I've been decorating cakes for about 4 years. Until recently I've hadn't really had to worry about a perfect smooth cake because all my customers always wanted a lot of decorating on the cake so i could just cover up any "messes". Okay so now everyone wants these really really simple cakes with no decorating on just a few flowers of shell. I have tried many many methods and I still can't get a presentable looking cake and they are taking me FOREVER!!! THis is what happened last night. I had a seashell cake to do no icing decor just shells. I tried the upside down method which sounded like it would work great BUT it didn't!! I followed the directions to the T so I thought. After I put the icing on the side and put it back into the frig. I tried to remove the parchment paper. ALL the icing came off the top. (this is 3 hours before the wedding) and the sides were really flared out. Not straight at all. I've always had a little trouble with cakes flaring out and still have'nt been able to fix that. So I straightened the cake as best as I can and go to the wedding. I leave early becasue I have a really bad feeling my trouble were not over. I arrive and find that all the icing on the top edge of the top tier as cracked and is sliding down the cake!!!!!!!!!!!! Now what? I had one hour to fix it. So I fixed it the best that I could and ran before anyone could find me. It turned out okay but I still feel sick about it.
Can anyone give me some idea how to help me! I need to know how to do a perfect smooth cake and not worry about it cracking!!
thanks

Are you using fondant or buttercream? I only know about fondant but am happy to help!

Honestly, I don't think there is such a thing as a perfectly, smooth cake when you are using buttercream....and a real cake. We see all these perfect photos in books and feel that is the way cakes should look.....I personally think that those cakes are probably dummies and who knows what they use to make them look perfect for the photo shoot. I know when they are photographing food they will spray wax on it and all kinds of stuff to make it look more appealing in the picture.

I personally use a credit card and hot water to smooth my cakes. I know it sounds weird but it works. I dip the credit card in the water and start at the bottom of the cake....lightly place the card against the frosting nad start spinning the turntable.....while moving the card up toward the top of the cake, at that point I dip the card in the hot water again and pull any excess frosting over the sides onto the top, dip again and put it on the edge, start spinning working my way to the center. It's actually much faster than it sounds and works like a charm.

Cheers,
Shirley

Oh, rachpizano! I'm so sorry you are having problems. And I know how stressful wedding cakes can be as I'm doing one now.

I don't know about the sides flaring out, but can I ask what type of icing you are using? Is it all crisco bc, is it half crisco and half butter bc, or is it royal? or fondant?

I use the good ol all crisco or half and half crisco/butter bc recipe. I only use the butter/crisco recipe only in the cooler months due to it softening and possibly sliding down the sides of my cakes when it is really hot outside. The all crisco recipe works pretty well in most temps I think. And I always add merinque powder. That helps stablize it too.

One new trick I picked up on cc was to use a bench scraper or very long putty knife and use it to smooth my sides with. I put my cakes on a revolving turntable, hold my scraper at a 45 degree angle and spin the table around slowly, but all the way around so my sides are smooth and seamless. Just make sure the scraper touches the top of the turntable at all times, otherwise, you will have some icing built up at the bottom of the cake. I just purchased my scraper at out local lowes for $7. I think it has been one of the best investments I have made so far.

Another tip I picked up on CC was to read the article -How to frost a square cake'. They used 2 spatulas to build up icing on the corners and then smooth the top and sides with both spatulas to achieve perfect edges. That really helped.

Can't offer much help with the fondant or royal icing because I havent worked with either of them too much.

Good luck!

Oh, almost forgot. Have you tried the Viva papertowel method yet? It has worked for me most of the time. Read it in the articles section.


Yep, I asked my instructor how all the cakes in the wilton books look so smooth. She said they were all dummies, and they sanded them down. I don't think that is fair! We can't get our icing that smooth. They should note that in the instruction books.

Have you considered using a decorating comb to decorate the sides and top of the cake? It's easy to use, and you only need minimal embellishment to finish the cake.

