I am making your regular, shortening, butter, flavors, powder sugar buttercream and was thinkging while I was mixing. Ccan you over "mix" your typical butter cream in a kitchen aid mixer? If so, what is the outcome?

I find that if I over mix mine it almost gets the consistency of a whipped icing ( similar to cool whip ) and it doesn't woork as well for shells etc. Hope this helps!

Lisa

I've overmixed royal and it became "chunky style" once. Lesson learned there. If you over beat buttercream and there is too much air in it, it can be a real pain. I heard somewhere that if you put the mixer on the lowest setting for a minute or so, it gets the some of the air out. I never tried it before, so I can't give you first hand knowledge on that.

I think one of the big issues is getting too much air in it. But ask Sugarshack....she's the BC expert!

I turn my mixer on and then go outside for a smoke break. Or make phone calls. Or do a ton of other things while the mixer runs and runs and runs and runs and ........

Wellllll yes, and no Serious_Cakes has a video on YouTube that shows 'overbeating' b'cream and how it gets smoother.
The biggest trick is making sure you have enough icing in the bowl to cover the beater(s). Otherwise it will have air holes