We all want beautiful perfect cakes and even though icing a cake might appear
to be a simple task, it isn’t. Achieving the perfect icing requires practice and once you learn how to do it, it will become easy and fast.

There are many ways to ice a cake. I have tested many of them and most of them work but each person will find one to be their favorite. My favorite way to ice a
cake is by doing a crumb coat. I will eventually talk about other ways of icing a
cake so you guys can choose the one you like best, but I will start with the way
I do it.

A crumb coat is a very thin coat of
icing that is used to seal the crumbs
on the cake. It’s called a crumb coat because you will see the crumbs in
this layer of icing. I use crusting buttercream with my cakes but this technique works with other icings too. One thing to keep in mind is the consistency of the buttercream.
It can’t be too thin because it won’t make it easier for the second coat
to be applied but it can’t be too stiff because it will break the cake. It
needs to be in a good medium consistency.

I do have a system I follow when I ice my cakes. I bake my cakes a few days earlier. I seal them well and place them in the fridge. This will not only help
the flavors to settle down, but you will have a nice cold cake to work with. Many people make the mistake of working on cakes that are too fresh and not
completely cooled down from the baking. Some people can manage working with
a cake in that condition and do an awesome job. But most people will have
a hard time working like that. A fresh baked cake is softer, there will be more
crumbs and the cake will break easily

Now that I have a cold cake, I can torte and fill the cake and get it ready for the
crumb coat. The video I am posting
shows how I do this step. Make sure
your cake is cold. Not only does it make
it easier but it will control the crumbs
and it will help you move faster. If you
are working with stacked cakes, it will be faster to do all the crumb coats and place the cakes in the refrigerator so they cool down and the buttercream hardens. This will make the second coat easier to apply without lifting a lot of the crumb coat.

If you plan to leave the cake with the crumb coat overnight in the fridge, make
sure to cover the cake with some plastic wrap to avoid condensation. if you
get too much condensation on your cake from leaving it overnight, you want to
pat the water away with paper so the second coat doesn’t slide over the first
coat. But keep in mind that it’s better to avoid the condensation than to deal with it. Make sure your refrigerator is not too cold either as it can make condensation worst. There are other ways to avoid condensation but I will do another blog about that.

I talk in the video about the spatula I use when
I ice my cakes. I love my 7 inch angle spatula but keep in mind you might prefer a different one. The bigger the spatula, the more buttercream you can add but it will be heavier
to handle. My other favorite tool would be the scrapper. You want a Scraper that is food
safe and has a nice L-shape that helps control how straight your cake will be. And finally it’s a good idea to have a good turntable. All these things do help to move faster and when you are earning money from making cakes, time is money.

I am posting below the link to the Crumb Coat Tutorial and below it I am adding
the link for How to Ice a Cake.

Click here to go and watch this tutorial.

Even though the tutorial How to Ice a Cake is very old, I still use the same technique to ice my cakes.

Click here to watch these tutorial.

I hope you enjoy, until next blog… ta ta!

Edna 🙂