Crusting Buttercream Is Giving Me Grief! If Anyone Is Online, Please Help :(

Decorating By jennicake Updated 25 Aug 2013 , 10:12am by jennicake

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jennicake Posted 25 Aug 2013 , 6:01am
post #1 of 7

I covered a couple of cakes in crusting buttercream earlier today (using Sugarshack's recipe).  I smoothed them fairly well, but noticed I had a couple of holes I was not able to smooth out properly.  I think this is because my frosting was too dry.  Mistake #1 I suppose.  

 

When this happens to me with SMBC, I usually put the cake in the fridge, let it set up, and then go back and fill the holes with more frosting.  So I figured I could do that with this frosting too.  Mistake #2... Didn't exactly work the way I was hoping!  Once I filled in the holes, I tried to smooth everything over again with my bench scraper.  This started ruining what I had previously smoothed earlier today.  So now I need to smooth everything over again on a surface that has already crusted and set. 

 

I searched the forums to see if anyone else had dealt with this and saw a lot of advice on using a heated bench scraper to smooth everything again.  So I heated my scraper repeatedly and smoothed out the sides as best as I could.  I still need to go over the whole thing with a paper towel to get it super smooth, but now my frosting does not seem to be crusting at all!  I waited about half an hour and tried, and some parts stuck to the paper towel and came off the cake :(

 

Please help.  I'm not sure what to do now.  Should I just be patient and wait for everything to come back to room temperature before trying to smooth it out again?  I suspect that the condensation is what is preventing the frosting from crusting, but I'm not sure what to do to speed this up.  The cake is for tomorrow afternoon and I dont want to stay up all night waiting for this thing to crust so I can smooth it again.  If I have to, I will... but I really dont want to :(

 

Thanks in advance!!

6 replies
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Nadiaa Posted 25 Aug 2013 , 7:52am
post #2 of 7

Have you put it back in the fridge to get it to crust up again? I always do this with my BC to make it crust faster.

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jennicake Posted 25 Aug 2013 , 8:00am
post #3 of 7

ANo but if that works for you I'm willing to give it a shot! Are you still able to smooth with paper towels once it comes out?

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Nadiaa Posted 25 Aug 2013 , 9:40am
post #4 of 7

Sorry, I was caught up getting dinner ready! Yes, I can still get it smoothed out. I only say put it in the fridge because where I live it's too hot to leave BC out - it won't crust at all. So I refrigerate it and it sets up quickly. Just check it often and take it out to smooth when it crusts up. I hope it works for you!! 

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sugarshack Posted 25 Aug 2013 , 9:46am
post #5 of 7

heya!  I hopwe I can help.

 

Th fridge will only make it worse, and yes, the condensation is making it not  crust.  And the down side  to a crusting BC , is that it ,well, crusts, LOL   . You can't keep working on it after it is well crusted. Then you will just pull up the crust and have an airy mess under that. It's a very different animal than SMBC. If you have small holes you need to repair, the best thing is  just to paddle a tiny amount of BC over them, let that crust well, and then smooth that patch in with a paper towel, all done at room temp.

 

I am sorry you had so much trouble; please let me know if I can help further in any way.  :)  Sharon "sugarshack"

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Nadiaa Posted 25 Aug 2013 , 10:04am
post #6 of 7

Sorry :( It's what works for me. I'm so sorry if I've ruined your cake icon_cry.gif

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jennicake Posted 25 Aug 2013 , 10:12am
post #7 of 7

AThank you both! I ended up scraping off as much as I could, making it usable again and then recovering the cakes. Lots of lessons learned today!

And Sharon... This whole ordeal has convinced me to buy your DVD! Definitely want to just do it right from the get-go next time :)

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