I had my first real meltdown last week. One of my co-workers ordered a chocolate cake with cookies & cream filling, and BC. Okay sounds easy, then he said that he wanted a map of Cape Cod on it for his boss who owns a house there. I'm thinking that might be tricky, but I find a map and blow it up and use it as an outline. That was the only good thing that came out of this cake. The cakes (quarter sheet) came out okay, but I could not for the life of me get the BC to stick to the cake. I tried to refrigerate the cake, crumb coat, i even used a frosting tip. Nothing worked. I started crying and at the cake, and really starting thinking what am I doing. I can't do this as a career I suck. My hubby came home to see me still crying an hour later. Well I took the cake to work and people were nice and said it looked fine (seriously it looked like my little boy frosted it), but it did taste good. I just don't know what to do for the future cakes. I'm always having problems with crumbs on my cakes. Does anyone have any advise? I have a wedding cake for a friend the end of this month and I'm sick to my stomach everytime i think about it.


I'm sorry this is so long, just needed to vent to my fellow cc'ers.

I'm sorry you feel that way. Keep your chin up, though. Many of us have been to the point of giving up and made it back.

Are you sure your icing is the right consistency? Before I took a Wilton class I had no idea there was more than one option. As far as I knew, you made the recipe out of the book and that was it. I had the hardest time getting the icing to stick and I could never get it smooth. Sounds like this may be your problem.

Try thinning your icing and doing a crumb coat. The cake should be room temperature. Cold cake and not cold icing don't cling well.

When the crumb coat is on, let it set up, then add your final icing.

When people ask you to do something you haven't done before, say no unless you have a chance to practice. Takes all the stress out of it.

What kind of bc were you using? It could be that it was too thick and that makes it really hard to stick to a cake. If it's too thin there's problems with that too, but too thick is really tricky! Hang in there and don't give up!

Always crumb coat first -- as said above. Put it in the fridge for about 15 - 20 minutes and then put on the final coat. Sometimes, I even have to chill a bit more and add a bit more if cake is showing through.

Make yourself a couple of 8" cakes and practice with them. Play around with the icing's consistency. The more you do it, the easier it will get.

HANG IN THERE! If you need any tips about your wedding cake, start asking on cc, people here will bend over backwards to help you!

S.

Don't give up!

I find, like others said, that thinner icing really does help. Also, take a pastry brush and brush off loose crumbs before you ice the cake.

Try softer icing--I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

maybe it's your recipe. Have you tried any others.

I tried a new one once on a practice cake and it came out great so when the "real" cake was being made I made a BIG OL batch of that 'new' recipe and it didn't work at ALL. It kind of balled up and wouldn't even stick to my spatula when I mixed it. It was more like rolled buttercream I think. I ended up having to haull a$$ to the store to buy more sugar to make an entirely new batch. I went back to old faithful and it worked like a charm. Incredibly simple but it got the job done (stuck to the cake) and the cake tasted great.

Here it is:

2 lbs icing sugar
1 C crisco
1/2c water
1/2 to 1 tsp each of butter, almond, and vanilla extract

I got this recipe from a talented cake artist who decorated for years. She said this was the recipe she always used. She said, no meringue powder, no salt. This is all you need.

I would try thinning the icing used for crumb coating. If it's too thick, it will not stick to the cake even at room temperature. My crumb coating is the consistency of mayonaise, maybe a little thicker. For your first time, try thinning yours little by little and you'll see at what point it sticks easily to the cake, so you'll know for next time.

Oh ~ Before I crumb coat, I also sometimes use a soft brush (like pastry or basting-type) to gently remove as much crumb as possible. This really helps with the initial coat of icing, too.

Most importantly, don't give up! Someone with the talent to do a map of Cape Cod on a cake should certainly go on and try again!!!

It sounds really dee-lish, too, with the cookies & cream filling! Yummmmm!!!!!

Are you using icing made with the new 0 Trans Fat Crisco???? A lot of people here have had issues with the new Crisco and their icing not wanting to stick to the cake. If this is indeed the problem, you can fix it by using store/Walmart brand shortening with the trans fats or hi-ratio shortening (found in cake decorating supply stores).

Thank you all for your help. I did try to brush some crumbs off first with a pastry brush, and I used the Wilton's recipe for the BC. I believe it was the medium consistency. will DEFINTELY try thinning it out for a crumb coat next time. i think I'm going to make a bunch of pratice cakes this weekend and play around. I don't use the no trans crisco, luckily i have found the regular stuff at BJ's so I'm going to stock up on it.
katerpillrgr thanks for the recipe I will try it out. this is why i love CC you guys can make me feel better after a really bad experience.

Thanks

Here's my recipe too if you want another option. I use crisco shortening and haven't had any problems. Don't be discouraged, I've had some of those 'I hate this, I will never do it again!' moments. Practice is always the best thing

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-5183-2-My-Buttercream-Recipe.html

thanks brickflor. i believe you can never have to many choices.

the icing tip works great. saves alot of headaches and time. some people call it speed icer.
ateco #789 i believe its the same number in wilton tips.

yea talking about disasters so I decided to bake my first topsy turvy cake today I started at about nine am, baking all of the cakes, and well I don't have a 9,7 or 11 inch pan so no problem, i'll just use bigger pans and trim them down.. ugh what a huge job that turned out to be... anyway I got all the cakes made, got them torted, filled shoved together, carved and then covered in a crumb coat. i didn't want to cover them in fondant so I decided to start putting them together, well I don't think I got the bottom layer cut down deep enough because when I put the top two layers on, even with dowels, and a huge center wooden dowel, lord have mercy the top two layers didn't just LOOK like they were falling off the fell right off, and all I could do was grab the trash can that I had sitting there to throw all the scraps away ... and BAM thet top two layers ( SIX CAKES) covered in delish buttercream SMACK right into the trash can. At which point i said "heck with it" put the rest of the cake into a big trash bag, made my hubby take it all out to the trash and went upstairs to have a good hot bath... I'll make a stupid sheet cake in the morning for the birthday party.. I just wanted to see if I could do it, well I know now that i can, thank god I learned from my mistake... don't worry we ALL make mistakes and if it wasn't for CC, we'd have NO PLACE to honestly talk about it, or laugh about the fact that I am going to have some really FAT strung out on sugar rampant racoons running around my block tonight... lucky lil buggers
Just try it again another time
Jen

i sure do know the feeling one gets when diaster strikes! This spring I through away 6 cakes and was ready to throw in the towel. I almost went out and got some chickens that would lay eggs in the backyard-god only knows how many eggs I wasted!!!! Thanks to friends and all I stuck with it, figured out the problems and successfully made my nieces´s wedding cake two weeks ago!!!! Keep thinking postive!!!!!

I'm so glad I clicked on this topic. I through out three cakes this weekend and felt the same way you did illini89. is there an egg stock we could all invest in, lol

thank you all for making me feel sane again, and jen all I can picture now is a family of racoons running around high on sugar. LOL

Oh, noley, Thank you so much for sharing your story. I laughed so hard I cried!! I am so sorry, I don't mean to laugh. But that is exactly why I will NEVER attempt to make a topsy-turvey cake... no matter how much the person is willing to pay!! If I get a request, I will kindly decline, skip the torture, head right to the bath with a glass of wine!!

I love this site!!

Oh my goodness. I know how you feel. Take a deep breath and remember how much you love this craft and the pics that inspired you! You will feel better. We've all been there.

Use thinner icing. Also, try the icing tip (789?). Do some more practice. It will come.

Blessings!