I have used nothing but my grocery store brand shortening for the past few years. I make a batch in my 20 mixer, just dumping in the ingredients and letting her rip for about 15 minutes. I has ALWAYS come out like thick whipped cream and crusts like a dream. I ordered a case of their shortening last week and when it came in, it had a new label and was completely different in texture when I opened the can. I compared the labels and the fat contents were WAY off.

So, I have been beating my head against a wall all week trying to get a decent frosting made. They are all too wet or greasy or gritting.

So, I went today to the off name store in the not so good part of town and found that they had a weird named shortening which was close in the fats to the old stuff I was using. I have the timer set and the mixer running right now and I'll know in about 12 minutes whether I should just throw in the towel now.

It is MOST DEFINITELY the shortening!

Last night I called my sister who does cakes as well and asked her about her PS. She said she tried domino once but it turned grainy. Well, I told her that I tried the Baker's preferred and it was grainy. Well I mixed up a batch, it turned grainy again with my baker's preferred. I continued to beat it and the "grain" dissolved. I assume it is the humidity or something. Just keep mixing it and it should solve the problem.

when i first did sugarshacks recipe i used dixie crystal and sweetex..came out great...then i used crisco with no trans fat and walmart ps and it was a grainy mess even though i kept mixing it for an extra 10 minutes.

after that i did sweetex with dixie and grainy again.

so now i use dominos with sweetex..ill have to try the extra mixing again with the dixie and sweetex.

I've read that 6x produces a smoother texture because it isn't milled as fine therefore doesn't need as much cornstarch/additive to keep it from clumping together.

HTH

what is considered an additive? i dont add cornstarch to my icing.

i was told that 10X is better because its been sifted more to get a smoother icing

Cornstarch is added to keep the finely milled sugar from caking. Here is a link that discussed it. It is very interesting.

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-50324-0.html

HTH

I've used the store brand and Domino's and BC still comes out grainy, at least to me. I tried sifting it too (10x). I used the Buttercream Dream recipe and a few others from here and I still get grainy BC. Tried beating for a longer time, tried more liquid, etc. nothing works. I'm used to the canned frosting, so anything other than that is grainy to me.

A similar thread that might be of interest:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-586077-.html

HTH