Hello. I made Indydeb's frosting and loved it. Delicious and creamy. However, i could not get the sides of the cake smooth as i would of wanted. I am used to using Wilton's half butter half shortening and placing in the fridge between crunb coat and final coat, etc. to get my cakes smooth.

With Indydeb's, it should not be refrigerated, so i could not do that and get a hard crumb coat. (I did use 1/2 c. milk...maybe too much? not enough?)

It did crust slightly. After the crumb coat, I did the final coat and as i spread it, it would take off the crumb coat too, expoding the cake. It was a mess, so i ended up doing swirls all over the cake.

Any ideas or help with this?

Thank you

Don't you just love Indydeb?  There's no reason you can't refrigerate her buttercream - - it's just not necessary.  Go ahead and throw it in the fridge if you want and especially if it's easier for you.  And I've never used that much milk in any buttercream so you might want to back off on it a little.