Theresa

okay first what kind of icing are you using? then you maybe putting too much icing on the cake this may be the reason for it sliding off. get an icing bag and tip. the bags are the feather light bags not the plastic ones and they are size 16 or bigger then the tips are those big wide tips with the teeth on one side. the teeth help to make the icing "grab" the cake, cut the bag so the tip will fit inside the bag. use your buttercream, i do all crisco, and evenly squeeze your icing onto the sides of the cake then do a little on top. you do not have to cover the top with icing. then use your spatula to spread it around on top then go around the sides lightly just to take off where there may be to much in spots. then take a blue shop paper towel and place on top of your cake and firmly smooth it with your hand. do this on the sides as well. i hope this helps. this is the way we do it at the bakery and there is very little cracking and the icing never slips off or falls off. good luck and just keep trying. practice makes perfect.

by the way most of my cakes are pretty smooth i have a few that need help.. but this one i think is the best one i have smoothed people have asked it is fondant. it is a real cake and it is iced in buttercream. this was smoothed with the blue shop paper towel like what you would get from an auto parts store. the pic is slightly blurry but you can still see it.

I was frustrated at first because in my class, we were told to use a thin consistency for icing our cakes. But I have found that I prefer closer to a medium consistency and I refrigerate my bc before using. I smooth out using heated spatulas. Once the icing begins to crust, then I use the Viva method. I get a much smoother cake now.

Thanks guys so much I am using a BC icing half butter half crisco. Do you guys use meringue (spelling?) powder in your icing. Everytime I use it the icing gets really really crusty. Then it cracks really easily and looks like crap!!! I am very careful about measuring it too. So I'm trying to get away from using it. I have used parchment paper in the past to smooth the icing and it works okay. The only problem I found is I keep leaving my hand print in the icing when I smooth it out with the parchment. I will try the paper towel thing and the auto parts towel thing. Thanks

I've found that a crusting BC recipe works great using a Viva or shop towel to smooth.

I also though like a non crusting recipe I got at work. Its a very light tasting recipe and I'm not going to post it only because you really have to see it made to know how to make it. The icing looks way too soft but it really works very well but its hard to explain.

Anyway if the icing is non-crusting, the putty knife and credit cards work great for smoothing it.

I'm pretty much the opposite.... I have cakes that people want a lot on them and I panic then.... the main thing I need to work on is flowers.... I tell them up front that I don't do much of those so they ask for something else..... but I must say I did enjoy the first cake I did with only flowers.....

edited to add....

I forgot to add that I too heard that and emailed Wilton. This is what they told me, via email..... (what I wrote is first)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: mojavesweetness
Sent: Sunday, August 6, 2006 11:00 AM
To: Wilton Industries Info
Subject: have a question

Sir or ma'am,
I understand from a friend of mine that is a Wilton instructor in that your cakes in the yearbook aren't real cakes that they are dummies and the cakes are sanded down. If this isn't true how do these cakes get such a perfect smoothness? I have tried and tried and tried and can't get anything to work. I use your BC recipe (1/2 crisco 1/2 butter)on the Bake Decorate and Celebrate show she is using another recipe.... I'm confused thank you..


Kandi Fritz



the email back to me:

Subject RE: have a question

Sent Date 08-07-2006 2:34:34 PM

From
"Wilton Industries Info"

To "mojavesweetness"

Kandi,
In our Yearbook where the credits are listed is a short note that the cakes are iced with royal icing. All cakes except the real cakes that have a slice removed are Styrofoam dummies or a sugar mold made from a shaped pan, than they are iced with royal icing, dried overnight and sanded with medium sandpaper lightly and iced a second time. Some Styrofoam cakes with spatula marks are iced in royal icing, some are with buttercream. I have seen many real cakes that people have iced that are perfectly smooth, mostly it is practice and finding the icing that works well for you.

Decorating Room



anyway, I thought it would be something to add......

by the way, don't give up.....

I see I failed to say that in my first post.