Is there a way to tell if your icing is too dry BEFORE you put it on the cake and it starts to crack??!!!

I've been using milk as suggested by many in one of my previous posts.....but I still can't seem to get the icing not to crack!! The only cake that hasn't so far is my Polka Dot...and I have no idea what I did/didn't do. Was surprised when it didn't!!! I use the same reciepe everytime........the Snowwhite BC and use whole milk and high ratio shortening.

Any suggestions or ideas on what is going on w/my icing?? It is very frustrating!!!

Thanks
Christine

Hi Christine,
I used the Wilton snow white recipe on my last wedding cake and I did not like the way it spread on. I think it was the 4 tablespoons meringue powder, it crusted so fast. It took a viva and the fondant smoother to get it smooth. May be use half the meringue power or none at all in the recipe. Just a thought.

That's a really good suggestion...the same thing happened to me when I accidentally put too much meringue powder in my batch of bc...do what suedye suggested and cut the amount of m.powder in half, then see what you've got and go from there. I guess the m.powder has a drying effect on the bc....they do say it's a stabilizer to keep it from melting, so maybe that's what it is??