Any help is great! When I make butter cream icing or cream cheese icing I find that they melt quickly and are not as stable to work with like Wilton decorator buttercream. Any suggestions. I hate to add more powder sugar as it is really sweet and tends to make over whelming sweet! 

My second question is how can I counter act the super sweetness in icing when using confectioners sugar?

If it makes a difference I live in a very dry climate of Wyoming.

Thanks a ton for any and all help!

You probably are not adding enough sugar. Or maybe adding too much water. Unfortunately, butter cream icing is just very sugary. Maybe you could try adding extracts or flavoring to try take away from the sweetness. I am in Texas where it is very humid. We gotta add more sugar. Hope this is helpful. 

Icing is meant to be sweet.  Some people will suggest you make Italian (IMBS) OR Swiss (SMBC) Meringue b'cream - whichuse egg whites &/or lots of butter or cooked flour icing.  I don't care for those but it might be what you need.  I'll let others post links &/or the recipes for you 

Thanks so much for the help and info!... I don't use water in my buttercream, and I am working my way though adding extracts/flavors to see if any help!  I know Almond helps with the royal icing.  But all I have tried has not shown much luck toning down the sweetness.  I know they need to be somewhat sweet but finding a way to tone it down.  I have a gal in my town that has a cupcake shop and her icing is so sweet and gritty it makes my teeth hurt.  I want to be set apart from her......far apart and this is one of the areas.  I also need something more stiff so I can do diffrent icing art. I am not as concerned with the sweetness as these are not eaten as much!

Are you using a buttercream recipe that contains salt of some sort?  The one I use has popcorn salt and that really seems to help balance the sweet.  BUT, it is dessert so supposed to be sweet, right?  :-)

Like CakeBren, I always add popcorn salt to my frosting, which helps balance flavor, but it certainly does not keep buttercream from being sweet!  I thought that was part of it's charm!

I know it should be sweet but not give you a cavity from first bite.  I will try the salt as that may do the trick.  Mostly I am looking for a stablizer so it won't melt while piping.

You could reduce some of the liquid you are adding to your recipe...  That would also help it be stiffer...

Maybe give us the recipe so we could help a bit more...

As far as sweetness, ABC is not my favorite and I usually only use it with childrens' cakes.  For everything else, it's IMBC with a ton of flavoring.  That's my customers' favorite.  However, for kids and I guess a few other times, I need to make it.  I worked on the recipe forever.  Using a touch of citrus and almond and a lot of vanilla (pretty similar to creme bouquet) helped.  If I need to thin, using sour cream or buttermilk helped.  

But then, someone here, and I wish I knew who because I owe them big time, suggested adding a bit of white balsamic vinegar.  More if you want it to resemble cream cheese icing.  It's fabulous!  I split a batch and taste tested and every single person picked the batch with the vinegar added.  Most insisted I had used "less sugar" in that batch.   Now my husband, who really dislikes ABC, describes the taste (not texture) as "smooth".  That works for me! No vinegar taste, it just seems to take the edge off of the sweetness.  One of the best tips I ever got.

For stability, everyone's right it takes a thickener.  More sugar, flour, something to pull it together.  I had the same sort of problems with cream cheese, so I use it more as a filling and one of my other go-to's for frosting and piping.

Good luck. 

Thanks so much for the info. I will give it a try!

Thanks so much for the info. I will give it a try!