work, but I'll check it out....I love these forums - everyone is awesome! I posted another in the disaster forum and 95% of the replies blame the new Crisco.....Probably a combination of that and putting too much frosting on my base coat. But heck, I remember when I first started doing cakes - I would have so much frosting just so I didn't have crumbs - that was before I learning the crumb coat trick......
The air bubbles were very trippy though. One lady called them "blow outs"...ha,ha.....
the bubble sounds like cake settling to me as well. What I do if I don't want to wait over night is I fill the cake (with the dams and filling) then I put something flat on the top of the cake and then put something heavy on top of that (like the can of crisco) and let it set for about 30 minutes or so. It seems to squish all of the extra space/air out and then I frost it. Ever since I started doing that, I've never had a blowout or bulge, even after driving 50+ miles over bumpy twisty roads.
As for the icing not sticking to the cake, that sounds really bizarre, and I have no idea what would cause that.
Also, as far as I know, you can't mix your icing too long. Most people say the longer the better, just mix on a low speed. If you mix on a high speed with frosting that doesn't cover the entire paddle, you will get tons of air bubbles in the frosting, but if you mix it slow (on the lowest setting), it will get most of the air bubbles out and you will have smoother frosting. Everyone I know who has made cakes for say 20+ years says this.
Hey! Love the idea on putting something heavy on top of the cake! wow - I will definately try that - I experienced some bulging the day before on a cake and I know I put too much filling - but heck, we love the filling! I'm going to dam the cake in about 1/4" like one lady said, then do the heavy thing - I bet that will totally work.....You guys are great!!!!
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