More on sugar, the powdered variety

Ditto to the previous post: There's no reason at all to add powdered sugar atop anything. Simply not necessary!

And further, when making a buttercream frosting, is almost obscene how much sugar the general recipe calls for, i.e., one pound confectioners sugar (a small box) to often approximately 12 ounces of butter (and do not use shortening -- don't even get me started!). Stop right there. In this case, cream your butter first, and then add confectioners sugar slowly; 1/2 to 3/4 pound of sugar here is usually fine.

Extra credit tip: Don't pile on the frosting. It's called cake for a reason, and the frosting -- well, that's just the icing on the cake.

Regarding sugar:

I almost always use less sugar than a recipe calls for, simply by making the measurement a scant one. So if a recipe calls for 1 cup sugar, I use a scant cup sugar. Despite baking being a so-called exact science, I think there's definitely room to move here.

Also, if you're using the creaming method, when you begin to combine your sugar with the already creamed butter (see previous post), you can see when enough sugar has been added to your butter. Pour in the sugar slowly so you don't overload it.

Tips for working with butter

Tip of the day: when making a cookie or cake recipe that calls for the creaming method -- mixing softened butter and sugar together -- try:
1) using unsalted butter,
2) cutting the butter into small pieces -- softens quicker that way,
3) creaming the butter first, without the sugar,
and
4) whatever salt is called for in the recipe, instead of adding that to your dry ingredients, cream it into the butter well, BEFORE you add the sugar -- combines more thoroughly this way.