I am in the middle of icing a cake, every pass i do with my scraper is leaving small holes from air bubbles in my buttercream. What can I do to fix this now the icing is actually on the cake? TIA

use the viva paper towel method. let b/c set for about 7-10 min. then lay the viva paper towel over the top. use hand or fondant smoother to smooth. then the sides. i say, i am ironing my cake.. hth

I never worry about what the icing looks like at that point because I know the Melvira Method is going to fix it all!

Is this a crusting buttercream? If so either of the 2 methods posted above should help.

Those two methods are excellent.

Two more bubbley thoughts:

Before you ice the cake, stir your icing with a spatula--if it's not gonna mess up your consistency , stir in a bit of hot water--stir it manually and it will help disperse the holes.

Also, just for fun, after you ice and you have the bubble issue, aka hole problem in the icing--take your spatula and run it the other way around the cake you will see the bubbles disappear.

Or I take a narrow little metal spatula and run it from bottom to top edge of iced cake--the bubbles will disappear.

Those are hints for smoothing non-crusting buttercream.

Thoughts of the bubbley for yah --

If there are a LOT of air bubbles, you can take your spatula, dip it into HOT water - wipe it off, and use that warm spatula to smooth the icing. (keep dipping the spatual, you want it to stay hot while smoothing) Once you have done the whole cake with that, then use the viva or melvira method to finish it. (had this happen once or twice)

Next time, as PP stated, stir the frosting before you apply it to the cake to make sure there are not many air bubbles to begin with, that helps alot.

Thank you wonderful ladies!! I think I've done a combination of all of these now. I sent my DH to the Hardware store to get a roller, but had to wait overnight for it to dry after I washed it.

Ta Da - what do you know - it actully works! Thank you Debi, I looked up the old threads!

The one thing I cant quite get right is the top edge where I have used a bit of extra icing to level the cake, when I roll over it, it is smooshing down the sides a bit.

But looks a 100% on what it did. It's a cake for work tonight so wanted it to be good. Thanks for helping me be a better caker!

Dont know if you guys are still watching this thread, but I have just discovered that a USA stick of butter is HALF the size of a stick in Oz. I was using the Decorators Buttercream recipe which says it is crusting, but thought I was crazy because everytime I tried the paper towel method it would stick! Twice the amount of butter probably had a lot to do with it. But with all your great advice, my next cake should be spot on!