I don't have much experience in carving out cakes. I am about to do a fire truck, which I know will be relatively simple, but should I freeze the cake a bit to avoid excessive crumbs? Should I freeze it before carve it or before I start the icing? Thanks for any help!

It is easier to carve a chilled cake. I like to carve "semi-frozen", then apply crumb coat, chill in the fridge, then add fondant. HTH.

I've always carved room temp cakes. Never had room in the fridge or freeze for them.

I'm in the process of doing a shoulder cake now and it's like a jugsaw puzzle that I have to make all the pieces for....lol..... it's mucxh easier to carve a well chilled or slightly thawed cake.....cleaner cuts and somewhat less crumbs.....also helps to have a dense type cake like a pound cake too....good luck with yours kel1222!!!!

I make a lot of carved cakes (hate molds) and I always carve them frozen...it's easier to get the sharp lines I want and less crumbs. Good luck!

I prefer to carve a frozen semi frozen cake but like texasSugar said I often don't have room for them so I muddle through room temp cakes, I can do it but I find it messier.

Like catlharper, I also carve my cakes when the are frozen. To me you get a cleaner cut. I also dirty ice it with thin consistency buttercream. To get out the spatula lines I let it crust over then I use a paint roller to smooth it out. Works wonders!

Im so confusedplease forgive me because I'm just a beginner.

After I bake my cakes and they cool down, I stack them with buttercream in between the layers. Then I freeze them or cool them in the refrigerator for a while. Then I carve them. After I carve the cake I crumb coat it and place back in the refrigerator to let the crumb coat harden. Then I cover with buttercream, wait a half hour and then cover with fondant?

I like to carve the chilled cake, crumb coat (if desired, I usually skip this when doing fondant), then chill again, apply thin layer of buttercream, smooth and cover w/fondant. As long as the cake is still cold once you get the buttercream on there is no need to chill again before covering with fondant.

Ren715, what I do is stack and fill my cooled cakes, cover completely with plastic wrap, and then stick in the fridge for several hours or maybe the freezer for an hour. Then I take it out and carve it to the shape I need. I crumb coat the entire cake with buttercream. At that point, I put it back in the fridge for about an hour to chill it again. Then I put on the final coat of buttercream, then I apply fondant and start to work on the detail. The crumb coat is an absolute necessity, but make sure that you cake is not too cold when you apply the fondant, otherwise, when the cake hits room temperature, the condensation between the BC and fondant layers will make the fondant slide off the cake. HTH!

Ren...I don't fill mine before freezing..just a personal preference...but do let your cake settle for a few hours with the crumbcoat on so it can thaw out...this would be after carving and adding the crumbcoat. You want to make sure your cake has time to settle otherwise you could end up with bulges where the filling has settled/splooshed out the middle and if you put the fondant on too soon, on a cold cake, you could end up with gas bubbles which stretch out the fondant...you could also end up with fondant on a settled cake which could wrinkle. Some here even weigh down the cake to make sure it settles out well. Also a tip for you...after covering with fondant you don't really want to put it back into the fridge but there are times you have to do so like when you have a perishable filling or when the environment is too warm and your fondant feels too soft, like it could slide. Then chilling in the fridge/walk in is a good idea BUT you must let it come to room temp when you take it out so that the condensation has time to evaporate or you could get sweating or shiny spots on it. I find that as long as it comes to room temp all of that goes away.

HTH!
Cat

i have a question, would anyone recomend freezing/putting a cake in the fridge if it does not need to be carved?

Even if it doesn't need to be carved, a fondant covered cake will hold its shape better if it has been chilled. Also, as Cat mentioned, it is important that it has time to settle before covering with fondant - putting it in the fridge overnight or atleast for a few hours takes care of both. I let it set out on the counter about 20 min. before icing to avoid condensation. If I pull it out of the fridge, then get my work station set up, it works out .