I am a newbie and did a grad cake for a friend. I took my frozen cake from the freezer and crumb coated it partially frozen. Let it sit overnight and it didn't look right this morning. Looked wet in spots because the chocolate crumb coat was different colors in places and it wanted to break apart.. Went ahead and iced it and the the icng wanted to roll off. It wouldn't stay stuck to the cake. HELP! I finished the cake but I need to find out why it happened so it doesn't happen again. Here is the icing recipe
1/2 cups crisco
1/2 cups butter
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
2-3 Tbl milk
2/3 cup of hershey unsweetened chocolate powder
I did tweak it to get the consistantcy I needed but only adjusted the milk.
Thanks.

Very simply, condensation formed under the icing as the cake thawed, making the cake very slippery.

In the future, crumb coat while the cake is at room temp.

Or, do as I do with carved cakes - bring the cake to room temp then pop into the freezer for about 20-30 minutes. This way, only the very outside of the cake gets chilled while the center remains at room temp. Virtually no condensation at all.

Also, in the summer, you'll have more problems with condensation than in the winter. If your method worked before, I'll betcha it was during cold weather.

Ditto what Diane said.

However, where I used to work we did this frozen all the time. The trick is though we put it back in the cooler instead of leaving it out on the counter. And within an hour of icing it was all covered and back in the cooler waiting for the customer. It would thaw slower. I don't know if this was an issue after it was delivered. I didn't always hear the bad reviews, but I know they were out there because the owner would be whispering in the corner to her friend that worked there every time it happened.

Personally I would do what Diane said. That is what I do at home.

I had crumb coated a cake this past week and put it in the freezer overnight. took it out in the morning to let it thaw and it had condensation. I used paper toweling to absorb the excess moisture. and waited an hour or so and then frosted it. My recipe is very similiar to yours.