I've tried several buttercreams and have found that most of them are not stiff enough especially if they have dairy in them. Am I not mixing them long enough? They also come out too sweet and grainy. What can I do? Someone please help. I loose sleep at night because of this.

You'll need to share your recipe before we can diagnose the problem.

Ditto the above post. What ingredients do you use?

1) Buttercream dream: I stick of unsalted butter, 1 stick of salted butter, 1 cup of shortening, 2lbs ps, 3tsp of vanilla, 5-6tbl of cold milk

2) Wiltons buttercream

3) Decorators buttercream icing: 1/2 cup of shortening, 1/2 cup of butter, 1 1/2 tsp of clear vanilla, 5 cups of ps, 2-3 tbs of milk.

I would say to use the flavoring, but omit any other liquid. You can always add it at the end if the bc is too stiff. Heat will make it soft too. Could that be the problem?

Im not an expert but I think you have too much fat and not enough powedered sugar. Usually I use equal amounts. Two cups of fat two pounds of sugar. Also the cold milk could be making the fat seperate. I hope that makes sense

I have to disagree about the powder sugar/fat. In the first one that is 2 cups of fat to 2lbs of sugar, which works fine. The second would be 1 cup fat to 1lb sugar, again the same ratio. And if you look at the last it is 1 cup of fat to 5 cups (which would be over 1lb of sugar) so that would be even more sugar added.

My opinion is that she is adding too much liquid. When making the Wilton buttercream stiff consistancy you use 2T of water/milk to 1 cup crisco and 1lb of powder sugar. If you follow that ratio when doing a recipe doing 2 cups/2lbs you should add 4T of water/milk. Adding 5-6 would make it medium or closer to it.

Another thing to consider, butter can make the icing softer, especially when piping with it, because it has a lower melting point than crisco.

AH HA! I did it! I made the crusting buttercream recipe post on this site and it came out wonderful! I found the perfect buttercream!

AH HA! I did it! I found the perfect buttercream. It's a crusting buttercream recipe I found on this site. It came out perfect!!!! YEY!!

I agree. Too much liquid. Stop adding the liquid when you reach the consistency you want.

My experience with most BC, add powdered sugar when too soft and/or decrease the amount of liquid.

Oh, and I agree with the butter! When piping, your icing will get softer from the heat from your hands. You need to keep them on ice packs or something.

Glad you found a recipe that works. I was just going to add that 3 cups of fat to 2 lbs of p.sugar is way too high. I only use 1-1/3 cups of fat to 2 lbs of sugar.