Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I have made traditional buttercream using shortening (crisco), and now that it has crusted on the cake, it is greasy/oily looking. I used the hot scrapper method to smooth the sides. Does this draw out the shortening, causing it to melt, thus making the frosting run with oil?? Now what? The cake is already decorated. How do I prevent this in the future?? Thanks!

Hi Claudia

Shortening re solidifies once it cools down so the hot scraper may have inititally melted it but would not necessarily be the reason why the buttercream has turned oily.
Other factors to consider:
Over mixing, insuffcient powder sugar to shortening ratio and being left in a warm place.
Solution:
Increase powder sugar ratio. Add some butter and meringue powder as stabalizer and don’t over mix the shortening. Keep away from direct sources of heat like a sunny/ hot room or hot kitchens. Unfortunately I have very little experience of buttercream made with shortening but I have read high ratio shortening produces a less greasy or oily BC. Hopefully other members will be able to share a few tips.