I love this site, I sure hope someday I will have enough knowledge to help others but for now it seems all I have are questions.
I made a batch of butter cream frosting this AM and it was a little soft, assuming that was because of the heat and whipping so long I put it in the fridge. I took it out a little while ago and thought it needed to be whipped up a little again. So I proceeded to beat it. It got grainy and I thought i'd lost it but I remember reading someones advise about not getting impatient so I let it beat more. It came back to the original consistancy but now I'm afraid that when I use it and refrigerate the cake it will loose something. Any thoughts on that? Also now it is a little soft for piping what can I do to stiffen it up for piping without adding more sugar which will just make it toooooo sweet.

With my experiences, once you have your butter cream the right consistency, fridging it has been ok, although there's no reason to fridge it, it will last a few days covered at room temp. As for trying to get it to thicken, if you don't want to add any sugar, try adding more butter or shortening & whip really really well so it all blends together nicely............that should help, otherwise you may need to start over & add less liquid next time.

Thanks I think I'll try adding some shortening. Its pretty sweet already