Hi all
I have just finished by 5th wedding cake this weekend. I am begining to think that adding a little piping gel to the frosting before covering and smoothing might be a good idea. I have a problem with the frosting becoming dry and cracked. I have of course used water to thin the frosting a bit to make it eaiser to smooth but it still seems to be dry after it air dries.
Does anyone do this? Do you find it helpful?
Do you add it to BC to make decorations also?
Am I doing something else wrong?
Thanks for the tips.

I use piping gel in buttercream to some decorations and when I need to write on a cake. I never thought of adding it to the whole batch, the buttercream does seem to get pretty dry. Does it affect the taste since piping gel tastes pretty nasty?

I did not notice this with this last cake but maybe I did not add enough. I did find that this made a very smooth surface.

I have a cake that I used with a crusting BC that cracked HORRIBLY - I was so upset. Will upload later.

I noticed this happens when I use a shortening based BC - it never happens with my all-butter recipe so I have switched to that. Give it a shot and let me know how it works out!

Great tip, only one problem. I have a really bid seceret that I am going to give up. I use Brill vanilla light and fluffy. Now I can almost hear the gasps of millions who are just discusted to hear this. I love this stuff. The tast is out of this world and price and convience are worth it. I am a full time mom of a 5 and 3 year old, wife to a rather lazy guy and full time Registered Nurse. I would bet that butter based frosting as you mentioned would be better.

what is brill vanillalight and fluffy? Do you use it with shortening based buttercream? I use a butter base.

Yah, what is Brill? I've never heard of it, but maybe it's not available in Canada. I've only used piping gel for writing, but I remember my instructor telling us that you could use the gel on the sides of a BC frosted cake to help the rolled fondant attach nicely. So it kind of makes sense that it would keep frosting from crusting. I also use a 50/50 butter/shortening frosting which does prevent the crusting thing. Do you add meringue powder to your frosting?....that encourages 'crusting' too, I've forgotten to put it in before and my frosting was smoother.

:O You use Brill Light & Fluffy???! ACK!!! I work with that stuff at work (blech I HATE the taste - too sweet) and I hate it. I find that it sags wayyyy too much (borders fall off and if you don't fill your layers just right, they bulge - seems to me like they bulge more often than other types of icing).

For those that don't know - Brill is a company that makes shortening based buttercream - the supermarkets use it (I've worked in 2 supermarket bakeries and each had Brill). They also make a line of colored icings which are quite convenient (like the red and the black) - I finally realized why they don't make purple. It's gotta be because the color oxidizes. Every time I put purple into my refrigerated case, it turns blue! I have never had a purple cake last more than a day out there. :|

Anyway....you could try the piping gel in it. I recently added piping gel to one of my bags at work for my balloon strings and I loved the effect. I would imagine that would help smooth out your icing.

And I use meringue powder in all my icings. I haven't made the shortening version in ages though - I've been using just the butter one lately, perhaps I'll try that!

Well, two things, there is likely a yellow oxide in that icing and that is why your purple icing turns blue. Purple is the one icing colour that is most affected also by light, even flourescent lighting, so keep your iced cakes out of light, any kind, in a covered box. Steer clear of any fondant or icing that has yellow oxide in it, like the kind that McCalls sells, in Toronto.
The cracking issue is most definitely related to the class all shortening and water icing and dryness in the air as the water evaporates. To get around it, switch to milk or cream for your liquid or use some butter in your icing. In the over 30 years that I have used decortor icing, I have never had icing crack using the recipe that calls for half butter and milk or cream as the liquid added. Cracking is always related to one of two things, an all shortening with water based icing or not enough cakeboard support. But generaly hairline cracking is caused by the water evaporating.
I notice a lot of folks here use the white and silver patterned flimsy cake cardboards, these are not enough support for almost any cake you can think of, except maybe a 2 inch thick 8 inch round cake. You need to go with corrugated cardboard, preferrably at least two thickness, with the corrugated lines going in different directions for additional support. You up the layers of cardboard according to the weight and height of your cake and also the dimension. Or masonite, or cake drums or plastic separator plates or for the heavier ones, 1/2 inch plywood which provides the most support of all. Or a cake stand or base that has good support for heavier cakes.
Always carry a boarded cake by supporting it underneath, that flimsy cardboard cannot support your cake and if you carry it by the sides of the board, you will get cracking and you may get buckling too.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes
Edited to add this: The piping gel is to get a more elastic nature to your icing when you pipe flowers or decorations like stringwork. It isn't going to help with the evaporation of moisture issue that causes cracking. What does help a bit is to immediately box your water and shortening based iced cake and then bag the boxed cake and seal it to trap in the moisture. I use clean unscented garbage bags for this purpose.

Sorry you do not like the bril but you did bring to my attention some good points. I was always under the impression that I could not use milk to thin my icing because the cake is not in the fridge. Butter in the frosting I thought would go rancid and discolor the frosting????
What are your thoughts on this. I appreciate all the comments.

Piping gel helps slow down the crusting a little bit. That is why you use it with Brush Embrodery.

What recipe are you using? It may be that the recipe needs to be tweeked a little. Too dry can be caused by not enough fat in the recipe.

I just don't like the flavor of the Brill. I think it's too sweet. I also find it quite heavy of a consistency. Perhaps this is because at work, I don't have the time to thin out the icing, I don't crumb coat or anything like that. I figure, if they want to pay $15 for a cake, fine. I'm not gonna go fancy or anything! I do try to keep the crumbs out, but I really don't strive for perfection. After all, it is a supermarket! At home, I do the crumb coat and thin my icing if needed and all that jazz. Plus I take my time. At work though, they like it when I crank 50 cakes a day or what not!

I suppose the Brill wouldn't be so bad if you thinned it a little bit. If you like it, that's all that matters!