I made a beautifully smooth buttercream wedding cake on Saturday and it was so smooth it glistened.

The problem is the next day their were some cracks in it!

I've never had that happen before. What makes that happen and how do you prevent it from happening??

Thanks for any theories and tips!
Shelley

I know one way cracks in buttercream can happen. I usually use a double thickness of cake boards under every cake, but one time I was stuck with using only one. The cake was fairly large & when I picked it up to move it, it bent a little in the middle & caused a crease in my icing. Oh well, live & learn!!

You could try adding a drop or two of vinegar to prevent the frosting from getting spider-vein like cracking:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2375-Brite-White-Buttercream-Icing.html

Of course, this won't help if your problem is due to stress fractures from cake shifting on cakeboards.

Was the cake frozen when you iced it? And do you use Italian or Siwss meringue buttercream? I have had that happen with that scenario. The butter in the icing gets too cold if the cake is still slightly frozen and it will crack every time.

Your buttercream might also have been too dry - try adding more butter or shortening. And don't keep going over and over it with a paper towel to smooth, that will dry it out as well.

Thanks for the tips. It must've been too cold before I iced it. I had to freeze it overnight because I was going out of town for Thanksgiving and coming back the next day to work on it. I have never froze a cake that long before. So, now I know to not do that again. Thanks for all the replies.

I freeze all my cake layers. In my opinion in makes for a moister cake and certainly saves time when you can bake ahead a few days and freeze. Just make sure they are thawed before filling and icing. I don't thaw them with plastic wrap on them, they seem to pick up too much moisture from the wrap as they thaw and the cake can be soggy or crack easily.

Great, that is good to know. Thanks!