I'm about to embark on my first 'official' cake (ie one that I really want to do 'right'). I am pretty much a newbie. I did a character cake covered in stars 4 years ago and looking back at it it's pathetic. So newbie it is 
I'm doing a cupcake cake with a FBCT and buttercream for the rest.
How do I get the buttercream the right consistency for each step?
I made a batch of BC (1 stick butter, 1 1/2 c crisco, 2# powedered sugar, 2T vanilla, 1/4 c water). I used that for the FBCT which looks OK from the underside but when I played around with that icing to try to learn how to do a border it seemed much too soft (it's very hot here and it's been hard to get the house below 75). I used a lot of that up playing around and thickened the rest up with some more powdered sugar but haven't actually started playing with that yet.
I'll be making a new batch of BC to ice the cupcake cake and do the rest of the decorating. What modifications should I do to that recipe or is there another recipe that I should go with?
I need to ice, pipe a border, and write some words on the cupcake cake. How do I know what consistency of frosting to use for each step? The first step needs the thinnest frosting, correct? So do I just take some out for that step or do I make the batch thin and then thicken it up for the other steps?
It is easier for me to take out however much stiff (the orginal consistency) I need, then thin it for medium and take out however much I need, then finally thin it to thin consistency. I put each consistency in its own container, so if I need thin first, I just get that container and use it first.
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