AI am not a professional baker by any means and just began baking cakes on the side and absolutely love it. BUT... I am having major issues with my buttercream frosting I got online from Wilton. And I don't know what I'm doing wrong because I'm not experienced enough. I follow the directions to a T, I put my crumb coat on a refrigerated cake and back in the fridge it goes. I then put my icing on by the time I get it decorated and it's all said and done within 20 minutes of sitting after I've decorated it the icing a sliding off! I have another cake coming up in a couple weeks and I don't want this to keep happening. I would love to hear suggestions and tips on what I'm doing wrong I do not put my icing in the refrigerator but I do keep my cakes refrigerated and I do add sour cream to my cake so my cakes are extremely moist but other than that I don't know I don't know what to do so discouraged! Thank you!

From what you describe it sounds like you icing is too thin. I bet you are using 'thin consistency' to ice your cake.  It should be medium consistency.

Here is a recipe that is much tastier, and easier to make:  http://cakecentral.com/a/2-icing

Do be sure to read the entire recipe before trying it.  Most people who try it don't go back to the Wilton recipe.

I don't understand why so many people think a cake that is crumb coated needs to go in the frig :(  The *only* cakes that should be in the frig are ones that have a filling that needs to be kept cold.

Crumb coated Cake should be left at room temp to dry - which should only take about 5 to 20 minutes!  It is dry when one can touch it lightly and not have any icing come off on your finger.  The main thing is to be super sure you have completely covered the cake.   What I have done is to melt my b'cream to pour over the cake as my crumb coat:)  I just put a small amount of icing (of course the amount depends on the size of the cake being crumbed) but usually about 2-4 Tablespoons in a small cup and microwave it for about 10 seconds.  You just want to melt it - not cook it at all.  I think all MWs have a windowed door so you watch it melt to be sure not to over cook it.  Then you have to work quickly to spread it all over the top of the cake; then I use my spatula to put enough on the side to cover maybe 1/4 of the round - continue til the whole cake is covered.  This will dry to a glaze - much like a glazed donut.  Any leftover icing should be discarded.  It should not be worked back into your 'good' batch.

A crumb coated cake can sit out at room them for up to 3 days and be just fine.  And once finished it should be ok for another 3 days all at room temp.

AOh wow! I never knew that about the crumb cake, I thought it was a "golden rule" of crumb coating lol You have great ideas! Thank you for sharing! I welcome the tips, bring them on!!! I need a BC filling and I don't know if it's okay to use BC frosting that I use on the outside of the cake as a filling on the inside of the cake but I thought that might be a little strange to have this frosty taste the same as the filling. Or am I reading way too much into it

I have always used the same icing for filling or frosting the cake.

You can change it up a bit by adding more or changing the flavoring used.  Or add some finely chopped dried fruit - thing like that.

BTW Holly, where in IN are you?  I lived in Goshen for about 8 yrs until about 2-3 yrs ago.

AI live in Alexandria which is about 40 miles north of Indianapolis it's a little bitty town but I've lived here my whole life has great schools, safe, and peaceful!

I don't want my buttercream melting all over the place and I just prefer cold cake and frosting so all of my cakes are refrigerated.

It would be nice to have an extra fridge just for cake.............

Simply green with envy here.  Every time I box a cake for the freeze I super saran-wrap it so it doesn't pick up the salmon, bait fish egg, beef, pork, suet bird food odors.   So I need an extra freezer also....

AYay! Finally some people with the low down on suet. I have some recipe books from the 1800's and have also read medieval English cookbooks and suet is a recurring theme. Pretty sure they made their own. Is this like fat from the organs? Do you boil the kidneys and render the fat or is there a bunch of fat on the outside of it or what?

Oh, I'm afraid my suet isn't of the medieval variety.  I use lard, peanut butter, oats, raisins, meal, etc to make suet cakes for the birds.  This chick ain't boiling no kidneys! ;-)

A

I went wayyy of topic.  Fish eggs taken from harvested fish, then frozen to be used for bait next fishing season.  Suet mixed with goodies and hung in the yard for the birds to eat.  get the birds to show up and they'll eat thousands of mosquitoes for you.   It's a fair trade off.

Never made my own suet, but I can imagine that lots of baked goods contained them in the olden days.

AMBalaska I had to laugh at your freezer contents. The Roe brought back memories. I lived in Eagle River for 4 years. I miss Alaska so much. It's just an awesome place.

Well fish roe and suet to feed birds sounds way more interesting than the frozen peas in my freezer.

AI use the Wilton recipe and split the shortening, 1/2 butter, 1/2 shoertening. You get the stability do the shortening with the yummy butter flavor. I find using th full amount of liquid is too thin so I start with half then add as needed. Also I never make less then a double batch.