Could It Be Something In The Water???
Decorating By TheCakeSmith Updated 23 Aug 2006 , 3:53am by ckkerber
I have been having ALOT of problems getting my BC to crust once it is on my cakes. First I thought it was my crumb coat, but last night I iced a cake using the Wilton icing in the can, thinned the whole thing with 2tsp of water, and used the icing tip so I wouldn't have to crumb coat and still it didn't crust. My instructor suggested that it may be my water and I'm thinking that it might be.
A few months ago my dad bought my son some huge goldfish in an aquarium. The first month we had it it was fantastic. I had to add some water because it was starting to evaporate. Well, about a week after I added the water it got like neon green. My husband changed the water on Monday and already it is starting to get green, so I am inclinded to think something is 'fishy' 
with my water.
What do ya'll think? Is it possible??
I had my mom bring some water from her house and I'm going to see if that makes a difference.
Just to be on the safe side, I would buy a $.88 bottle of 'bottled water' to use just for baking... my instructor said the chemicals in tap water made the colors bleed and separate so she said to always use milk whenever possible and the sugar in the icing acts as a preservative.
How long can you leave out a cake that is iced with milk based icing??
I'd just hate to make someone sick.
All I know is that I was a major stress case and the instructor said that the sugar acted as a preservative and that she had far better success with using the milk rather than tap water... if you are really concerned, just use the bottled water. I would feel comfortable leaving the BC out for 24 hours w/ the milk in it... I think I would not push too much farther than that but then any kind of BC is hard to 'leave out' but I know when working thru wedding cakes, leaving out cake is a necessity...
I will say that my BC was lovely with the milk and a bit funky with the water 
I just thought of something... you could totally use condensed milk as a substitute for the water and have no "leaving out' issues...
I am not sure about your water...safety wise...but I am not sure that that wouldnt cause it to crust though.. Have you changed your recipe lately? Could it be the humidity? As far as leaving your BC out, I use heavy cream in mine and I feel comfortable leaving it out for 2-3 days, I have left it out even longer and it seems fine to me. squirrellycakes...(who is awesome by the way... )has said refrigerate the leftovers for up to 2 weeks and can be left out for 2-3 days. I mean I dont know what would happen if you left it out in 90 degree weather all that time, but in a normal environment it should be fine. The high content of sugar in it acts as a preservative. Now the whipped icings need to be in fridge I believe...not as much sugar.
If you're woried about it, I'd try bottled water before I'd do milk. Only for those who are lactose intolerant. Wouldn't want them to miss out on your lovely creations, kwim? 
Well, I called my water company and, of course, "The water is tested all the time so there is nothing wrong with the water. There is no way that something could have gotten into your line..." Blah Blah Blah.
As for changing my icing, I even bought the Wilton in a can stuff and added my tap water to that and it did the same thing.
I have a cake coming up this weekend so I am going to make some icing with bottled water and see what happens. If that doesn't crust either I'll try the milk.
Thanks everyone!!
If you want to be sure that the water company's claims of the water being continually tested is true, you can take a small sample of your tap water into your county's health department (it may be the environmental division). For a small fee (call ahead and see what it is) they will run tests on it for you.
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