Ok so just made a batch of american buttercream (4stick of butter) 2lbs pwd sugar, vanilla, salt.

I've made this before but this time it's grainy!!! I really really can't afford issues, I have 3 cakes due in the next two days. They are all childrens cake, and I wanted to do a frosting I could pipe and decorate.

I used the dominos x10 pure cane sugars (so i don't think it's that)

I've used the flour frosting (which I love) but it doesn't set up. I've used the SMBC and it doesn't set up. I need to make waves with this cake, so I wanted to know what should be the best buttercream?

Do you guys think it was just a rough bad bag of sugar??????? HELP

Oh, I really want to help you, but I'm from the UK and the buttercream is different here to buttercream in the US. The buttercream I use is just butter and icing sugar, if its turned out grainy like as if it was ordinary sugar there has to be something wrong with the sugar,

How about this website it has loads of recipes for buttercreams and other fillings.
http://www.easy-cake-ideas.com/cake-filling.html

Hope this helps, good luck

P.S
This is the buttercream recipe we use over there.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/basicbuttericing_73263

try whipping it longer...

If it were me, I would add no more than two tablespoons of milk (to try to dillute the sugar) and let it mix on my KA for a while(5-10 minutes). For next time, I always sift my powdered sugar, and I have never had a problem with my bc being 'grainy". HTH! Good luck--I am keeping my fingers crossed for you!

I whipped it for an extended period of time, I let it sit over night and whipped it again, I added hot water...nothing worked. I just decided to start over. I'm hoping that all the sugar that I got was not bad, I bought the bags from the same store at the same time.

I might add some hi ratio shorting in this time, just to cut down on the butter I'm putting in.

I did n't use Domino brand. But a few weeks ago I had a batch like that. It was so grainy. it was the powder sugar. I ran to the store and bought a diffrent brand. it was fine when I remade the icing

if you want a buttercream that will hold up and go hard use 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening. Use the wilton white buttercream recipe. That will have no problems, piping, spreading and setting

well my second batch was a little less grainy but still grainy, so I had to go ahead with it. I used it as the filling, and I will just need to go by some new sugar and throw the other away.

Anytime i make the all butter bc, tastes great but i always find it a little grainy.. Hope your next one is better!

I have not had grainy buttercream, but I have not used butter in mine because when I went through classes they advised not to because the butter in the buttercream icing would melt faster and your flowers and piping might not hold their shape. If you have really hot hands the buttercream with the shortening might not either. any way I think that if you put salt in your buttercream then it might be that your salt is not getting dissolved before you go further with your buttercream. You might want to put your salt in with the liquid you use and make sure it is completely dissolved. I do not spend the money on the more expensive sugars. I have never had this problem. I also was taught that if the salt does not get dissolved that your colors can get messed up on your cake. Good luck. I don't think it is your powdered sugar. I will add that I, too, always sift my powdered sugar for my buttercream. It is a little more time consuming, but I feel it is worth it.

Definitely your powdered sugar. Wilton claims that it needs to be 100% pure cane sugar. HTH

Meh, I buy Aldi brand powdered sugar ALL the time. But,m I use boiling water to dissolve the salt and the bit of granulated sugar I use with the meringue powder. That gets everything dissolved. Then let it sit on the mixer for a loooooong time.

Yep it was the powered sugar. I would like to get away from using the butter powered sugar buttercream, but I haven't found something that will set up and crust like that will.

Had the same problem with the domino p suGar, we let t sit a while and then rewhipped, it helped a lot. Really like the aldi p sugar, but noticed some grainy texture the last time we used it. The producers are probably adding additional cornstarch to stretch and cheapen it.

I use SugarShack's bc recipe and it turns out perfect every time. No grains and very smooth, tastes awesome, and sets up great! Works really well under fondant too!

I stopped using Meringue Powder, because it made my icing crust to much.