I'm covering a cake with an all butter buttercream, how far in advance can I cover my cake? Also, the buttercream will be tinted with color, will the color run, fade or any strange happening occur if it's put in the refrigerator?

I'd say no more than the night before for icing it.
As for color/strange happenings occuring........don't try to color it blue You'll get green.
When removed from frig it might sweat; just leave it alone! Keep it in a cake box and once it reaches room temp the sweating will evaporate. The might be some slight bleeding....not sure.

hi,

i've always used only butter BC, & when kept in the refrig, i thought that the colors became a tad darker. the colors never run off mine, at least.

the only thing i noticed was with designs such as rosettes, they tend to be a little off-shape once in the refrig.

HTH.

I only use all butter buttercream and have never had a problem with refrigerating it. My colors have never run (even blue which I did for a guitar cake). Even when I use fondant accents I refrigerate and have never had a problem. My burger cake was several different colors and cookie crumbs and nothing bled.

I use an all butter buttercream also, have never had problems with colors bleeding. I just made one the day other day...fall cake, top half was light blue, bottom brown. Refirgerated no problem, thawed no problem!

Thanks so much for the the great advice! One more question. This cake was originally due last Monday but the mother decided she didn't want it until this coming Monday. I her she couldn't have it on Monday because I have another cake I'm working on and that I don't have the space in my refrigerator, so she would have to pick it up on Saturday morning. My question is will the buttercream seal in the moisture the way fondant does, or will she have a dry cake on Monday?

I run a brick and mortar business so I have dedicated cold boxes for my cakes... there aren't many strong odors lurking in my cases. But butter based buttercreams will absorb off odors faster than you can blink. Keep that in mind.

Wow, I didn't know that about butter based buttercream. Maybe I'll just use a shortening based one instead. Thanks for that tip AsburyArt.

Also, I love your work Asbury Art and the next time I'm in your area, I'm definitely stopping by.

Well, I wasn't and would never advocate the use of shortening, but I felt you should know.
=)

Oh, I know. I've only used shortening based buttercreams a few times, I prefer smbc (what I usually use) but kids don't seem to like the smbc very much...not sweet enough I guess. This makes me crazy because if she had taken the cake when she originally said she wanted it, this would not be an issue. Next time I say no.

What's SMBC?

Swiss Meringue Buttercream