Icing melting on cupcakes/cupcake top looking oily

[Alycat123]

Hello! I have been baking cupcakes for a little while now and as of this week starting runnning in to a new problem. The icing is starting to melt on the cupcakes after several hours. I know they are completely cooled. I baked them earlier that day, went to work for a few hours then came back and iced them. They looked great for a while. The next morning I woke up to a soggy mess. Yesterday this happened again. They were fine the night before and in the morning, then during transport they starting melting. It was humid outside but not really hot and car was well cooled. The only thing I am noticing is that the top of the cupcake is sort of sticky. If I press a paper towel on the top some comes off into it. The cake is fully baked, the edges and bottom are a golden brown and I tried leaving it in for another minute and they dried out and didn't taste moist. My guess is the top is getting oily and getting into the icing. I left some not iced and after a while the top looked very oily. Has anyone had this problem? I am not sure what to do.

 

[ChesterV]

Cakes are temperamental, especially in weather conditions.

I don't know where you are at, since you didnt say, but here in the USA we have been having really crazy weather so far this year. Alternating temperatures, barometrics fluctuating all day and night, and just weird weather in general can make cakes do the things you are describing.

Until the weather levels out, you might try either a bit less oil or butter in the batter, or a "drier" frosting.

I've learned different tricks over the years to overcome the problems that weather can have on cakes of all kinds.

 

[Becky]

What kind of icing? Could you tell us the recipe you are using?