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Help with my icing please!!!

post #1 of 10
9/29/06 at 5:40pm
Thread Starter 
Hello everyone! I iced my son's bday cake about 1 hour ago with the 5lb bucket of wilton's ready buttercream! I have put the cake in the fridge to help it crust quicker... I have got it out of the fridge 2 times since then to try to smooth it with the Viva paper towel, and the #%#$%@$ tapedshut.gif frosting sticks to the towel. Have any of you guys used the frosting from this bucket before? I usually make my own, but I am making the 3d spiderman and needed 10 cups of frosting, so I bought this bucket! Anyone have had troubles with the frosting crusting? I am devastated!!! I will wait another hour before I try to smooth it again!! icon_cry.gif
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post #2 of 10
9/29/06 at 5:42pm
I'd try letting it crust on the counter top.
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post #3 of 10
9/29/06 at 5:43pm
I have used this icing and it did crust well for me.

Is it really humid in your area? That might be a problem. Refrigerate the cake some more and see if that helps.

Good luck!
Life is uncertain, eat dessert first!
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Life is uncertain, eat dessert first!
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post #4 of 10
10/2/06 at 10:29am
Thread Starter 
Unbelievable!!! the 5lb bucket of Wilton buttercream!!! it never crusted!!! I left it in the counter, then put in the fridge then pulled it out and repeated this several times until I decided to leave the cake in the fridge overnight!!! I made a managerial decision early saturday morning to run to the store to get ingredients to make my own icing that always crust no matter what!!
I touched that thing first thing in the morning after being in the fridge all night and to my surprise it was wet and runny, I did not do anything to it but put in the color! there was obviously something wrong with that frosting. I will never buy it again! ever!
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post #5 of 10
10/3/06 at 8:35am
how much colour did you actually put in it?

don't forget that most paste or gel colours have glycerine in them. glycerine is a moisture retainer - it helps to keep the gels and pastes from drying out and also does the same thing to any product you put it in like icings.

the more color you add, the softer your icing will be . . .
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post #6 of 10
10/11/06 at 10:53am
Thread Starter 
about a 1/4 of a bottle of americolor.
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post #7 of 10
10/12/06 at 5:25am
ooof. Is that a 4 oz bottle or a .75 oz one?

To be honest, Americolor is great for having really vibrant color and it's what I use when I can't get my UK product, but I do find that when I'm trying to get a really dark color that it's a nightmare. Now I use it mostly with fondant, but it goes really tacky very quickly with fondant more so than any other brand that I've used.

I think, but could be wrong, that it's because it's a gel and not a paste. I suspect although couldn't confirm that there is more softening agent in a gel so that you can actually squeeze it out of a bottle. For instance, my favorite coloring line is Sugarflair pastes. They are from the UK and hard to get, but worth it because they color up quickly without all the tackiness. I know that that doesn't help you.

If you must use americolor gels for buttercream or royal icing, I'd suggest cutting it with either confectionary sugar or cornstarch to counteract the gel or a better choice for buttercream or r.i. would be a powdered color which has no glycerine/softening agent in it and therefore is perfect for this type of icing. It probably takes more stirring to get the color through, but I'd just put buttercream in mixer with color and let the mixer do the work.
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post #8 of 10
10/12/06 at 6:32am
I've found it takes alot longer for buttercream to crust if it's cold. Or, if the cake itself is cold when you apply the buttercream. I've not used the Wilton buttercream. I've always made my own.
Everyone deserves to have their cake and eat it too!!!!!
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Everyone deserves to have their cake and eat it too!!!!!
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post #9 of 10
10/12/06 at 7:02am
It crusts if you leave it out on the counter. It will dry out much faster (that is the experience I have had). It also depends on the humidity in the house. I have never put bc in the fridge to crust.
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post #10 of 10
10/12/06 at 1:58pm
I have used the Wilton buttercream decorator's icing in the large bucket and had the same result..it didn't crust, just remained sticky. I too bought it as a convenience to have on the shelf when I didn't feel like going to the trouble of making my own. Oh well, lesson learned.
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