I have tried several different recipes for buttercream frosting. Each time, I can feel the sugar when I 'bite' the frosting. Is this normal? The only time it did not happen is when I made an italian buttercream that had melted granulated sugar and not powdered sugar.

I am trying to find out if this is what normal icing should taste like or if it is something I am doing wrong. Thanks for your help!

i notice that when i make buttercream a day in advance the grittiness seems to melt away and its creamier.. the recipe i use is 2 c shortening , i stick butter 2# ps and heavy cream.. not sure if it makes a difference... but its better the second day

I agree with magenta if you let it sit for 24 hrs the texture is more even.

Wandy

msumissa. Did you use 10x powdered sugar? Did you sift it? I have found that if I use 5x powdered sugar and DON'T sift it then it turns out a little gritty. I also have found store brands to be a bit grittier than the name brand kind.

Hope that helps!

i use generic brand ingredients and i never sift anything and my icing always comes out wonderful

Sorry magentaa23, just trying to help with my opinion based on my experiences.

I have had the same problems. Last week some of the girls gave me some great info. Has it been humid when you prepared your frosting? They also told me to add a bit of meringue powder to stabilize it.

I am not sure what helped last week, but hear is what happed to me when I made my last batch:

I live is a humid climate FYI. I blended all my ingredients and then tasted the product before the final 5-10m beating and everthing was nice and smooth. Then after the 5-10m is has seperated and was all gritty. So I added a bit of whipping cream to thin and then some more sugar to thicken and didn't beat very much and this help smooth back out a bit, but it was stick somewhat gritty. The next day I got the tip about the meringue powder, plus it had set for 24 hours. So I added the powder and rewhipped and the end product was nice and smooth. I am not sure if any of this helps, but I thought I'd share.

I've used 12x PS (Kroger brand) and found that it makes nice BC if I sift just once. But then again, it could also be the shortening you use. I bought a brand that I didn't realize wasn't all vegetable and my icing turned out not as good as all vegetable shortening. There are so many factors involved that no one can have all of the answers. You just have to find out what works for you.

Debbi

I use Imperial Brand 10x sugar and it had always worked great for me. I also thin my icing with water instead of milk.
traci

I noticed my BC wan't smooth when I used the cheap shortening Now I just use crisco... no problems.

I always use Crisco. I have used Domino 10X sugar and I just bought some at GFS (no name brand) and it was 6X. I have tried Sweetex as well. I haven't used Meringue powder in a while, maybe I will try adding that too. I will try making my current recipe with Domino 10X and see if that helps. I was trying to find a cheaper alternative for the powdered sugar by going with the 25LB box... maybe that is it.