The wedding cake lady in Tulsa told me to stop chilling my buttercream and I owe her a drink
I was delivering a 3 tier at a Tulsa wedding venue last spring, sweating through my apron, when the venue's in house baker watched me fight with a slumped middle tier and just said 'your buttercream is too cold, hon.' Letting it sit at room temp for 40 minutes before the crumb coat fixed a problem I had been blaming on my recipe for 2 years. Anyone else had a stranger's one liner solve a technique thing you were sure was your fault?
Had the same thing happen with pie dough, always thought my hands were too warm and the recipe was trash. Turns out the butter was too cold and I was working it way too hard, a grandma at a farmers market pointed it out in about ten seconds flat. Now I let everything sit on the counter longer and stop blaming myself for basic physics.